Nucleic Acids Research Formatting Requirements: Complete Author Guide

NAR uses an unstructured abstract limited to 200 words. There are no required headings like Background, Methods, or Results. The abstract should be a single paragraph that:

• States the biological problem or need the work addresses
• Briefly describes the approach or method
• Summarizes the main findings or the tool/database capabilities
• Notes the significance or utility

For computational tools and databases (Web Server and Database Issue), the abstract should include the URL and a brief description of what the tool does and who it's for. Don't waste abstract words on general statements about the importance of bioinformatics.

200 words is tight for papers that combine experimental and computational work. Prioritize the most important finding and the key method. Details go in the introduction and results sections.

NAR doesn't require a separate title page. The title and author information appear at the top of the manuscript. Include:

• Full title (be specific and descriptive; NAR titles tend to be longer than in clinical journals)
• All author names with superscript affiliation numbers
• Institutional affiliations
• Corresponding author marked with an asterisk, with email address
• A "To whom correspondence should be addressed" line

NAR doesn't require academic degrees (MD, PhD) after author names. ORCiD iDs are mandatory for all authors, not just the corresponding author. All co-authors must provide their ORCiD at submission.

For papers with many authors (common in large consortium studies), NAR follows standard authorship conventions but doesn't have a specific limit on the number of authors.

NAR doesn't impose a strict limit on the number of figures for standard articles. The expectation is that you include the figures necessary to support your conclusions.

Figure requirements:

• Minimum resolution: 300 DPI for photographs, 600 DPI for line art
• Accepted formats: TIFF, EPS, PDF, or high-resolution JPEG
• Single column width: 86 mm (3.4 inches)
• Double column width: 178 mm (7 inches)
• Maximum height: 230 mm (9 inches)
• Font in figures: Arial or Helvetica, minimum 7-point after sizing
• Color figures are free (NAR is fully open access)
• Each figure uploaded as a separate file

Table requirements:

• Created in the manuscript (Word table or LaTeX tabular environment)
• Every column must have a header
• Keep tables as simple as possible; complex tables should be supplementary
• Footnotes defined using superscript lowercase letters
• Very large data tables should be submitted as supplementary data files

For Web Server Issue articles, include a screenshot of the web interface as one of your figures. This helps reviewers evaluate usability. Annotate the screenshot to highlight key features.

NAR uses its own reference format. The most important difference from most biomedical journals is that citations appear in parentheses, not as superscript numbers.

Key formatting rules:

• Citations in text use numbers in parentheses: (1), (2,3), (4-7)
• References numbered consecutively in order of first appearance
• Author names in normal case (not small caps, not all caps)
• List all authors up to 20; for more than 20, list the first 20 followed by "et al"
• Journal titles abbreviated per NLM standards, in italics
• Include volume, page range, and year

Example reference:

1. Smith,A.B., Jones,C.D. and Williams,E.F. (2025) Crystal structure of the human telomerase RNA pseudoknot domain. Nucleic Acids Res., 53, 1234-1245.

Note the NAR-specific formatting: initials follow the surname with no space, author names separated by commas with "and" before the last author, year in parentheses after authors, journal title in italics, volume in bold, and no issue number. This format is distinct from Vancouver style and must be followed precisely.

The 20-author cutoff before using "et al" is notably generous. Most journals switch to "et al" after 3 or 6 authors. NAR's policy reflects the large collaborative teams common in genomics and structural biology.

Oxford University Press provides downloadable reference styles for Zotero, EndNote, and Mendeley. Use these rather than trying to format manually.

NAR publishes supplementary material online alongside the article. Since NAR is fully open access, supplementary data is freely accessible to all readers.

Supplementary material can include:

• Supplementary figures and tables
• Extended methods and protocols
• Large datasets (genomic data, structural coordinates, etc.)
• Software code and scripts
• Supplementary text

Supplementary items are labeled as "Supplementary Figure S1," "Supplementary Table S1," etc. They should be compiled into a single PDF for the main supplementary document. Large data files (genomic sequences, structural data) can be uploaded separately or deposited in appropriate public databases.

For papers involving new databases or software tools, NAR requires that source code be deposited in a public repository. GitHub alone is not sufficient: a versioned release with a persistent DOI (via Zenodo or Figshare) is required so the specific version described in the paper is permanently citable. GitHub-only deposits without a DOI will be flagged at the revision or production stage. Include the repository URL and DOI in the manuscript.

NAR is one of the few high-impact journals where LaTeX is genuinely common and well-supported. Oxford University Press provides official templates for both formats.

Word submissions:

• Use the OUP Word template if available
• 12-point Times New Roman or similar
• Double-spaced throughout
• Continuous line numbering
• Page numbers on every page

LaTeX submissions:

• OUP provides an official NAR LaTeX template (nar.cls or similar)
• Submit compiled PDF alongside all source files (.tex, .bib, .bst, .sty, image files)
• Use BibTeX for references
• Ensure all custom packages are included
• The template handles column widths, font sizes, and heading styles

LaTeX is a strong choice for NAR submissions, particularly for papers with:

• Complex sequence alignments
• Mathematical models of molecular interactions
• Structural biology notation
• Large multi-panel figures with precise positioning

Many computational biology labs submit to NAR in LaTeX by default. The OUP production team is experienced with LaTeX, and conversion issues are less common than at clinical medicine publishers.

NAR has several unique features and requirements that set it apart from other molecular biology journals.

1. No strict word limit doesn't mean no limit. Editors will push back on papers that are unnecessarily long. A 15,000-word standard article will raise eyebrows. Write what you need, cut what you don't.

2. Web Server Issue is a separate submission track. The Web Server Issue has its own submission deadline (typically December), its own review process, and its own formatting rules. Don't submit a web server paper through the regular track. It won't be routed correctly.

3. Database Issue is also separate. The Database Issue has its own annual call and two deadlines: a pre-query (brief outline) due July 1, manuscripts for new databases due August 15, and updates to existing databases due September 15, for January publication. Papers describe new or significantly updated databases that must be freely accessible.

4. Data availability is taken seriously. NAR expects all data to be deposited in appropriate public databases. Sequence data should go to GenBank/ENA/DDBJ. Structural data goes to PDB or EMDB. Microarray data goes to GEO or ArrayExpress. The accession numbers must appear in the manuscript.

5. Open access APC. NAR is fully open access. All published articles require an article processing charge. The current APC is $3,625 USD. There are waivers and discounts for authors from low-income countries and for OUP institutional agreements.

6. AI tool disclosure required. NAR requires disclosure of any AI tools used in manuscript preparation. This includes large language models used for writing assistance. The disclosure belongs in the cover letter and in the Methods or Acknowledgements section, clearly stating which tools were used and how. Using an AI tool to generate text without disclosure is treated as a breach of author responsibility.

NAR has specific data deposition and reporting requirements depending on the type of data in your manuscript.

These are not optional. Manuscripts that describe new sequence or structural data without public deposition will not be sent for review.

NAR uses the Oxford University Press submission system. Prepare these files before starting:

1. Main manuscript (Word or LaTeX): title, abstract, body text, references, figure legends
2. Figures: each uploaded separately in high-resolution format
3. Tables: embedded in the manuscript or as separate files
4. Supplementary data: compiled PDF plus any large data files
5. Cover letter: emphasizing novelty and fit for NAR
6. Graphical abstract (optional but encouraged): summarizing the main finding

For Web Server Issue submissions:

• Ensure the web server is live and accessible at submission time
• Provide reviewer access credentials if the server requires login
• Include a screenshot as a figure

The most frequent issues with NAR submissions:

• Using superscript citations instead of parenthetical numbers
• Missing data deposition accession numbers
• Submitting Web Server papers through the regular article track
• Figures below minimum resolution (especially screen captures)
• Reference formatting errors (NAR style is distinctive)
• Missing ORCID for the corresponding author

In our pre-submission review work with manuscripts targeting Nucleic Acids Research, four patterns generate the most consistent desk-rejection outcomes.

Broad descriptive findings without molecular mechanism. NAR's scope statement emphasizes structure, function, and mechanism of nucleic acids. Papers that characterize a phenomenon at the genome or transcriptome level without connecting it to a molecular mechanism are regularly returned at the desk. An RNA-seq study showing differential expression patterns in a disease context is not sufficient for NAR unless the paper provides mechanistic insight into how specific RNA species or chromatin states drive the biology. Correlative findings belong in disease-focused journals; NAR wants the molecular story behind the correlation.

Web Server or database papers without benchmarked experimental validation. For Web Server Issue submissions, NAR editorial guidelines require that the tool's performance be validated on biological data, not just demonstrated on synthetic inputs. The guidelines state explicitly that N-fold cross-validation on a single dataset is insufficient for validation claims in this issue. Papers presenting a new tool validated only against simulated sequences or using leave-one-out cross-validation on training data receive consistent reviewer requests for independent benchmark data. Include a holdout test set or comparison against an established benchmark dataset with published performance figures.

Incremental advance over a published tool without differential performance data. NAR reviewers and editors are expert in the bioinformatics tool landscape. A paper describing a new variant caller, alignment tool, or annotation pipeline that performs comparably to existing methods has no clear path to acceptance. The paper must demonstrate a specific performance advantage (accuracy, speed, memory, or applicability to a new data type) over the current state of the art, with that advantage shown on a standard benchmark. "Our tool is easier to use" is not a performance claim. "Our tool runs in 15 minutes on a dataset that takes Bowtie2 3 hours on equivalent hardware" is.

Sequence, structure, or expression data not deposited before submission. NAR editorial policy states that data must be in public repositories at the time of submission, not at the time of acceptance. Papers submitted without GEO, ArrayExpress, or SRA accession numbers for sequencing data, or without PDB/EMDB identifiers for structural data, are returned before review. Reviewer access credentials for pre-publication repository entries are acceptable (GEO allows this), but a note saying "accession numbers will be provided upon acceptance" will result in an immediate return.

A Nucleic Acids Research pre-submission readiness check evaluates whether your manuscript meets NAR's data deposition, validation, and scope requirements before you submit.

In our pre-submission review work on NAR-targeted manuscripts, three patterns consistently predict formatting desk-screen failure at Nucleic Acids Research (Oxford University Press). The patterns below are the same ones Barry Stoddard and outside reviewers flag at first-pass triage.

Scope-fit ambiguity in the abstract. NAR editors move fastest on manuscripts whose contribution is obviously aligned with nucleic acids research with mechanistic depth and quantified biochemical or computational characterization. The named failure pattern: papers without quantified biochemical or computational characterization extend revision rounds. Check whether your abstract reads to NAR's scope

Methods package incomplete for the journal's reviewer pool. NAR reviewers expect specific methodological detail. Preliminary mechanism claims without orthogonal validation extend reviewer consultation. Check if your methods package is reviewer-complete

Reference-list and clean-citation failure mode. Editorial team at Nucleic Acids Research (Oxford University Press) screens reference lists for retracted-paper inclusion. Recent retractions in the NAR corpus we audit include 10.1093/nar/gkac425, 10.1093/nar/gkab628, and 10.1093/nar/gkad189. Citing any of these without a retraction-notice acknowledgment is an automatic desk-screen flag. Check whether your reference list is clean against Crossref + Retraction Watch

Manusights submission-corpus signal for Nucleic Acids Research (Oxford University Press). Of the manuscripts our team screened before submission to NAR and peer venues in 2025, the editorial-culture mismatch most consistent across the cohort is nar reviewers expect explicit biochemical-method validation with quantified statistics for kinetics, thermodynamics, or sequence analysis. In our analysis of anonymized NAR-targeted submissions, Recent retractions in the NAR corpus include 10.1093/nar/gkac425, 10.1093/nar/gkab628, and 10.1093/nar/gkad189.