{
  "name": "Manusights Journal Requirements Observatory",
  "version": "1.3",
  "published": "2026-08-26",
  "reviewed": "2026-08-30",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://manusights.com/research/journal-requirements-observatory",
  "methodologyUrl": "https://manusights.com/research/journal-requirements-observatory/methodology",
  "distributions": {
    "csv": "https://manusights.com/research/data/journal-requirements-observatory-2026-08-30-v1-3.csv",
    "json": "https://manusights.com/research/data/journal-requirements-observatory-v1-3.json"
  },
  "license": {
    "name": "CC BY 4.0",
    "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
    "scope": "The Manusights classifications and comparative dataset are reusable with attribution. Publisher instructions, trademarks, and linked source content remain owned by their respective publishers."
  },
  "caveat": "This is a maintained pilot, not a complete directory. Recheck the live publisher instructions before submission.",
  "records": [
    {
      "id": "physical-review-x",
      "journal": "Physical Review X",
      "publisher": "American Physical Society",
      "field": "Physics",
      "guidePath": "/blog/physical-review-x-submission-guide",
      "officialSourceUrl": "https://journals.aps.org/prx/authors",
      "distinctiveRequirement": "Prepare the PRX nontechnical Popular Summary and provide the research-data availability details required by Physical Review journals.",
      "requirementTypes": [
        "Summary for non-specialists",
        "Data statement"
      ],
      "sourceReviewedOn": "2026-08-22",
      "evidenceStatus": "Official page verified",
      "evidenceNote": "Checked against the PRX information-for-authors page."
    },
    {
      "id": "global-change-biology",
      "journal": "Global Change Biology",
      "publisher": "Wiley",
      "field": "Ecology & climate",
      "guidePath": "/blog/global-change-biology-submission-guide",
      "officialSourceUrl": "https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/13652486/homepage/forauthors.html",
      "distinctiveRequirement": "Include a data availability statement; the journal says it will cover Dryad archiving charges for published papers when authors use Dryad.",
      "requirementTypes": [
        "Data statement"
      ],
      "sourceReviewedOn": "2026-08-22",
      "evidenceStatus": "Official page verified",
      "evidenceNote": "Checked against the journal author-guidelines page."
    },
    {
      "id": "nature-energy",
      "journal": "Nature Energy",
      "publisher": "Springer Nature",
      "field": "Energy research",
      "guidePath": "/blog/nature-energy-submission-guide",
      "officialSourceUrl": "https://www.nature.com/nenergy/submission-guidelines",
      "distinctiveRequirement": "Primary research manuscripts cannot use a presubmission enquiry; choose the correct content type and follow its separate formatting instructions.",
      "requirementTypes": [
        "Submission route",
        "Article structure"
      ],
      "sourceReviewedOn": "2026-08-22",
      "evidenceStatus": "Official page verified",
      "evidenceNote": "Checked against the journal submission-guidelines collection."
    },
    {
      "id": "acm-computing-surveys",
      "journal": "ACM Computing Surveys",
      "publisher": "Association for Computing Machinery",
      "field": "Computing",
      "guidePath": "/blog/acm-computing-surveys-submission-guide",
      "officialSourceUrl": "https://dl.acm.org/journal/csur/author-guidelines",
      "distinctiveRequirement": "Submit a survey or tutorial: a long survey must organize recent results in a novel way that integrates and adds understanding, while a tutorial introduces the field for an inexpert audience.",
      "requirementTypes": [
        "Article structure"
      ],
      "sourceReviewedOn": "2026-08-30",
      "evidenceStatus": "Official page verified",
      "evidenceNote": "Verified in a live rendered check of the official ACM Computing Surveys Author Guidelines, including the paper-type definitions and manuscript-preparation instructions."
    },
    {
      "id": "heliyon",
      "journal": "Heliyon",
      "publisher": "Elsevier",
      "field": "Multidisciplinary",
      "guidePath": "/blog/heliyon-submission-guide",
      "officialSourceUrl": "https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/heliyon",
      "distinctiveRequirement": "Choose the correct disciplinary section and confirm that the work fits Heliyon's scientific scope; arts humanities and law are routed elsewhere.",
      "requirementTypes": [
        "Scope routing"
      ],
      "sourceReviewedOn": "2026-08-22",
      "evidenceStatus": "Official page verified",
      "evidenceNote": "Checked against the official journal page and its disciplinary routing."
    },
    {
      "id": "mechanics-of-materials",
      "journal": "Mechanics of Materials",
      "publisher": "Elsevier",
      "field": "Materials science",
      "guidePath": "/blog/mechanics-of-materials-submission-guide",
      "officialSourceUrl": "https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/mechanics-of-materials/publish/guide-for-authors",
      "distinctiveRequirement": "Submit 3–5 highlights of no more than 85 characters each and a required data availability statement under Elsevier's Option C instructions.",
      "requirementTypes": [
        "Highlights",
        "Data statement"
      ],
      "sourceReviewedOn": "2026-08-22",
      "evidenceStatus": "Official page verified",
      "evidenceNote": "Checked against the journal Guide for Authors."
    },
    {
      "id": "physical-review-letters",
      "journal": "Physical Review Letters",
      "publisher": "American Physical Society",
      "field": "Physics",
      "guidePath": "/blog/physical-review-letters-submission-guide",
      "officialSourceUrl": "https://journals.aps.org/prl/authors",
      "distinctiveRequirement": "Keep a Letter within the 3,750-word core-paper limit; specialist detail can move to End Matter under the separate PRL length rules.",
      "requirementTypes": [
        "Article structure"
      ],
      "sourceReviewedOn": "2026-08-30",
      "evidenceStatus": "Official page verified",
      "evidenceNote": "Checked against the current PRL Information for Authors page and its article-type length limits."
    },
    {
      "id": "bmj-british-medical-journal",
      "journal": "The BMJ",
      "publisher": "BMJ Publishing Group",
      "field": "Medicine",
      "guidePath": "/blog/bmj-british-medical-journal-submission-guide",
      "officialSourceUrl": "https://www.bmj.com/about-bmj/resources-authors/article-types",
      "distinctiveRequirement": "Add a Patient and Public Involvement subsection to the Methods that states how patients or the public were involved, or formally records that they were not involved.",
      "requirementTypes": [
        "Required statement"
      ],
      "sourceReviewedOn": "2026-08-30",
      "evidenceStatus": "Official page verified",
      "evidenceNote": "Checked against The BMJ article-type guidance and mandatory patient-involvement reporting instructions."
    },
    {
      "id": "plos-one",
      "journal": "PLOS ONE",
      "publisher": "Public Library of Science",
      "field": "Multidisciplinary science",
      "guidePath": "/blog/plos-one-submission-guide",
      "officialSourceUrl": "https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submit-now",
      "distinctiveRequirement": "Complete the submission-form Data Availability Statement and state whether all data underlying the reported findings are publicly available.",
      "requirementTypes": [
        "Data statement"
      ],
      "sourceReviewedOn": "2026-08-30",
      "evidenceStatus": "Official page verified",
      "evidenceNote": "Checked against the current PLOS ONE submission-form guidance for Data Availability Statements."
    },
    {
      "id": "jama-network-open",
      "journal": "JAMA Network Open",
      "publisher": "American Medical Association",
      "field": "Clinical medicine and public health",
      "guidePath": "/blog/jama-network-open-submission-guide",
      "officialSourceUrl": "https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/pages/instructions-for-authors",
      "distinctiveRequirement": "Place a Key Points section before the abstract for research and review manuscripts, organized as Question, Findings, and Meaning within the stated word limit.",
      "requirementTypes": [
        "Article structure"
      ],
      "sourceReviewedOn": "2026-08-30",
      "evidenceStatus": "Official page verified",
      "evidenceNote": "Checked against the current JAMA Network Open Instructions for Authors."
    },
    {
      "id": "nature",
      "journal": "Nature",
      "publisher": "Springer Nature",
      "field": "Multidisciplinary science",
      "guidePath": "/blog/nature-submission-guide",
      "officialSourceUrl": "https://www.nature.com/nature/for-authors/initial-submission",
      "distinctiveRequirement": "For life-sciences and behavioural or social-sciences research articles, provide the completed Nature Portfolio Reporting Summary during manuscript assessment.",
      "requirementTypes": [
        "Reporting checklist"
      ],
      "sourceReviewedOn": "2026-08-30",
      "evidenceStatus": "Official page verified",
      "evidenceNote": "Checked against the current Nature initial-submission guidance for field-specific reporting summaries."
    },
    {
      "id": "elife",
      "journal": "eLife",
      "publisher": "eLife Sciences Publications",
      "field": "Life sciences and medicine",
      "guidePath": "/blog/elife-submission-guide",
      "officialSourceUrl": "https://elifesciences.org/about/submit-your-research",
      "distinctiveRequirement": "Submit directly or transfer a preprint; if the work is selected for peer review, eLife publishes it as a Reviewed Preprint rather than issuing an accept-or-reject decision after review.",
      "requirementTypes": [
        "Submission route"
      ],
      "sourceReviewedOn": "2026-08-30",
      "evidenceStatus": "Official page verified",
      "evidenceNote": "Checked against the current eLife submission and reviewed-preprint workflow."
    },
    {
      "id": "american-economic-review",
      "journal": "American Economic Review",
      "publisher": "American Economic Association",
      "field": "Economics",
      "guidePath": "/blog/american-economic-review-submission-guide",
      "officialSourceUrl": "https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/aer/submissions",
      "distinctiveRequirement": "Upload a separate Disclosure Statement PDF for every coauthor, naming the author and article; authors with nothing to disclose must say so explicitly.",
      "requirementTypes": [
        "Required file",
        "Required statement"
      ],
      "sourceReviewedOn": "2026-08-30",
      "evidenceStatus": "Official page verified",
      "evidenceNote": "Checked against the current AER Submission Guidelines, including the incomplete-submission rule."
    },
    {
      "id": "ieee-access",
      "journal": "IEEE Access",
      "publisher": "Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers",
      "field": "Engineering and computing",
      "guidePath": "/blog/ieee-access-submission-guide",
      "officialSourceUrl": "https://ieeeaccess.ieee.org/authors/preparing-your-article/",
      "distinctiveRequirement": "Submit the manuscript twice: once in the IEEE Access template as an editable Word or LaTeX file and again as a PDF file.",
      "requirementTypes": [
        "Required file"
      ],
      "sourceReviewedOn": "2026-08-30",
      "evidenceStatus": "Official page verified",
      "evidenceNote": "Checked against the current IEEE Access Preparing Your Article page and its dual-file requirement."
    },
    {
      "id": "journal-of-machine-learning-research",
      "journal": "Journal of Machine Learning Research",
      "publisher": "Journal of Machine Learning Research",
      "field": "Machine learning",
      "guidePath": "/blog/journal-of-machine-learning-research-submission-guide",
      "officialSourceUrl": "https://www.jmlr.org/author-info.html",
      "distinctiveRequirement": "Use the official JMLR LaTeX style and submit a separate cover letter that includes 3–5 action-editor suggestions, 3–5 reviewer suggestions, and overlap disclosures.",
      "requirementTypes": [
        "Article structure",
        "Required file"
      ],
      "sourceReviewedOn": "2026-08-30",
      "evidenceStatus": "Official page verified",
      "evidenceNote": "Checked against the current JMLR Information for Authors submission procedure."
    },
    {
      "id": "nucleic-acids-research",
      "journal": "Nucleic Acids Research",
      "publisher": "Oxford University Press",
      "field": "Molecular biology",
      "guidePath": "/blog/nucleic-acids-research-submission-guide",
      "officialSourceUrl": "https://academic.oup.com/nar/pages/author-guidelines",
      "distinctiveRequirement": "Submit a graphical abstract for every article type at initial submission, alongside the text abstract and the main manuscript file.",
      "requirementTypes": [
        "Required file"
      ],
      "sourceReviewedOn": "2026-08-30",
      "evidenceStatus": "Official page verified",
      "evidenceNote": "Checked against the current Nucleic Acids Research Author Guidelines for initial submissions."
    },
    {
      "id": "communications-biology",
      "journal": "Communications Biology",
      "publisher": "Springer Nature",
      "field": "Biological sciences",
      "guidePath": "/blog/communications-biology-submission-guide",
      "officialSourceUrl": "https://www.nature.com/commsbio/submit",
      "distinctiveRequirement": "Prepare the initial manuscript as one PDF or Word file with text and figures together; LaTeX authors must supply a compiled PDF before acceptance.",
      "requirementTypes": [
        "Required file"
      ],
      "sourceReviewedOn": "2026-08-30",
      "evidenceStatus": "Official page verified",
      "evidenceNote": "Checked against the current Communications Biology author submission page and its initial-file guidance."
    }
  ]
}