Nature is a British multidisciplinary scientific journal, first published on 4 November 1869.

[1]
It is one of the most recognizable scientific journals in the world, and was ranked the
world's most cited scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2018 Journal Citation
Reports and is ascribed an impact factor of 43.070,[2] making it one of the world's top
academic journals.[3]

Research scientists are the primary audience for the journal, but summaries and
accompanying articles are intended to make many of the most important papers
understandable to scientists in other fields and the educated public. Towards the front of
each issue are editorials, news and feature articles on issues of general interest to scientists,
including current affairs, science funding, business, scientific ethics and research
breakthroughs. There are also sections on books, arts, and short science fiction stories. The
remainder of the journal consists mostly of research papers (articles or letters), which are
often dense and highly technical. Because of strict limits on the length of papers, often the
printed text is actually a summary of the work in question with many details relegated to
accompanying supplementary material on the journal's website.

There are many fields of research in which important new advances and original research
are published as either articles or letters in Nature. The papers that have been published in
this journal are internationally acclaimed for maintaining high research standards. Fewer
than 8% of submitted papers are accepted for publication.[4]

In 2007 Nature (together with Science) received the Prince of Asturias Award for
Communications and Humanity.[5][6]

Contents
 1 History
o 1.1 Background
o 1.2 Creation
 1.2.1 Editors
 1.2.2 Expansion and development
 2 Publication in Nature
o 2.1 Landmark papers
o 2.2 Controversies
 3 Science fiction
 4 Publication
 5 References
 6 Bibliography
 7 External links

History
Background
The enormous progress in science and mathematics during the 19th century was recorded in
journals written mostly in German or French, as well as in English. Britain underwent
enormous technological and industrial changes and advances particularly in the latter half
of the 19th century.[7] In English the most respected scientific journals of this time were the
refereed journals of the Royal Society, which had published many of the great works from
Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday through to early works from Charles Darwin. In addition,
during this period, the number of popular science periodicals doubled from the 1850s to the
1860s.[8] According to the editors of these popular science magazines, the publications were
designed to serve as "organs of science", in essence, a means of connecting the public to the
scientific world.[8]

Nature, first created in 1869, was not the first magazine of its kind in Britain. One journal
to precede Nature was Recreative Science: A Record and Remembrancer of Intellectual
Observation, which, created in 1859, began as a natural history magazine and progressed to
include more physical observational science and technical subjects and less natural history.
[9]
The journal's name changed from its original title to Intellectual Observer: A Review of
Natural History, Microscopic Research, and Recreative Science and then later to the
Student and Intellectual Observer of Science, Literature, and Art.[10] While Recreative
Science had attempted to include more physical sciences such as astronomy and
archaeology, the Intellectual Observer broadened itself further to include literature and art
as well.[10] Similar to Recreative Science was the scientific journal Popular Science Review,
created in 1862,[11] which covered different fields of science by creating subsections titled
"Scientific Summary" or "Quarterly Retrospect", with book reviews and commentary on
the latest scientific works and publications.[11] Two other journals produced in England
prior to the development of Nature were the Quarterly Journal of Science and Scientific
Opinion, established in 1864 and 1868, respectively.[10] The journal most closely related to
Nature in its editorship and format was The Reader, created in 1863; the publication mixed
science with literature and art in an attempt to reach an audience outside of the scientific
community, similar to Popular Science Review.[10]

These similar journals all ultimately failed. The Popular Science Review survived longest,
lasting 20 years and ending its publication in 1881; Recreative Science ceased publication
as the Student and Intellectual Observer in 1871. The Quarterly Journal, after undergoing a
number of editorial changes, ceased publication in 1885. The Reader terminated in 1867,
and finally, Scientific Opinion lasted a mere 2 years, until June 1870.[9]

Creation
First title page, 4 November 1869

Not long after the conclusion of The Reader, a former editor, Norman Lockyer, decided to
create a new scientific journal titled Nature,[12] taking its name from a line by William
Wordsworth: "To the solid ground of nature trusts the Mind that builds for aye".[13] First
owned and published by Alexander Macmillan, Nature was similar to its predecessors in its
attempt to "provide cultivated readers with an accessible forum for reading about advances
in scientific knowledge."[12] Janet Browne has proposed that "far more than any other
science journal of the period, Nature was conceived, born, and raised to serve polemic
purpose."[12] Many of the early editions of Nature consisted of articles written by members
of a group that called itself the X Club, a group of scientists known for having liberal,
progressive, and somewhat controversial scientific beliefs relative to the time period.[12]
Initiated by Thomas Henry Huxley, the group consisted of such important scientists as
Joseph Dalton Hooker, Herbert Spencer, and John Tyndall, along with another five
scientists and mathematicians; these scientists were all avid supporters of Darwin's theory
of evolution as common descent, a theory which, during the latter half of the 19th century,
received a great deal of criticism among more conservative groups of scientists.[14] Perhaps
it was in part its scientific liberality that made Nature a longer-lasting success than its
predecessors. John Maddox, editor of Nature from 1966 to 1973 as well as from 1980 to
1995, suggested at a celebratory dinner for the journal's centennial edition that perhaps it
was the journalistic qualities of Nature that drew readers in; "journalism" Maddox states,
"is a way of creating a sense of community among people who would otherwise be isolated
from each other. This is what Lockyer's journal did from the start."[15] In addition, Maddox
mentions that the financial backing of the journal in its first years by the Macmillan family
also allowed the journal to flourish and develop more freely than scientific journals before
it.[15]

Editors

Norman Lockyer, the founder of Nature, was a professor at Imperial College. He was
succeeded as editor in 1919 by Sir Richard Gregory.[16] Gregory helped to establish Nature
in the international scientific community. His obituary by the Royal Society stated:
"Gregory was always very interested in the international contacts of science, and in the
columns of Nature he always gave generous space to accounts of the activities of the
International Scientific Unions."[17] During the years 1945 to 1973, editorship of Nature
changed three times, first in 1945 to A. J. V. Gale and L. J. F. Brimble (who in 1958
became the sole editor), then to John Maddox in 1965, and finally to David Davies in 1973.
[16]
In 1980, Maddox returned as editor and retained his position until 1995. Philip Campbell
became Editor-in-chief of all Nature publications until 2018. Magdalena Skipper has since
become Editor-in-chief.[16]

Expansion and development

In 1970, Nature first opened its Washington office; other branches opened in New York in
1985, Tokyo and Munich in 1987, Paris in 1989, San Francisco in 2001, Boston in 2004,
and Hong Kong in 2005. In 1971, under John Maddox's editorship, the journal split into
Nature Physical Sciences (published on Mondays), Nature New Biology (published on
Wednesdays) and Nature (published on Fridays). In 1974, Maddox was no longer editor,
and the journals were merged into Nature.[18]

Starting in the 1980s, the journal underwent a great deal of expansion, launching over ten
new journals. These new journals comprise Nature Research, which was created in 1999
under the name Nature Publishing Group and includes Nature, Nature Research Journals,
Stockton Press Specialist Journals and Macmillan Reference (renamed NPG Reference).

In 1996, Nature created its own website[19] and in 1999 Nature Publishing Group began its
series of Nature Reviews.[16] Some articles and papers are available for free on the Nature
website. Others require the purchase of premium access to the site. Nature claims an online
readership of about 3 million unique readers per month.[20]

On 30 October 2008, Nature endorsed an American presidential candidate for the first time
when it supported Barack Obama during his campaign in America's 2008 presidential
election.[21][22]

In October 2012, an Arabic edition of the magazine was launched in partnership with King
Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology. As of the time it was released, it had about
10,000 subscribers.[23]

On 2 December 2014, Nature announced that it would allow its subscribers and a group of
selected media outlets to share links allowing free, "read-only" access to content from its
journals. These articles are presented using the digital rights management system ReadCube
(which is funded by the Macmillan subsidiary Digital Science), and does not allow readers
to download, copy, print, or otherwise distribute the content. While it does, to an extent,
provide free online access to articles, it is not a true open access scheme due to its
restrictions on re-use and distribution.[24][25]

On 15 January 2015, details of a proposed merger with Springer Science+Business Media

were announced.[26]
In May 2015 it came under the umbrella of Springer Nature, by the merger of Springer
Science+Business Media and Holtzbrinck Publishing Group's Nature Publishing Group,
Palgrave Macmillan, and Macmillan Education.[27] Since 2011, the journal has published
Nature's 10 "people who mattered" during the year, as part of their annual review.[28][29]

Publication in Nature
This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this
article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be
challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Nature" journal – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2011) (Learn
how and when to remove this template message)

Being published in Nature is very prestigious. In particular, empirical papers are often
highly cited, which can lead to promotions, grant funding, and attention from the
mainstream media. Because of these positive feedback effects, competition among
scientists to publish in high-level journals like Nature and its closest competitor, Science,
can be very fierce. Nature's impact factor, a measure of how many citations a journal
generates in other works, was 38.138 in 2015 (as measured by Thomson ISI), among the
highest of any science journal.

As with most other professional scientific journals, papers undergo an initial screening by
the editor, followed by peer review (in which other scientists, chosen by the editor for
expertise with the subject matter but who have no connection to the research under review,
will read and critique articles), before publication. In the case of Nature, they are only sent
for review if it is decided that they deal with a topical subject and are sufficiently ground-
breaking in that particular field. As a consequence, the majority of submitted papers are
rejected without review.

According to Nature's original mission statement:

It is intended, FIRST, to place before the general public the grand results of Scientific
Work and Scientific Discovery; and to urge the claims of Science to a more general
recognition in Education and in Daily Life; and, SECONDLY, to aid Scientific men
themselves, by giving early information of all advances made in any branch of Natural
knowledge throughout the world, and by affording them an opportunity of discussing the
various Scientific questions which arise from time to time.[30]

This was revised in 2000 to:

First, to serve scientists through prompt publication of significant advances in any branch
of science, and to provide a forum for the reporting and discussion of news and issues
concerning science. Second, to ensure that the results of science are rapidly disseminated to
the public throughout the world, in a fashion that conveys their significance for knowledge,
culture and daily life.[31]
Landmark papers

Many of the most significant scientific breakthroughs in modern history have been first
published in Nature. The following is a selection of scientific breakthroughs published in
Nature, all of which had far-reaching consequences, and the citation for the article in which
they were published.

 Wave nature of particles — C. Davisson and L. H. Germer (1927). "The scattering of

electrons by a single crystal of nickel". Nature. 119 (2998): 558–560.
Bibcode:1927Natur.119..558D. doi:10.1038/119558a0.
 The neutron — J. Chadwick (1932). "Possible existence of a neutron". Nature. 129 (3252): 312.
Bibcode:1932Natur.129Q.312C. doi:10.1038/129312a0.
 Nuclear fission — L. Meitner and O. R. Frisch (1939). "Disintegration of uranium by neutrons:
a new type of nuclear reaction". Nature. 143 (3615): 239–240. Bibcode:1939Natur.143..239M.
doi:10.1038/143239a0.
 The structure of DNA — J. D. Watson and F. H. C. Crick (1953). "Molecular structure of
Nucleic Acids: A structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid". Nature. 171 (4356): 737–738.
Bibcode:1953Natur.171..737W. doi:10.1038/171737a0. PMID 13054692.
 First molecular protein structure (myoglobin) — J. C. Kendrew; G. Bodo; H. M.
Dintzis; R. G. Parrish; H. Wyckoff; D. C. Phillips (1958). "A three-dimensional model of the
myoglobin molecule obtained by X-ray analysis". Nature. 181 (4610): 662–666.
Bibcode:1958Natur.181..662K. doi:10.1038/181662a0. PMID 13517261.
 Plate tectonics — J. Tuzo Wilson (1966). "Did the Atlantic close and then re-open?". Nature.
211 (5050): 676–681. Bibcode:1966Natur.211..676W. doi:10.1038/211676a0.
 Pulsars — A. Hewish, S. J. Bell, J. D. H. Pilkington, P. F. Scott & R. A. Collins (1968).
"Observation of a Rapidly Pulsating Radio Source". Nature. 217 (5130): 709–713.
Bibcode:1968Natur.217..709H. doi:10.1038/217709a0.
 The ozone hole — J. C. Farman, B. G. Gardiner and J. D. Shanklin (1985). "Large losses of
total ozone in Antarctica reveal seasonal ClOx/NOx interaction". Nature. 315 (6016): 207–210.
Bibcode:1985Natur.315..207F. doi:10.1038/315207a0.
 First cloning of a mammal (Dolly the sheep) — I. Wilmut, A. E. Schnieke, J. McWhir, A.
J. Kind and K. H. S. Campbell (1997). "Viable offspring derived from fetal and adult mammalian
cells". Nature. 385 (6619): 810–813. Bibcode:1997Natur.385..810W. doi:10.1038/385810a0.
PMID 9039911.
 The human genome — International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium (2001). "Initial
sequencing and analysis of the human genome" (PDF). Nature. 409 (6822): 860–921.
Bibcode:2001Natur.409..860L. doi:10.1038/35057062. PMID 11237011.

Controversies

In 2017, Nature published an editorial entitled "Removing Statues of Historical figures

risks whitewashing history: Science must acknowledge mistakes as it marks its past". The
article commented on the placement and maintenance of statues honouring scientists with
known unethical, abusive and torturous histories. Specifically, the editorial called on
examples of J. Marion Sims, the 'Father of gynecology' who experimented on African
American female slaves who were unable to give informed consent, and Thomas Parran Jr.
who oversaw the Tuskegee syphilis experiment. The editorial as written made the case that
removing such statues, and erasing names, runs the risk of "whitewashing history", and
stated "Instead of removing painful reminders, perhaps these should be supplemented". The
article caused a large outcry and was quickly modified by Nature.[32] The article was largely
seen as offensive, inappropriate, and by many, racist. Nature acknowledged that the article
as originally written was "offensive and poorly worded" and published selected letters of
response.[33] The editorial came just weeks after hundreds of white supremacists marched in
Charlottesville, Virginia in the Unite the Right rally to oppose the removal of a statue of
Robert E. Lee, setting off violence in the streets and killing a young woman. When Nature
posted a link to the editorial on Twitter, the thread quickly exploded with criticisms. In
response, several scientists called for a boycott.[34] On 18 September 2017, the editorial was
updated and edited by Philip Campbell, the editor of the journal.[35]

When Paul Lauterbur and Peter Mansfield won a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
for research initially rejected by Nature and published only after Lauterbur appealed against
the rejection, Nature acknowledged more of its own missteps in rejecting papers in an
editorial titled, "Coping with Peer Rejection":

[T]here are unarguable faux pas in our history. These include the rejection of Cherenkov
radiation, Hideki Yukawa's meson, work on photosynthesis by Johann Deisenhofer, Robert
Huber and Hartmut Michel, and the initial rejection (but eventual acceptance) of Stephen
Hawking's black-hole radiation.[36]

From 2000 to 2001, a series of five fraudulent papers by Jan Hendrik Schön was published
in Nature. The papers, about semiconductors, were revealed to contain falsified data and
other scientific fraud. In 2003, Nature retracted the papers. The Schön scandal was not
limited to Nature; other prominent journals, such as Science and Physical Review, also
retracted papers by Schön.[37]

In June 1988, after nearly a year of guided scrutiny from its editors, Nature published a
controversial and seemingly anomalous paper detailing Jacques Benveniste and his team's
work studying human basophil degranulation in the presence of extremely dilute antibody
serum.[38] The paper concluded that less than a single molecule of antibody could trigger an
immune response in human basophils, defying the physical law of mass action. The paper
excited substantial media attention in Paris, chiefly because their research sought funding
from homeopathic medicine companies. Public inquiry prompted Nature to mandate an
extensive and stringent experimental replication in Benveniste's lab, through which his
team's results were refuted.[39]

Before publishing one of its most famous discoveries, Watson and Crick's 1953 paper on
the structure of DNA, Nature did not send the paper out for peer review. John Maddox,
Nature's editor, stated: "the Watson and Crick paper was not peer-reviewed by Nature ...
the paper could not have been refereed: its correctness is self-evident. No referee working
in the field ... could have kept his mouth shut once he saw the structure".[40]

An earlier error occurred when Enrico Fermi submitted his breakthrough paper on the weak
interaction theory of beta decay. Nature rejected the paper because it was considered too
remote from reality.[41] Fermi's paper was published by Zeitschrift für Physik in 1934.[42]

The journal apologised for its initial coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic in which it
linked China and Wuhan with the outbreak, which may have led to racist attacks.[43][44]
Science fiction
In 1999 Nature began publishing science fiction short stories. The brief "vignettes" are
printed in a series called "Futures". The stories appeared in 1999 and 2000, again in 2005
and 2006, and have appeared weekly since July 2007.[45] Sister publication Nature Physics
also printed stories in 2007 and 2008.[46] In 2005, Nature was awarded the European
Science Fiction Society's Best Publisher award for the "Futures" series.[47] One hundred of
the Nature stories between 1999 and 2006 were published as the collection Futures from
Nature in 2008.[48] Another collection, Futures from Nature 2, was published in 2014.[49]

Nature is a British multidisciplinary scientific journal, first published on 4 November 1869.

[1]
It is one of the most recognizable scientific journals in the world, and was ranked the
world's most cited scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2018 Journal Citation
Reports and is ascribed an impact factor of 43.070,[2] making it one of the world's top
academic journals.[3]

Research scientists are the primary audience for the journal, but summaries and
accompanying articles are intended to make many of the most important papers
understandable to scientists in other fields and the educated public. Towards the front of
each issue are editorials, news and feature articles on issues of general interest to scientists,
including current affairs, science funding, business, scientific ethics and research
breakthroughs. There are also sections on books, arts, and short science fiction stories. The
remainder of the journal consists mostly of research papers (articles or letters), which are
often dense and highly technical. Because of strict limits on the length of papers, often the
printed text is actually a summary of the work in question with many details relegated to
accompanying supplementary material on the journal's website.

There are many fields of research in which important new advances and original research
are published as either articles or letters in Nature. The papers that have been published in
this journal are internationally acclaimed for maintaining high research standards. Fewer
than 8% of submitted papers are accepted for publication.[4]

In 2007 Nature (together with Science) received the Prince of Asturias Award for
Communications and Humanity.[5][6]

Contents
 1 History
o 1.1 Background
o 1.2 Creation
 1.2.1 Editors
 1.2.2 Expansion and development
 2 Publication in Nature
o 2.1 Landmark papers
o 2.2 Controversies
  3 Science fiction
 4 Publication
 5 References
 6 Bibliography
 7 External links

History
Background

The enormous progress in science and mathematics during the 19th century was recorded in
journals written mostly in German or French, as well as in English. Britain underwent
enormous technological and industrial changes and advances particularly in the latter half
of the 19th century.[7] In English the most respected scientific journals of this time were the
refereed journals of the Royal Society, which had published many of the great works from
Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday through to early works from Charles Darwin. In addition,
during this period, the number of popular science periodicals doubled from the 1850s to the
1860s.[8] According to the editors of these popular science magazines, the publications were
designed to serve as "organs of science", in essence, a means of connecting the public to the
scientific world.[8]

Nature, first created in 1869, was not the first magazine of its kind in Britain. One journal
to precede Nature was Recreative Science: A Record and Remembrancer of Intellectual
Observation, which, created in 1859, began as a natural history magazine and progressed to
include more physical observational science and technical subjects and less natural history.
[9]
The journal's name changed from its original title to Intellectual Observer: A Review of
Natural History, Microscopic Research, and Recreative Science and then later to the
Student and Intellectual Observer of Science, Literature, and Art.[10] While Recreative
Science had attempted to include more physical sciences such as astronomy and
archaeology, the Intellectual Observer broadened itself further to include literature and art
as well.[10] Similar to Recreative Science was the scientific journal Popular Science Review,
created in 1862,[11] which covered different fields of science by creating subsections titled
"Scientific Summary" or "Quarterly Retrospect", with book reviews and commentary on
the latest scientific works and publications.[11] Two other journals produced in England
prior to the development of Nature were the Quarterly Journal of Science and Scientific
Opinion, established in 1864 and 1868, respectively.[10] The journal most closely related to
Nature in its editorship and format was The Reader, created in 1863; the publication mixed
science with literature and art in an attempt to reach an audience outside of the scientific
community, similar to Popular Science Review.[10]

These similar journals all ultimately failed. The Popular Science Review survived longest,
lasting 20 years and ending its publication in 1881; Recreative Science ceased publication
as the Student and Intellectual Observer in 1871. The Quarterly Journal, after undergoing a
number of editorial changes, ceased publication in 1885. The Reader terminated in 1867,
and finally, Scientific Opinion lasted a mere 2 years, until June 1870.[9]
Creation

First title page, 4 November 1869

Not long after the conclusion of The Reader, a former editor, Norman Lockyer, decided to
create a new scientific journal titled Nature,[12] taking its name from a line by William
Wordsworth: "To the solid ground of nature trusts the Mind that builds for aye".[13] First
owned and published by Alexander Macmillan, Nature was similar to its predecessors in its
attempt to "provide cultivated readers with an accessible forum for reading about advances
in scientific knowledge."[12] Janet Browne has proposed that "far more than any other
science journal of the period, Nature was conceived, born, and raised to serve polemic
purpose."[12] Many of the early editions of Nature consisted of articles written by members
of a group that called itself the X Club, a group of scientists known for having liberal,
progressive, and somewhat controversial scientific beliefs relative to the time period.[12]
Initiated by Thomas Henry Huxley, the group consisted of such important scientists as
Joseph Dalton Hooker, Herbert Spencer, and John Tyndall, along with another five
scientists and mathematicians; these scientists were all avid supporters of Darwin's theory
of evolution as common descent, a theory which, during the latter half of the 19th century,
received a great deal of criticism among more conservative groups of scientists.[14] Perhaps
it was in part its scientific liberality that made Nature a longer-lasting success than its
predecessors. John Maddox, editor of Nature from 1966 to 1973 as well as from 1980 to
1995, suggested at a celebratory dinner for the journal's centennial edition that perhaps it
was the journalistic qualities of Nature that drew readers in; "journalism" Maddox states,
"is a way of creating a sense of community among people who would otherwise be isolated
from each other. This is what Lockyer's journal did from the start."[15] In addition, Maddox
mentions that the financial backing of the journal in its first years by the Macmillan family
also allowed the journal to flourish and develop more freely than scientific journals before
it.[15]

Editors

Norman Lockyer, the founder of Nature, was a professor at Imperial College. He was
succeeded as editor in 1919 by Sir Richard Gregory.[16] Gregory helped to establish Nature
in the international scientific community. His obituary by the Royal Society stated:
"Gregory was always very interested in the international contacts of science, and in the
columns of Nature he always gave generous space to accounts of the activities of the
International Scientific Unions."[17] During the years 1945 to 1973, editorship of Nature
changed three times, first in 1945 to A. J. V. Gale and L. J. F. Brimble (who in 1958
became the sole editor), then to John Maddox in 1965, and finally to David Davies in 1973.
[16]
In 1980, Maddox returned as editor and retained his position until 1995. Philip Campbell
became Editor-in-chief of all Nature publications until 2018. Magdalena Skipper has since
become Editor-in-chief.[16]

Expansion and development

In 1970, Nature first opened its Washington office; other branches opened in New York in
1985, Tokyo and Munich in 1987, Paris in 1989, San Francisco in 2001, Boston in 2004,
and Hong Kong in 2005. In 1971, under John Maddox's editorship, the journal split into
Nature Physical Sciences (published on Mondays), Nature New Biology (published on
Wednesdays) and Nature (published on Fridays). In 1974, Maddox was no longer editor,
and the journals were merged into Nature.[18]

Starting in the 1980s, the journal underwent a great deal of expansion, launching over ten
new journals. These new journals comprise Nature Research, which was created in 1999
under the name Nature Publishing Group and includes Nature, Nature Research Journals,
Stockton Press Specialist Journals and Macmillan Reference (renamed NPG Reference).

In 1996, Nature created its own website[19] and in 1999 Nature Publishing Group began its
series of Nature Reviews.[16] Some articles and papers are available for free on the Nature
website. Others require the purchase of premium access to the site. Nature claims an online
readership of about 3 million unique readers per month.[20]

On 30 October 2008, Nature endorsed an American presidential candidate for the first time
when it supported Barack Obama during his campaign in America's 2008 presidential
election.[21][22]

In October 2012, an Arabic edition of the magazine was launched in partnership with King
Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology. As of the time it was released, it had about
10,000 subscribers.[23]

On 2 December 2014, Nature announced that it would allow its subscribers and a group of
selected media outlets to share links allowing free, "read-only" access to content from its
journals. These articles are presented using the digital rights management system ReadCube
(which is funded by the Macmillan subsidiary Digital Science), and does not allow readers
to download, copy, print, or otherwise distribute the content. While it does, to an extent,
provide free online access to articles, it is not a true open access scheme due to its
restrictions on re-use and distribution.[24][25]

On 15 January 2015, details of a proposed merger with Springer Science+Business Media

were announced.[26]
In May 2015 it came under the umbrella of Springer Nature, by the merger of Springer
Science+Business Media and Holtzbrinck Publishing Group's Nature Publishing Group,
Palgrave Macmillan, and Macmillan Education.[27] Since 2011, the journal has published
Nature's 10 "people who mattered" during the year, as part of their annual review.[28][29]

Publication in Nature
This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this
article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be
challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Nature" journal – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2011) (Learn
how and when to remove this template message)

Being published in Nature is very prestigious. In particular, empirical papers are often
highly cited, which can lead to promotions, grant funding, and attention from the
mainstream media. Because of these positive feedback effects, competition among
scientists to publish in high-level journals like Nature and its closest competitor, Science,
can be very fierce. Nature's impact factor, a measure of how many citations a journal
generates in other works, was 38.138 in 2015 (as measured by Thomson ISI), among the
highest of any science journal.

As with most other professional scientific journals, papers undergo an initial screening by
the editor, followed by peer review (in which other scientists, chosen by the editor for
expertise with the subject matter but who have no connection to the research under review,
will read and critique articles), before publication. In the case of Nature, they are only sent
for review if it is decided that they deal with a topical subject and are sufficiently ground-
breaking in that particular field. As a consequence, the majority of submitted papers are
rejected without review.

According to Nature's original mission statement:

It is intended, FIRST, to place before the general public the grand results of Scientific
Work and Scientific Discovery; and to urge the claims of Science to a more general
recognition in Education and in Daily Life; and, SECONDLY, to aid Scientific men
themselves, by giving early information of all advances made in any branch of Natural
knowledge throughout the world, and by affording them an opportunity of discussing the
various Scientific questions which arise from time to time.[30]

This was revised in 2000 to:

First, to serve scientists through prompt publication of significant advances in any branch
of science, and to provide a forum for the reporting and discussion of news and issues
concerning science. Second, to ensure that the results of science are rapidly disseminated to
the public throughout the world, in a fashion that conveys their significance for knowledge,
culture and daily life.[31]
Landmark papers

Many of the most significant scientific breakthroughs in modern history have been first
published in Nature. The following is a selection of scientific breakthroughs published in
Nature, all of which had far-reaching consequences, and the citation for the article in which
they were published.

 Wave nature of particles — C. Davisson and L. H. Germer (1927). "The scattering of

electrons by a single crystal of nickel". Nature. 119 (2998): 558–560.
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Controversies

In 2017, Nature published an editorial entitled "Removing Statues of Historical figures

risks whitewashing history: Science must acknowledge mistakes as it marks its past". The
article commented on the placement and maintenance of statues honouring scientists with
known unethical, abusive and torturous histories. Specifically, the editorial called on
examples of J. Marion Sims, the 'Father of gynecology' who experimented on African
American female slaves who were unable to give informed consent, and Thomas Parran Jr.
who oversaw the Tuskegee syphilis experiment. The editorial as written made the case that
removing such statues, and erasing names, runs the risk of "whitewashing history", and
stated "Instead of removing painful reminders, perhaps these should be supplemented". The
article caused a large outcry and was quickly modified by Nature.[32] The article was largely
seen as offensive, inappropriate, and by many, racist. Nature acknowledged that the article
as originally written was "offensive and poorly worded" and published selected letters of
response.[33] The editorial came just weeks after hundreds of white supremacists marched in
Charlottesville, Virginia in the Unite the Right rally to oppose the removal of a statue of
Robert E. Lee, setting off violence in the streets and killing a young woman. When Nature
posted a link to the editorial on Twitter, the thread quickly exploded with criticisms. In
response, several scientists called for a boycott.[34] On 18 September 2017, the editorial was
updated and edited by Philip Campbell, the editor of the journal.[35]

When Paul Lauterbur and Peter Mansfield won a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
for research initially rejected by Nature and published only after Lauterbur appealed against
the rejection, Nature acknowledged more of its own missteps in rejecting papers in an
editorial titled, "Coping with Peer Rejection":

[T]here are unarguable faux pas in our history. These include the rejection of Cherenkov
radiation, Hideki Yukawa's meson, work on photosynthesis by Johann Deisenhofer, Robert
Huber and Hartmut Michel, and the initial rejection (but eventual acceptance) of Stephen
Hawking's black-hole radiation.[36]

From 2000 to 2001, a series of five fraudulent papers by Jan Hendrik Schön was published
in Nature. The papers, about semiconductors, were revealed to contain falsified data and
other scientific fraud. In 2003, Nature retracted the papers. The Schön scandal was not
limited to Nature; other prominent journals, such as Science and Physical Review, also
retracted papers by Schön.[37]

In June 1988, after nearly a year of guided scrutiny from its editors, Nature published a
controversial and seemingly anomalous paper detailing Jacques Benveniste and his team's
work studying human basophil degranulation in the presence of extremely dilute antibody
serum.[38] The paper concluded that less than a single molecule of antibody could trigger an
immune response in human basophils, defying the physical law of mass action. The paper
excited substantial media attention in Paris, chiefly because their research sought funding
from homeopathic medicine companies. Public inquiry prompted Nature to mandate an
extensive and stringent experimental replication in Benveniste's lab, through which his
team's results were refuted.[39]

Before publishing one of its most famous discoveries, Watson and Crick's 1953 paper on
the structure of DNA, Nature did not send the paper out for peer review. John Maddox,
Nature's editor, stated: "the Watson and Crick paper was not peer-reviewed by Nature ...
the paper could not have been refereed: its correctness is self-evident. No referee working
in the field ... could have kept his mouth shut once he saw the structure".[40]

An earlier error occurred when Enrico Fermi submitted his breakthrough paper on the weak
interaction theory of beta decay. Nature rejected the paper because it was considered too
remote from reality.[41] Fermi's paper was published by Zeitschrift für Physik in 1934.[42]

The journal apologised for its initial coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic in which it
linked China and Wuhan with the outbreak, which may have led to racist attacks.[43][44]
Science fiction
In 1999 Nature began publishing science fiction short stories. The brief "vignettes" are
printed in a series called "Futures". The stories appeared in 1999 and 2000, again in 2005
and 2006, and have appeared weekly since July 2007.[45] Sister publication Nature Physics
also printed stories in 2007 and 2008.[46] In 2005, Nature was awarded the European
Science Fiction Society's Best Publisher award for the "Futures" series.[47] One hundred of
the Nature stories between 1999 and 2006 were published as the collection Futures from
Nature in 2008.[48] Another collection, Futures from Nature 2, was published in 2014.[49]