--- name: nature-geoscience description: Use when targeting Nature Geoscience or deciding whether an earth science manuscript fits this venue. Encodes the journal's fit, framing, method-and-evidence bar, house style, official-submission re-check, and desk-reject heuristics. --- # Nature Geoscience (nature-geoscience) ## Journal positioning Nature Geoscience is the Nature-portfolio journal for the solid earth, ocean, atmosphere, and planetary sciences, publishing research that represents a significant conceptual advance in understanding Earth as a coupled, dynamic system. The journal serves a broad geoscience readership — geophysicists, geochemists, oceanographers, atmospheric scientists, and planetary scientists — and every paper must have significance beyond its sub-discipline. A paper about mantle dynamics must speak to surface processes researchers; an ocean chemistry paper must connect to climate or biogeochemical cycles. Highly local, purely descriptive, or incrementally improved geochemical datasets without a conceptual advance do not fit. This skill is a **fit / venue-selection / re-framing** tool. It does not replace the journal's current official submission guidelines. Before submitting, re-check the live author instructions on the Nature Portfolio site. ## When to trigger - The author names Nature Geoscience as the target venue for a high-significance earth or planetary science manuscript. - A geoscience manuscript reveals a new Earth-system process, mechanism, or coupling that changes how the community thinks about a problem. - The author is choosing between Nature Geoscience, Nature Climate Change, and specialty journals (JGR, GRL, Earth and Planetary Science Letters) and needs tier/scope guidance. - The author needs Nature Geoscience's desk-reject heuristics and credible re-routing options. ## Scope & topic fit - Solid-earth geophysics and geodynamics: mantle convection, plate tectonics, subduction dynamics, seismic imaging — when a new mechanism or Earth-system coupling is revealed, not just a regional seismic survey. - Geochemistry and geochronology: isotope systematics, element cycling, planetary differentiation — when results change the understanding of a major Earth-system reservoir or process, not just refine a local dataset. - Oceanography and marine biogeochemistry: ocean circulation, carbon cycling, nutrient fluxes, deep-sea processes — when a new process or cross-system coupling is identified. - Atmospheric chemistry and dynamics: trace-gas chemistry, aerosol formation, atmospheric circulation — when a new mechanistic or global-scale understanding is established. - Climate history and paleoclimatology: deep-time climate change, glacial cycles, abrupt transitions — when the record constrains Earth-system sensitivity or reveals a new process, not just extends a proxy record. - Planetary science and astrobiology: comparative planetology, habitability, solar-system evolution — when the result has broad significance for understanding planetary systems. ## Method & evidence bar - Data quality must be explicitly documented: analytical uncertainties, sampling statistics, and instrument calibration/validation at the standard expected for the specific proxy or technique. - Geochemical or geophysical datasets must be interpreted in an Earth-system framework — a regional dataset must be placed in global context or must constrain a global model. - Modeling studies must use state-of-the-art Earth-system or geophysical models with clear documentation of boundary conditions and parameter choices; sensitivity tests are expected. - Proxy interpretations (paleoclimate, paleoceanography) must address potential confounders and alternative interpretations; a single proxy without corroborating evidence is insufficient for a major mechanistic claim. - Cross-disciplinary integration is rewarded: geochemistry + geophysics, oceanography + atmosphere, or proxy records + Earth-system models are the kinds of combinations that win at Nature Geoscience. - Data archiving: datasets must be deposited in an appropriate disciplinary repository (e.g., PANGAEA, SESAR, EarthChem) before or at acceptance; re-check current deposition requirements. ## Structure & house style - Nature Geoscience publishes Articles and Letters (re-check current type options); both are compact relative to specialty-journal norms, with Extended Data and Supplementary Information carrying essential supporting material. - The introduction must establish the Earth-system significance in language accessible to the full geoscience community, not just the sub-discipline: what process or coupling is poorly understood, and how does this paper resolve it? - The central advance must be distillable to one sentence that an oceanographer and a seismologist can both appreciate. - Extended Data figures carry essential supporting data, maps, model diagnostics, and additional proxy records; SI carries full analytical protocols, raw data tables, and model code. - Nature's reporting summary and data/code availability statement are required; re-check current policies for specific deposition obligations by data type. - Figures: maps must include scale bars and geographic context; time-series must clearly label axes with units and age conventions; model output must distinguish observations from model results. ## Official-submission checklist - Before giving submission-ready advice, read `../../resources/source-basis.md` and `../../resources/official-source-map.md`; start from the official source anchors for this journal family, then cite the current journal-specific page you checked. - Search the live site for "Nature Geoscience author instructions" and follow the current Nature Portfolio version. - Re-check article-type definitions and word/figure/Extended Data limits. - Re-check Nature's reporting summary requirements (statistics, reproducibility, datasets, analytical methods). - Confirm data deposition requirements: which repository is appropriate for your data type (PANGAEA, SESAR, EarthChem, IRIS, NCAR, others). - Re-check competing-interests, funding, author-contribution, and AI-use disclosure requirements. - Re-check preprint and embargo policies; coordinate with Nature's press office for high-profile submissions. - If the live official instructions conflict with this skill, the official instructions win. ## Pre-submission self-check - [ ] One sentence stating the Earth-system advance: what process, mechanism, or coupling does this paper establish or revise? - [ ] The significance is legible to the full geoscience community — not only to sub-discipline specialists. - [ ] The dataset or model is placed in a global or system-level context; regional significance alone is insufficient. - [ ] Alternative interpretations are addressed and data quality (uncertainties, calibration) is explicitly documented. - [ ] Data are deposited in the appropriate disciplinary repository; Extended Data and reporting summary are complete. - [ ] The paper is not a record-breaking dataset extension without a conceptual advance. ## Common desk-reject triggers - A regional geochemical or geophysical dataset with no clear Earth-system implication or mechanism — even an excellent dataset. - Extending an existing proxy record or seismic survey with improved resolution but without a new mechanistic interpretation. - Modeling study with an underdocumented model, implausible boundary conditions, or no comparison to observational constraints. - Paleoclimate interpretation based on a single proxy without addressing confounders or providing multi-proxy corroboration. - A paper written exclusively for sub-discipline specialists with no attempt to establish significance for the broader geoscience community. - Climate-dominant framing that is better suited to `nature-climate-change` (especially if impacts, policy, or human dimensions are central). ## Re-routing decision - Climate-focused advance with impacts, adaptation, or policy dimensions → `nature-climate-change`. - Earth-system advance with sustainability/human dimensions → `nature-sustainability`. - Solid-earth geophysics at archival depth → JGR-Solid Earth, Geophysical Research Letters, or Earth and Planetary Science Letters. - Oceanography/atmospheric chemistry at specialty depth → JGR-Oceans, JGR-Atmospheres, or Geophysical Research Letters. - Biogeochemistry with energy/environmental significance → `energy-and-environmental-science` or Global Biogeochemical Cycles. ## Output format ```text [Fit] High / Medium / Low (one-line reason) [Target] Nature Geoscience [Topic tags] <2–3 closest topics> [Method/evidence] [Top risk] [Official items to re-check]
[Re-route suggestion] ```