--- name: nature-neuroscience description: Use when targeting Nature Neuroscience (Nat Neurosci) or deciding whether a neuroscience 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 Neuroscience (nature-neuroscience) ## Journal positioning Nature Neuroscience, published by Springer Nature, is among the most selective journals in the field, publishing conceptual advances in neuroscience across all scales — from molecules and synapses to circuits, systems, and behavior. It sits one tier below Nature in the Springer Nature hierarchy but above specialty society journals, and commands the full editorial-triage culture of the Nature family: most submissions are triaged without review based on significance and conceptual novelty alone. The readership spans the whole neuroscience community, so a paper must matter beyond its model organism, brain region, or technical niche. 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 nature.com/neuro. ## When to trigger - The author names Nature Neuroscience or Nat Neurosci as the target venue. - A neuroscience manuscript represents a clear conceptual advance and the author is calibrating among Nature Neuroscience, Neuron, or Nature. - A study uses a novel technology (two-photon imaging, large-scale electrophysiology, cryo-EM of neural proteins, spatial transcriptomics) to answer a field-defining circuit or behavioral question. - The author needs Nature Neuroscience's triage criteria, significance bar, and a credible reroute within neuroscience. ## Scope & topic fit - Circuit neuroscience: neural circuit mechanisms underlying behavior, decision-making, memory, and perception — particularly where circuit dissection connects to behavioral output. - Cellular and molecular neuroscience: synapse biology, neuronal development, glial biology, and axon-dendrite mechanisms with field-advancing conceptual reach. - Systems and cognitive neuroscience: large-scale neural dynamics, coding, and computation — only when the biological question is central and the advance is conceptual, not purely methodological. - Disease-relevant neuroscience: mechanism-of-disease studies in neurological or psychiatric conditions are welcome when the basic-science insight is primary and clinically actionable findings are secondary. - New technologies are publishable here when the tool enables a field-shifting biological discovery, not as a pure methods/tool paper. ## Method & evidence bar - Single-paper conceptual advance: the contribution must shift the field's understanding of a core neural principle, not just add a data point to an established narrative. - Multi-scale validation is expected for circuit papers: anatomy + physiology + behavior, or equivalent combinatorial evidence. - Genetic tools (optogenetics, chemogenetics, conditional KO, AAV-mediated manipulation) are now standard; they must be properly controlled (opsin-negative controls, off-target assessment). - Human neuroscience (fMRI, EEG, MEG, human electrophysiology) is publishable when the neuroscientific question and design are rigorous — pure cognitive psychology without neural mechanism does not fit. - Nature family reporting requirements: Life Sciences Reporting Summary must be completed; statistics (sample sizes, tests, exact n values) reported per Nature guidelines. ## Structure & house style - Nature Neuroscience uses the standard Nature family format: an unstructured abstract, main text with Results and Discussion integrated or separated, a short Methods section in the main paper, and extended Methods in supplemental. - Extended Data (up to 10 extended data figure panels) carries additional experimental validation; Supplementary Information is for large datasets, code, and ancillary materials. - The abstract must convey the conceptual advance — not just the technical approach — in the first two sentences; the final sentence should state the broader implication. - Significance statement or editor's summary may be requested for press-release consideration. - Nature family requires a data availability statement and a code availability statement with repository links. ## 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 Neuroscience author information" and follow the current Springer Nature version. - Re-check article types: Articles (standard), Letters have been phased out in many Nature titles — confirm current format and length expectations. - Complete the Life Sciences Reporting Summary: this is mandatory and covers experimental design, sample sizes, randomization, blinding, statistical tests, and inclusion/exclusion criteria. - Confirm data availability: raw data deposition (electrophysiology, imaging, sequencing) in appropriate public repositories with accession numbers. - Verify code availability for any custom analysis; confirm Nature family AI-use policy and competing-interests disclosure. - Check preprint policy: Nature journals generally allow preposting on bioRxiv — verify current details. - If the live official instructions conflict with this skill, the official instructions win. ## Pre-submission self-check - [ ] One sentence stating the conceptual principle advanced — not the technique used or the brain region studied. - [ ] The framing positions the paper against the two or three most recent advances in Nature Neuroscience, Neuron, or Nature that define the open question. - [ ] Multi-scale evidence is assembled: the central claim is supported by anatomical, physiological, and behavioral (or equivalent) convergent data. - [ ] Life Sciences Reporting Summary is drafted; all n values, statistical tests, and blinding/randomization procedures are specified. - [ ] Extended Data is organized to carry the full validation story independently of the main figures. ## Common desk-reject triggers - Incremental advances in an established circuit or behavioral paradigm without a new conceptual principle — "adding another piece" to a well-characterized circuit does not meet the triage threshold. - Technology-centric papers that demonstrate a new method (new virus, new opsin, new probe) without using it to answer a field-defining biological question. - Studies confined to a single species/brain region where the advance is described but not explicitly generalized to a broader neural principle interpretable by the whole field. - Missing or inadequate Life Sciences Reporting Summary — Nature editorial offices check for this at submission and flag it before sending to reviewers. - Human fMRI or psychophysics studies without a clear mechanistic neural hypothesis and corresponding neural data; behavioral-only studies belong at Nature Human Behaviour. - Descriptive anatomical or transcriptomic characterizations (cell-type catalogues) without functional dissection of circuit or behavioral relevance. ## Re-routing decision - Equally high-impact neuroscience with broader multidisciplinary significance → `nature` or `science`. - Outstanding neuroscience but editorial threshold for Nature Neuroscience not cleared → `neuron` (Cell Press flagship) or `current-biology`. - Human behavioral or cognitive science (no direct neural data) → `nature-human-behaviour` or Psychological Science. - Disease-mechanism framing is primary → `nature-medicine` or `molecular-psychiatry`. ## Output format ```text [Fit] High / Medium / Low (one-line reason) [Target] Nature Neuroscience [Topic tags] <2–3 closest topics> [Method/evidence] [Top risk] [Official items to re-check] [Re-route suggestion] ```