Nature Publishing Group

Nature Publishing Group (NPG) has established itself as one of the leading publishers in the life sciences with the international journal Nature and a unique catalogue of research and review journals available in print and online. This year NPG is applying its strengths to exploring new publishing models and technologies and to providing high-quality resources for a wider scientific audience, in response to demands from our customers.

In 2005 NPG has launched an open-access model journal, published new journals in physics, chemical biology and clinical medicine, and established new partnerships with leading international societies. NPG has also developed new online technology services.

A key component of NPG's success is its unique and powerful publishing cocktail. NPG has the respect for content, education and information normally associated with a university press; the flexibility, nimbleness and commercial flair of a leading magazine publishing house; and the support provided by a powerful infrastructure that is expected from a major STM player.

New resources for a wider scientific audience

Launched in June 2005, Nature Chemical Biology is the latest addition to the prestigious Nature research journals. Focusing on the interface between chemistry and biology, the journal provides an international forum for the publication of significant new research. It publishes original, communication-length letters and research papers, reviews, commentary, research highlights, news and views, and editorials. The online edition (www.nature.com/nchembio) includes chemical compound information that enables users to view images of the compounds and to link to PubChem.

Cutting-edge physics papers are frequently published in Nature and the community has continually shown demand for a devoted journal by NPG. In October 2005 NPG will launch Nature Physics, a journal dedicated to the publication of top-quality research from all areas of basic and applied physics. Its papers will address the properties, phenomena and interactions of matter and energy that play a key role in the development of many technologies. Sample content is available at www.nature.com/nphys.

NPG launched its clinical review journals in late 2004 with the first in the series of Nature Clinical Practice journals (www.nature.com/clinicalpractice). Each journal translates the latest research developments into clinical practice for practising physicians. Content is highly accessible and is available to users in a variety of formats including PDA devices - a first for NPG. This November, journals in four additional fields will be added to the series.

New partnerships and publishing models

NPG has partnerships with 11 leading learned societies and publishes a strong portfolio of journals on their behalf, covering a range of disciplines, which include basic research and clinical medicine. NPG has recently re-engineered and upgraded the publishing infrastructure to ensure that we offer societies the very best, most cost-effective publishing solutions. New collaborations include a 10-year agreement with the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) to produce a comprehensive publishing portfolio that will serve the international community. NPG will publish Kidney International, the ISN-endorsed Nature Clinical Practice Nephrology, and an educational website.

In collaboration with the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), NPG launched its first author-pays publication in March 2005, Molecular Systems Biology (www.molecularsystemsbiology.com). This online journal publishes full-length papers and synopses that describe original research in the field of molecular systems biology and focuses on the analysis, integration and modelling of molecular and cellular phenomena. Since molecular systems biology relies on a variety of computational and high-throughput technologies, the journal makes full use of the online environment to allow reader interaction with data and models presented in the published articles.

New technology for online users

Demand for advanced web delivery has led NPG to launch an online news service, digitised archives and new web technology. news@nature.com (www.nature.com/news) enjoys the status of the most highly trafficked pages on the nature.com platform, publishing breaking news and extended features from acclaimed columnists and award-winning journalists, as well as blogs and multimedia specials. Digitising the archives is an ongoing project for NPG. The Nature archive is currently available back to 1970 and will be available back to 1950 by late 2006. Access is available back to the first issue for all other Nature-branded journals.

NPG is also testing a bookmark-sharing program developed in-house to enable users to save and share links to online content. The program, known as Connotea, makes it easy to store an entire collection of reference materials in one place by simply saving links. In addition, Connotea recognises links to certain web sites, and automatically collects the bibliographic information for the article or book that is being linked to. Find out more at www.connotea.org.

The nature.com platform boasts new technologies in the form of RSS newsfeeds for users, COUNTER-compliant usage statistics for institutional customers, and online manuscript submissions for authors. NPG is one of the publishers involved in CrossRef Search, making accessing the right information easy for users and administrators.

In moving forward, our mission is to be the publisher of choice for quality and service.

contact details

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7833 4000
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7843 4998
Email: institutions@nature.com
Web: www.nature.com