Editorials

Our Community Voices series aims to highlight the challenges faced by under-represented groups in scientific research and to provide a platform to share possible solutions, to work towards a more diverse and equitable research landscape.

Since its inception 10 years ago Nature Communications has strived to publish papers of high quality and relevance to communities of researchers across the whole of the natural sciences. In more recent years, we have happily seen an increase in the submission and publication of clinical research studies. To serve the clinical community to the best of our ability we have clarified our guide to authors on what we expect to see on submission of clinical research papers and we are launching a Clinical Collection that presents under one umbrella a selection of the interesting papers we have published in this area

The Trojan asteroids in Jupiter’s orbit have been preserved unaltered since the early ages of our Solar System. In October 2021, NASA launched its mission, Lucy, to visit and study these asteroids in order to learn more about the original building blocks that formed our planets.

Single atom catalysts hold the potential to significantly impact the chemical and energy industrial sectors. This editorial introduces the state of the field along with a collection of Articles and Comments that encapsulate the ongoing efforts of the research community in this field.

Air pollution is a cause of disease for millions around the world and now more than ever urgent action is required to tackle the burden of its impacts. Doing so will not only improve both life expectancy and quality of life, but will also lead to a more just and sustainable world.

In the face of an on-going global pandemic and the growing urgency of climate change, the challenge of building an equitable and sustainable world has never been greater. Thus, now more than ever, we want to support and highlight research efforts made at attaining the UN sustainable development goals.

From smartphones to electric vehicles, Li-ion batteries have revolutionized our daily lives. Here, we discuss the most important aspects that have enabled lithium-ion batteries to thrive, and introduce some of our articles that contribute to the evolution of these devices.

Opportunities for early career researchers (ECRs) to engage with the peer review and publication process can be few and far between. Last year, we launched a pilot support programme to introduce ECRs to peer review.

The year 2020 brought unprecedented challenges, and opportunities to reassess and reaffirm our values. As our anniversary year draws to a close, we reflect on achievements and areas for improvement.

Equitable partnerships among the international volcano science community are important now more than ever, to cope with financial disparities and ultimately allow for worldwide volcano monitoring oriented to hazard mitigation.

The publication of a paper on mentorship, now retracted, led us to reflect on our editorial processes and strengthened our determination in supporting diversity, equity and inclusion in research.

Subduction is the primary driver of plate tectonics, yet we still do not fully understand how subduction zones initiate or the budgets of life-supporting elements recycled via subduction. At Nature Communications, we advocate for more transdisciplinary initiatives and collaborative projects, which are essential if we are to continue to bring new dynamics to subduction research.

Lessons learnt from the current pandemic will be invaluable to tackle a potential second wave, however, gaps remain in our readiness to face future pandemics. At Nature Communications we wish to support further research providing insights into how national and international systems could be shaped for increased preparedness to both local or global epidemics.

Computational chemistry methods with an optimal balance between predictive accuracy and computational cost hold major promise for accelerating the discovery of new molecules and materials. We at Nature Communications are eager to continue our engagement in this exciting and rapidly evolving field.

Coastal regions are disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change. Preserving the ecological, economic and societal benefits of these environments will rely on synergy across disciplines.

The robustness of science is best revealed when independent investigations of the same problem arrive at similar conclusions. At Nature Communications, we commit to disregard from our editorial evaluation any competing works that are published while a submission to our journal is under review or under revision by the authors.

Nature Communications are pleased to announce that we are now considering Registered Reports for publication in the fields of cognitive neuroscience, human behaviour and psychology, as well as epidemiology.

Nature Communications encouraged rapid dissemination of results with the launch of Under Consideration in 2017. Today we take one more step by offering an integrated preprint deposition service to our authors as part of the submission process.

Nature Communications launched in April 2010 with the mission to publish significant advances in each field in a multidisciplinary venue. Ten years on, we reflect on our achievements and look at future challenges in a changing publishing landscape.

The amplified warming of the Arctic in recent decades has been related to extreme weather events over the mid-latitudes, but its relative importance compared to other influences is not yet well understood. A Nature Research collection highlights evidence from theoretical and observational studies, as well as implications for future extreme events.