Editorials in 2022

Since 2020 Nature Communications has been considering Registered Reports for publication in the areas of cognitive neuroscience, human behaviour and psychology, and epidemiology. We are excited to announce the publication of our first Registered Report. With this milestone, we also want to open the format to all other areas of research.

Rigorous, robust replication and generalization studies present a significant investment into the quality of the research record, the foundation on which new research is built. Communications Psychology and the Human Behaviour Team at Nature Communications are inviting submissions of replication studies in psychology and the human behavioural sciences.

Starting in 2016, we have offered authors the option to publish the comments received from the reviewers and their responses alongside the paper. As we believe that transparency strengthens the quality of peer review, we are now moving to publish the exchanges between authors and reviewers for all research articles submitted from November 2022 onward and accepted for publication. Referees will still have the option to remain completely anonymous, to sign their reports, and/or to choose to be acknowledged by name as part of our reviewer recognition scheme.

Over the last two and a half years, Nature Communications has received thousands of submissions related to the COVID-19 pandemic and accepted hundreds for publication. To showcase the breadth and quality of this work, we are now launching a COVID-19 Collection, and here we reflect on our editorial processes during this period.

Recent development of analytical techniques – capable of characterizing physicochemical properties during electrochemical measurements – enables new pathways for improving the fundamental understanding of battery systems. This editorial highlights recent research efforts showcasing operando approaches published in Nature Communications.

In this editorial, we present a checklist that aims to improve the data reproducibility in the field of electrochemical N₂ fixation.

To highlight and support research in the important area of child health, the editors at Nature Communications and Communications Medicine invite submissions to a collection of papers on this subject, including infectious diseases, cancer, and neurodevelopment and neurodiversity.

Our peer review programme was launched in 2020 to support Early Career Researchers in building confidence to participate in peer review. The initiative has proved very successful and popular with both ECRs and editors and we are pleased to invite applicants to apply to our 2022 programme.

For nearly a decade, Nature Portfolio journals have asked for information about sex and gender in research studies, and more recently, we have also encouraged authors to use the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines in their work. We are now updating our guidance and practice so that authors are more clearly and actively encouraged to report on select items within the SAGER guidelines.

Graphene and related two-dimensional (2D) materials have been at the core of intense research and development for over fifteen years, however the market penetration of products based on this technology has lagged behind expectations. At Nature Communications we wish to support research providing insights into the path towards the industrialisation of 2D materials. We introduce a Collection that encapsulates the recent progress and outstanding challenges faced by research on atomically thin materials, and we focus, in particular, on the potential of 2D technologies for future impact at the commercial level.

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.