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《自然通訊》是一本開放獲取的多學科期刊，致力于出版生物、物理、化學和地球科學所有領域的高質量研究。該雜志發表的論文代表了對每個領域的專家都具有重要意義的重要進展。該期刊的范圍反映了自然出版集團在自然科學領域的核心實力，包括自然研究期刊服務于發表最杰出的以社區為重點的研究論文的領域。此外，《自然通訊》鼓勵在沒有專門的《自然研究雜志》代表的領域提交論文;例如發育生物學、植物科學、微生物學、生態學和進化、古生物學和天文學。編輯們特別歡迎來自跨學科領域的投稿，包括生物物理學、生物工程、化學物理學和環境科學，盡管沒有任何領域被排除在外。在所有情況下，發表在《自然通訊》上的論文都將是高質量的，不一定具有發表在《自然》和《自然研究期刊》上的論文的科學范圍。自然傳播致力于為作者和讀者提供高效的服務。一個精簡的同行評審系統，加上編輯顧問小組的支持，允許獨立的編輯團隊做出快速和公平的出版決策。透過持續的網上出版計劃，可迅速向《自然》出版集團的廣大讀者及其他人士發放已獲接納的論文。創新的web技術，包括交互式瀏覽和高效的數據和文本挖掘，增強了出版的手稿。《自然通訊》是獨立于編輯的，其編輯將獨立于其他《自然》雜志作出自己的決定。只有作者才能決定在何處提交他們的手稿。《自然》雜志將繼續發表科學上最重要的進展，《自然》研究期刊將發表其特定社區感興趣的具有里程碑意義的論文。《自然通訊》將發表來自各個科學領域的高質量論文，這些論文代表了特定科學學科的重要進展，但不一定具有發表在《自然》和《自然研究期刊》上的論文的科學影響力。對于能夠同時滿足多個自然期刊的論文，先提交哪一種期刊由作者選擇。如果一篇論文被《自然》雜志拒絕發表，作者可以使用自動稿件傳輸服務，通過編輯發送給他們的鏈接將論文提交給《自然》通訊。作者應注意，審稿人的“”“”“”“”“”評論(包括對編輯的任何保密評論)和身份將隨稿件一起移交給第二期刊的編輯。期刊編輯在做決定時將考慮先前的評論，盡管在某些情況下，編輯可能會選擇聽取其他審稿人的意見。或者，作者可以選擇請求一個新的評審，在這種情況下，他們不應該使用自動轉換鏈接，編輯將在不參考以前的評審過程的情況下評估文章。《自然通訊》與其他《自然》雜志的不同之處在于，編輯在決定是否審閱稿件時，偶爾會征求編輯顧問小組成員的意見。有關編輯咨詢小組的進一步信息可在作者指南中找到。