Submission guidelines

Format of articles

Scientific Reports publishes original research in two formats: Article and Registered Report. For Registered Reports, see section below. In most cases, we do not impose strict limits on word count or page number. However, we strongly recommend that you write concisely and stick to the following guidelines:

  • Articles should ideally be no more than 11 typeset pages
  • The main text should be no more than 4,500 words (not including Abstract, Methods, References and figure legends)
  • The title should be no more than 20 words
  • The abstract should be no more than 200 words

For a definitive list of which limits are mandatory please visit the submission checklist page.

Abstract

Please do not include any references in your Abstract. Make sure it serves both as a general introduction to the topic and as a brief, non-technical summary of the main results and their implications.

Manuscript

Your manuscript text file should start with a title page that shows author affiliations and contact information, identifying the corresponding author with an asterisk. We recommend that each section includes an introduction of referenced text that expands on the background of the work. Some overlap with the Abstract is acceptable.

For the main body of the text, there are no specific requirements. You can organise it in a way that best suits your research. However, the following structure will be suitable in many cases:

  • Introduction
  • Results (with subheadings)
  • Discussion (without subheadings)
  • Methods

You should then follow the main body of text with:

  • References (limited to 60 references, though not strictly enforced)
  • Acknowledgements (optional)
  • Author contributions (names must be given as initials)
  • Additional Information (including a Competing Interests Statement)
  • Figure legends (these are limited to 350 words per figure)
  • Tables (maximum size of one page)

Please note, footnotes should not be used.

You may include a limited number of uncaptioned molecular structure graphics and numbered mathematical equations if necessary. Display items are limited to 8 (figures and/or tables). However, to enable typesetting of papers, we advise making the number of display items commensurate with your overall word length. So, for Articles of 2,000 words or less, we suggest including no more than 4 figures/tables. Please note that schemes should not be used and should be presented as figures instead.

Your submission must also include:

  • A cover letter
  • Individual figure files and optional supplementary information files

For first submissions (i.e. not revised manuscripts), you may incorporate the manuscript text and figures into a single file up to 3 MB in size. Whilst Microsoft Word is preferred we also accept LaTeX, or PDF format. Figures can be inserted in the text at the appropriate positions, or grouped at the end.

Supplementary information should be combined and supplied as a single separate file, preferably in PDF format.

A submission template is available in the Overleaf template gallery to help you prepare a LaTeX manuscript within the Scientific Reports formatting criteria.

Cover letter

In your cover letter, you should include:

  • The affiliation and contact information of your corresponding author
  • A brief explanation of why the work is appropriate for Scientific Reports
  • The names and contact information of any reviewers you consider suitable
  • The names of any referees you would like excluded from reviewing

Finally, you should state whether you have had any prior discussions with a Scientific Reports Editorial Board Member about the work described in your manuscript.

Revised manuscripts

For revised manuscripts, you should provide all textual content in a single file, prepared using either Microsoft Word or LaTeX. Please note, we do not accept PDF files for the article text of revised manuscripts. Make sure you:

  • Format the manuscript file as single-column text without justification.
  • Number the pages using an Arabic numeral in the footer of each page.
  • Use the default Computer Modern fonts for your text, and the ‘symbols’ font for any Greek characters.
  • Supply any figures as individual files.
  • Combine and supply any Supplementary Information as a separate file, preferably in PDF format.
  • Include the title of the manuscript and author list in the first page of the Supplementary Information file.

If you do not wish to incorporate the manuscript text and figures into a single file, please provide all textual content in a separate single file, prepared using either Microsoft Word or LaTeX.

TeX/LaTeX files

If you’re submitting LaTeX files, you can either use the standard ‘Article’ document class (or similar) or the wlscirep.cls file and template provided by Overleaf. For graphics, we recommend your use graphicx.sty. Use numerical references only for citations.

Our system cannot accept .bib files. If you prepare references using BibTeX (which is optional), please include the .bbl file with your submission (as a ‘LaTeX supplementary file’) in order for it to be processed correctly; this file is included automatically in the zip file generated by Overleaf for submissions. Please see this help article on Overleaf for more details.

Alternatively, you can make sure that the references (source code) are included within the manuscript file itself. As a final precaution, you should ensure that the complete .tex file compiles successfully on its own system with no errors or warnings, before submission.

Scroll to Top
Scroll to Top