En natsci journal workflow

English natural-science journal workflow (en-natsci-journal-workflow)

Purpose

This is the routing skill. It does not replace a single-journal profile; it first classifies the manuscript by discipline, advance type, evidence shape, and audience breadth, then routes into the matching per-journal skill for fit and re-framing. It is a sibling to en-journal-workflow, which covers the econ / finance / management 100.

Resources to Load When Needed

• If the target family is unclear, read ../../resources/worked-examples/venue-routing.md before choosing a venue.
• If a manuscript sits between broad and specialist venues, read ../../resources/exemplars/selection-patterns.md.
• Before submission-ready advice, use ../../resources/journal-roster.md and ../../resources/official-source-map.md to open the current official author instructions for the chosen journal.

Ask four things first

1. Advance type: a single broadly-significant discovery, a mechanism, a new method/tool, a definitive clinical result, a theoretical/mathematical result, or an authoritative review/synthesis?
2. Evidence shape: molecular/mechanistic experiment, in vivo / animal model, human clinical trial or cohort, observational/field data, simulation/theory, structure determination, benchmark/algorithm, or proof?
3. Audience breadth: all of science (Nature/Science/PNAS), a whole discipline (Nature-subject / society flagship), or a specialty community?
4. Submission goal: swing for a general-science or flagship venue, or optimize topic–venue fit and review odds at a strong specialty journal?

Quick routing

Manuscript signature	Prefer skill
Single advance significant to all science	nature / science / pnas
Solid complete advance, broad but not flagship	nature-communications / science-advances / national-science-review / the-innovation
Complete mechanistic molecular story	cell / molecular-cell / nature-cell-biology / the-embo-journal
Genetics / genomics / functional genomics	nature-genetics / genome-biology / nucleic-acids-research
New method / tool / platform	nature-methods / nature-biotechnology
Stem cell / cancer biology / metabolism	cell-stem-cell / cancer-cell / cell-metabolism / developmental-cell
Immunology mechanism	immunity / nature-immunology / science-immunology / journal-of-experimental-medicine
Microbiology / host–microbe / microbiome	nature-microbiology / cell-host-and-microbe
Neuroscience / human behaviour	neuron / nature-neuroscience / nature-human-behaviour / molecular-psychiatry
Ecology / evolution / plant	nature-ecology-and-evolution / ecology-letters / molecular-biology-and-evolution / the-plant-cell / nature-plants→the-plant-cell
Open-access general biology	elife / plos-biology / current-biology
Practice-changing clinical trial, general medicine	nejm / the-lancet / jama / the-bmj / annals-of-internal-medicine
Translational mechanism-to-bedside	nature-medicine / science-translational-medicine / journal-of-clinical-investigation
Oncology (clinical / translational)	journal-of-clinical-oncology / the-lancet-oncology / cancer-discovery / annals-of-oncology→journal-of-clinical-oncology
Cardiology	circulation / journal-of-the-american-college-of-cardiology / european-heart-journal
GI / hematology / ID / neurology / diabetes	gastroenterology / gut / blood / the-lancet-infectious-diseases / the-lancet-neurology / diabetes-care
Public-health / OA medicine	plos-medicine / the-bmj
Physics Letter, broad + immediate	physical-review-letters / physical-review-x
Condensed matter / particles-gravitation	physical-review-b / physical-review-d
Physics conceptual advance / photonics / quantum	nature-physics / nature-photonics / prx-quantum
Authoritative physics review	reviews-of-modern-physics / reports-on-progress-in-physics
Astronomy / astrophysics	nature-astronomy / the-astrophysical-journal / monthly-notices-of-the-royal-astronomical-society
Broad chemistry, significant + general	journal-of-the-american-chemical-society / angewandte-chemie-international-edition / nature-chemistry
Catalysis / nano / Cell-Press chemistry	nature-catalysis / acs-nano / nature-nanotechnology / chem
Authoritative chemistry review	chemical-reviews / chemical-society-reviews / accounts-of-chemical-research
Materials / energy	nature-materials / advanced-materials / nature-energy / joule / energy-and-environmental-science
Earth / climate / sustainability / environment	nature-geoscience / nature-climate-change / nature-sustainability / one-earth / environmental-science-and-technology
AI/ML / robotics / CV methods	nature-machine-intelligence / science-robotics / ieee-transactions-on-pattern-analysis-and-machine-intelligence / journal-of-machine-learning-research
Pure mathematics, top result	annals-of-mathematics / inventiones-mathematicae / journal-of-the-american-mathematical-society

Sibling-Journal Disambiguation

Confusable targets	Decision rule
Nature/Science/Cell/PNAS vs specialist venues	Use broad venues only when the advance changes a field-wide model or practice; completeness alone is not enough.
NEJM/Lancet/JAMA/BMJ vs specialty clinical venues	General medicine needs practice-changing clinical evidence; disease-area nuance often belongs in specialty journals.
JACS/Angewandte/Nature Chemistry vs ACS Catalysis/materials venues	Decide whether the central advance is molecular chemistry, catalysis mechanism, or materials/device performance.
PRL/Nature Physics/Physical Review family	Route by immediacy and conceptual physics breadth, then by subfield and article format.
Mathematics vs physics vs CS	Theorem, physical insight, and algorithmic benchmark are different products; pick the reviewer community that evaluates the main claim.

Decision rules

• Significance before submission. Nature/Science/Cell/PNAS triage most papers before review on "broad significance." If the advance is solid but incremental, route to the strong specialty or open-access multidisciplinary venue rather than burning a flagship desk-reject.
• "First to report X" is not a contribution at flagship venues — name the conceptual advance, the mechanism, or the definitive evidence.
• Descriptive ≠ mechanistic. A correlation, an omics catalogue, or a structure with no functional insight routes below Cell/Nature-subject; add mechanism or route to a data-resource venue.
• Clinical evidence hierarchy. A practice-changing randomized trial belongs at NEJM/Lancet/JAMA; an observational cohort or secondary analysis usually routes to a society specialty journal. Trial registration + the right reporting checklist (CONSORT/PRISMA/STROBE) are prerequisites, not nice-to-haves.
• Review vs. primary. Reviews of Modern Physics, Chemical Reviews, Accounts of Chemical Research, CA, and Trends are largely invited — do not route an unsolicited primary-data paper there.
• Format gates. A PRL must fit the Letter length limit; a Nature/Cell paper must survive editorial triage; an eLife paper enters the Reviewed-Preprint model.
• Always enter the single-journal skill's official-submission checklist before submitting; never rely on a stale template.

Output format

[Top journal skill] <skill-name>
[Alt 1] <skill-name> (reason)
[Alt 2] <skill-name> (reason)
[Do not submit to] <journal> (one-line mismatch reason)
[Biggest current gap] significance / mechanism / evidence / reporting-checklist / formatting / official requirements
[Next step] invoke <skill-name> for single-venue fit and re-framing