Nature Astronomy

About Nature Astronomy

Nature Astronomy: Journal Overview

Nature Astronomy is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature) that publishes research, reviews and commentary at the cutting edge of astronomy, astrophysics and planetary science (source: nature.com/natastron/about, accessed 10 October 2026). A distinctive feature of the journal is its emphasis on promoting closer interaction between diverse astronomy-relevant disciplines: it describes itself as consulting widely with researchers at all career stages, and notes that more than one third of its commissioned authors are women (source: nature.com/natastron/about, accessed 10 October 2026).

The journal operates under the Nature Portfolio editorial model: every editorial decision is made by a team of full-time professional editors with research backgrounds rather than external academic editors (source: nature.com/natastron/about, accessed 10 October 2026). It is published online-only and monthly, with articles released as soon as they are ready rather than held for issues — a design the journal says enables swift dissemination across the astronomy community (source: nature.com/natastron/about, accessed 10 October 2026). The correct abbreviation for abstracting and indexing purposes is Nat. Astron., and the electronic ISSN (eISSN) is 2397-3366 (source: nature.com/natastron/about, accessed 10 October 2026).

Citation-wise, Nature Astronomy is among the most-cited journals in its field. The journal's official metrics dashboard reports a Journal Impact Factor of 15.2 (2025) with a 5-year Impact Factor of 14.9 (2025) (source: nature.com/natastron/journal-impact, accessed 10 October 2026). A secondary summary of the Journal Citation Reports places the journal's 2024 Impact Factor at 13.9, ranking it 5th out of 69 journals in the "Astronomy & Astrophysics" category — the leading primary-research journal in the discipline, with the four journals ahead of it all being review journals (secondary summary: Wikipedia citing Journal Citation Reports, accessed 10 October 2026).

History

Nature Astronomy was launched with Volume 1, Issue 1 dated January 2017, although the first content appeared online in December 2016 (secondary summary: Wikipedia, accessed 10 October 2026; a phys.org journal listing describes it as a "new online-only journal, publishing monthly from January 2017"). The founding Chief Editor was May Chiao, who had previously been a Senior Editor at Nature Physics responsible for its astrophysics content and had earlier edited for Nature and Nature Materials (source: nature.com/natastron/about/editors, accessed 10 October 2026). A sister-journal editorial in Nature Physics announcing the launch noted that Chiao had been part of the team that launched Nature Physics itself and stayed for more than ten years handling an editorial brief that included astrophysics (source: nature.com editorial "A new launch", Nat. Phys., January 2017). The other founding editors were Paul Woods, Luca Maltagliati and Marios Karouzos (secondary summary: Wikipedia citing the journal, accessed 10 October 2026).

The launch rationale, as framed by the editors, was that astronomy had featured strongly throughout Nature's own history — the journal's aims page recalls reports of the first quasar, the first exoplanet and the nature of spiral nebulae in Nature's pages — and that a dedicated journal would enable expanded, integrated coverage bringing astronomers, astrophysicists and planetary scientists together in one place (sources: nature.com/natastron/aims, via search 10 October 2026; nature.com editorial "A new launch", January 2017).

Two years after launch, in a retrospective interview, Chief Editor May Chiao said the journal's core intention — bringing the astronomy, astrophysics and planetary science communities together — had been realised, with issues filled with research across all three areas (source: springernature.com The Link blog, "Nature Astronomy, Two Years On: A Retrospective", March 2019). The same retrospective highlighted several signature early initiatives: coordinated publication of the first results of NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission across four journals (Nature, Nature Astronomy, Nature Geoscience and Nature Communications); policy debates such as naming conventions for exoplanets that brought astronomers and planetary scientists together; a launch-year Focus collection on gender equity highlighting the lack of balance at all levels of research; and a series of Comments on astronomy as an agent for development and inclusion, hosted on a cross-portfolio "grand challenges" platform connected to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (source: springernature.com The Link blog, March 2019).

Leadership changed in 2024: Paul Woods, who had been with the journal since its launch, became Chief Editor in 2024, succeeding May Chiao, who moved to Nature Reviews Physics (source: nature.com/natastron/about/editors, accessed 10 October 2026; a journal editorial "Under new management" marked the eighth anniversary of the journal's opening to submissions with the same transition, source: nature.com search result, accessed 10 October 2026).

Aims & Scope

The journal describes astronomy as arguably the oldest science and notes its strong historical presence in Nature's pages — citing the first quasar, the first exoplanet and the nature of spiral nebulae as examples of advances first reported there (source: nature.com/natastron/aims, via search 10 October 2026). The launch of Nature Astronomy was intended to expand coverage of the modern discipline, welcoming research across astronomy, astrophysics and planetary science with the goal of fostering closer interaction between researchers in each area. As with all Nature-branded journals, the editors emphasise professional editing, fair and rigorous peer review, high standards of copy-editing and production, swift publication and editorial independence (source: nature.com/natastron/aims, via search 10 October 2026).

Beyond original research, the journal publishes Comments, Reviews, News and Views, Features and Correspondence spanning the full range of astronomy-related disciplines and drawing on a wide range of voices (source: nature.com/natastron/aims, via search 10 October 2026). The official scope list covers:

• Observational astronomy
• Theoretical astrophysics
• Computational techniques in astrophysics
• Instrumentation and techniques
• Planetary science
• Exoplanets
• Solar & stellar physics
• Interplanetary & interstellar medium
• Galactic & extragalactic astronomy
• High energy astrophysics
• Cosmology
• Astrochemistry
• Astronomical big data

(source: nature.com/natastron/aims, via search 10 October 2026)

Leadership and Editorial Team

All editorial decisions are made by full-time professional editors. The current team, as listed on the journal's official editors page (source: nature.com/natastron/about/editors, accessed 10 October 2026), comprises:

• Chief Editor — Paul Woods, PhD. Gained his PhD in astrophysics from UMIST/University of Manchester in 2005, including a two-year studentship at the European Southern Observatory in Chile, and subsequently pursued research at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Jodrell Bank (University of Manchester), University College London and Queen's University Belfast. His principal research interest has been interstellar chemistry and dust — studying the complex chemistries and mineralogies of hot cores, protoplanetary discs, AGB stars and planetary nebulae both observationally and theoretically. For Nature Astronomy, he primarily covers stars, the Galaxy and local galaxies, including transients such as fast radio bursts, gamma-ray bursts and tidal disruption events. He has been with the journal since its launch and became Chief Editor in 2024, based in the London office.
• Senior Editor — Luca Maltagliati, PhD. Worked on solar physics at the Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri (Florence, Italy) before switching to planetary science for his doctorate on the Martian water cycle using Mars Express observations at the Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the LATMOS laboratory (Guyancourt, France). He then studied Titan's atmosphere and surface with Cassini observations at the Observatoire de Paris and the Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique, before returning to the Observatoire de Paris to work on the Exoplanet.eu database. His main expertise is atmospheric physics and the climate of terrestrial planets, observed via remote-sensing spectrometry. He has been with the journal since its launch and is based in London.
• Associate Editor — Bokyoung Kim, PhD. Completed her MSci at Ewha Womans University, Korea (optical high-resolution spectroscopy of nearby Sun-like stars), earned her PhD in astronomy at Georgia State University, USA (data-driven research on nearby low-mass main-sequence stars and their remnants), and held a postdoctoral research associateship at the Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, UK, analysing the kinematics and chemistry of stars in the Galactic thick disk and halo. Her interests include Galactic dynamics and archaeology, low-mass stars, stellar multiplicities, spectroscopic surveys, space sustainability and climate change. Joined the team in 2025; based in London.
• Associate Editor — Lindsay Oldham, PhD. Following a research assistantship at the Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik in Garching, Germany, she completed her PhD at the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, UK, developing methods to disentangle the dark and luminous mass structure of early-type galaxies. She then held postdoctoral positions at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (USA) and the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at the University of Portsmouth (UK), developing an interest in nearby strong gravitational lenses as probes of cosmology. At Nature Astronomy she covers extragalactic astronomy and cosmology. Joined the team in 2024; based in London.

Former team members (as listed on the official editors page, source: nature.com/natastron/about/editors, accessed 10 October 2026):

• May Chiao, PhD — Chief Editor from the journal's launch in 2016 until 2024; previously Senior Editor for Nature Physics (astrophysics), with earlier editing experience at Nature and Nature Materials. Earned her PhD in 1999 from McGill University in low-temperature physics after working in radio astronomy with the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope group in Canada, followed by postdoctoral research at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, and the Solid State Laboratory at ETH-Zürich. She now works for Nature Reviews Physics.
• Morgan Hollis, PhD — joined the team in 2021 as Senior Editor (covering extragalactic astronomy, theoretical astrophysics and cosmology); previously deputy press officer at the Royal Astronomical Society and an assistant editor at Monthly Notices of the RAS; PhD from University College London on atmospheric characterisation of exoplanets. Left the journal in summer 2024.
• Marios Karouzos, PhD — Senior Editor who came via Seoul National University (work on active galactic nuclei) after doctoral research at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn; expertise in galaxy and supermassive black hole evolution. Left the editorial team in 2021 and now works in the Publishing team.
• Sayali Avachat, PhD — locum Associate Editor in 2023 (based in the Washington DC office); PhD in Space Sciences from the Florida Institute of Technology (2016); interests in active galactic nuclei, fundamental physics and numerical modelling of extragalactic jets; previously worked at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA, India) and the Maryland Science Center, Baltimore.

Editorial Process and Peer Review

The journal promotes a robust peer-review process designed to ensure quality, fairness and balance, which typically involves three referees (source: nature.com/natastron/about, accessed 10 October 2026). Editorial handling is entirely in the hands of the professional editorial team: these PhD scientists make all decisions and also provide input on the structure, clarity and language of every article, while in-house art editors work on the figures (source: nature.com/natastron/about, accessed 10 October 2026).

Speed. The journal's official metrics dashboard reports a median of 13 days from submission to first editorial decision and a median of 176 days from submission to acceptance (which includes all peer review and revision time) (source: nature.com/natastron/journal-impact, accessed 10 October 2026). Because the journal is online-only, articles are published as soon as they are ready, which the editors describe as enabling swift dissemination across the astronomy community (source: nature.com/natastron/about, accessed 10 October 2026).

Preprints and sharing. Authors may expand the reach of their work by posting preprints on repositories such as arXiv (or institutional equivalents) and by sharing the published PDF through Springer Nature's free SharedIt initiative (source: nature.com/natastron/about, accessed 10 October 2026). The journal states that it works to ensure articles are easily discoverable, accessible, understandable, usable and shareable, so that they can have maximum impact and act as springboards for further discovery (source: nature.com/natastron/about, accessed 10 October 2026).

The journal does not publish a current acceptance rate. (Qualification: no official acceptance-rate figure was found on the journal's pages as of 10 October 2026; acceptance-related figures should not be inferred from third-party aggregators.)

Metrics: Impact Factor, Citations, Speed and Usage

The journal publishes an official metrics dashboard. The following figures are for 2025, as displayed by the journal (source: nature.com/natastron/journal-impact, accessed 10 October 2026):

Historical context: a secondary summary of the Journal Citation Reports puts the journal's 2024 Impact Factor at 13.9, ranking it 5th out of 69 journals in the "Astronomy & Astrophysics" category — ahead of every other primary-research journal in the category, with only review journals ranking above it (secondary summary: Wikipedia citing Journal Citation Reports, accessed 10 October 2026). Figures are updated annually; readers should check the journal's official metrics page for current values.

Springer Nature is a signatory of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). The metrics page notes that because small numbers of highly cited articles can disproportionately influence measures like the two-year Impact Factor, citation measures are not necessarily measures of journal quality — authors and readers should consider a range of metrics when evaluating journals (source: nature.com/natastron/journal-impact, accessed 10 October 2026).

Submission Guidelines

The journal's official content-types page gives formatting details for each accepted content type (paraphrased; source: nature.com/natastron/about/content, accessed 10 October 2026):

• Article: a substantial novel research study, often with a complex story involving several techniques or approaches. Main text up to 3,000 words (excluding abstract, Methods, references and figure captions); unreferenced abstract up to 200 words; up to 6 display items (figures/tables) in the main text plus up to 10 Extended Data items; main text structured as Introduction (unheaded), Results, Discussion and Methods, with Results and Methods divided by topical subheadings; references typically up to 50 in the main text and another 50 in Methods; includes received/accepted dates; peer reviewed; may carry Supplementary Information including data and video files.
• Analysis: examines existing data or describes new data from a comparative study, leading to novel conclusions of broad importance. Formatted like an Article, but divided into 4–6 sections with topical section headings (generic headings such as "Introduction/Results/Discussion" avoided; the final heading should be "Conclusions"; headings under 60 characters including spaces).
• Review: an authoritative, balanced, scholarly survey of recent developments in a research field; scope should be broad enough not to be dominated by one group's work. Main text 3,000–4,000 words; illustrations encouraged; up to 100 references; citations should be selective, with short annotations encouraged for the most important studies (up to ~10% of references); includes received/accepted dates; peer-reviewed.
• Perspective: for scholarly reviews and discussions too technical for a Comment but not meeting Review criteria — for example narrow scope, advocacy of a controversial position, or discussion focused primarily on one group's work. Two Reviews on opposing sides of a controversy are normally published as Perspectives. Up to 3,000 words; up to 50 references; usually peer-reviewed.
• Correspondence: a forum for comment on issues relevant to the journal's community; not for presenting research data or analysis. 300–800 words; 1 display item; up to 15 references (article titles omitted); peer review at the editors' discretion. Note: technical comments on peer-reviewed research papers belong in Matters Arising, not Correspondence.
• Matters Arising: exceptionally interesting and timely scientific comments and clarifications on original research papers published in Nature Astronomy, ideally based on contemporary knowledge rather than subsequent developments; has its own specialist submission process.

Other formats include Comment (flexible format on scientific, commercial, ethical, legal, societal or political issues — topical, readable, provocative, accessible; Q&A and World View are commissioned Comment subtypes); News & Views (not peer reviewed; unsolicited contributions not normally considered); Meeting Reports; Books & Arts reviews; Feature (up to 3,000 words, journalistic style); and Obituary (by prior arrangement; not peer-reviewed) (source: nature.com/natastron/about/content, accessed 10 October 2026).

Two distinctive regular columns deserve special mention:

• Mission Control — a single-page article focusing on the technical aspects of an astronomical instrument, mission or telescope; normally commissioned and usually written by the Principal Investigator or mission/instrument scientist; up to ~650 words with one figure (landscape preferred) and up to 10 short-form references; written in a technical style focused on instrumentation rather than science.
• Access Code — a single-page article focusing on a particular model or simulation widely used within the astronomical community (open source; software such as data-reduction or plotting packages is not eligible); normally commissioned from the original code author; up to ~800 words with a code snippet and up to 10 references; written in an informal style answering four set questions about the code's origin, objective and future plans.

(source: nature.com/natastron/about/content, accessed 10 October 2026)

APC and Open Access Options

Nature Astronomy operates a hybrid publishing model. Authors submitting primary research articles (such as Articles and Analyses) can choose between the traditional subscription-based publishing route and gold open access, under which the article is made freely available online at publication and an Article Processing Charge (APC) is paid by the author's institution or funder on acceptance (source: nature.com/natastron/our-publishing-models, via search 10 October 2026).

An important restriction: non-primary research articles — such as Reviews, Comments and News & Views — should not contain original, previously unpublished research findings (only minimal new supporting data) and are not eligible for gold open access; they are published via the subscription route only (sources: nature.com/natastron/our-publishing-models, via search 10 October 2026; nature.com/natastron/about/content, accessed 10 October 2026).

Open access articles in Nature Astronomy are published under a CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International) licence or a CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International) licence — the former permitting sharing and adaptation for any purpose including commercially with credit, the latter permitting non-commercial sharing with credit while requiring permission for commercial re-use or derivatives. IGO (intergovernmental organisation) licence versions are available on request where an author's employer requires them (source: nature.com/natastron/editorial-policies/self-archiving-and-license-to-publish, via search 10 October 2026).

The journal's self-archiving policies are described as compatible with the vast majority of funders' open access and self-archiving mandates. Authors whose funders require immediate open access (for example under Plan S principles or the NIH public access policy) are directed to select the gold open-access route, since the subscription route's licensing terms include an embargo period and are not suitable for no-embargo mandates (sources: nature.com/natastron/our-publishing-models and nature.com/natastron/editorial-policies/self-archiving-and-license-to-publish, via search 10 October 2026).

APC figure: no official standalone APC amount for Nature Astronomy was verified on the journal's own pages during this research (checked 10 October 2026). APCs are determined at acceptance, are subject to VAT/local taxes where applicable, and may be covered by Springer Nature's institutional open access agreements or waivers — authors should verify the current charge on the journal's official open access pages before submitting, rather than relying on any third-party listing (note on omission: a specific APC number is deliberately not stated here because no official figure was confirmed).

Notable Content and Community Initiatives

Early signature coverage included coordinated publication of the first results from NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid mission across four journals — Nature, Nature Astronomy, Nature Geoscience and Nature Communications — illustrating the portfolio-collaboration model the editors had set out to build (source: springernature.com The Link blog, "Nature Astronomy, Two Years On: A Retrospective", March 2019).

The journal has also hosted debates intended to bridge communities and disciplines. Examples cited by the editors include a policy debate on exoplanet naming conventions that brought astronomers and planetary scientists together, and a launch-year Focus collection on gender equity highlighting the enduring lack of balance at all levels of research — an initiative the founding Chief Editor said she was particularly proud of (source: springernature.com The Link blog, March 2019). A series of Comments on astronomy as an agent for development and inclusion was hosted on a cross-portfolio "grand challenges" platform connected to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (source: springernature.com The Link blog, March 2019).

On the diversity front, the journal states that it consults widely with researchers at all career stages and that more than one third of its commissioned authors are women (source: nature.com/natastron/about, accessed 10 October 2026).

Nature Portfolio Family Context

Nature Astronomy is one of the Nature-branded research journals published by Nature Portfolio, the portfolio of journals, databases and services published by Springer Nature (source: nature.com, accessed 10 October 2026). Its 2017 launch was welcomed by sister journals as a deliberate effort to bring astronomers, astrophysicists and planetary scientists together in one place — astronomy content that had long been published in Nature itself (whose founder and first editor, Sir Norman Lockyer, was an astronomer), supplemented by astrophysics and planetary science in Nature Physics and Nature Geoscience (source: nature.com editorial "A new launch", Nat. Phys., January 2017).

Within the physical-sciences portfolio, the editors describe a collaborative model: Nature Astronomy works with Nature and sister titles to facilitate paper transfers between the journals so manuscripts find their best home, and to publish coordinated packages of papers (such as the OSIRIS-REx results) across titles (source: springernature.com The Link blog, March 2019). The journal positions itself as one of the only truly international astronomy journals, with editorial offices worldwide (source: springernature.com The Link blog, March 2019).

Key Facts at a Glance

(Sources for the table: nature.com/natastron/about, nature.com/natastron/journal-impact, nature.com/natastron/about/editors, nature.com/natastron/aims — all accessed 10 October 2026; indexing summary from Wikipedia citing the journal, accessed 10 October 2026.)

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Nature Astronomy?

Nature Astronomy is a monthly online-only peer-reviewed journal published by Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature), covering research, reviews and commentary at the cutting edge of astronomy, astrophysics and planetary science (source: nature.com/natastron/about, accessed 10 October 2026).

When was Nature Astronomy launched?

The journal's first issue (Volume 1, Issue 1) was dated January 2017, with the first content appearing online in December 2016 (secondary summary: Wikipedia, accessed 10 October 2026; phys.org journal listing).

Who founded Nature Astronomy?

The founding Chief Editor was May Chiao, previously a Senior Editor at Nature Physics handling astrophysics, with earlier editing experience at Nature and Nature Materials. The other founding editors were Paul Woods, Luca Maltagliati and Marios Karouzos (sources: nature.com/natastron/about/editors, accessed 10 October 2026; secondary summary: Wikipedia citing the journal).

Who is the current Chief Editor of Nature Astronomy?

Dr. Paul Woods, an astrophysicist (PhD, UMIST/University of Manchester, 2005) who previously researched at NASA JPL, Jodrell Bank, UCL and Queen's University Belfast. He has been with the journal since its launch and became Chief Editor in 2024, succeeding May Chiao (source: nature.com/natastron/about/editors, accessed 10 October 2026).

What is the impact factor of Nature Astronomy?

According to the journal's official metrics dashboard, the 2025 Journal Impact Factor is 15.2, with a 5-year Impact Factor of 14.9. The 2024 Impact Factor was 13.9, ranking the journal 5th out of 69 journals in the JCR "Astronomy & Astrophysics" category — the leading primary-research journal in the field (sources: nature.com/natastron/journal-impact, accessed 10 October 2026; secondary summary: Wikipedia citing Journal Citation Reports).

How often is Nature Astronomy published?

Monthly, and online-only — articles are published as soon as they are ready (source: nature.com/natastron/about, accessed 10 October 2026).

How does peer review work at Nature Astronomy?

Peer review typically involves three referees. All editorial decisions are made by the journal's full-time professional editors — PhD scientists — who also advise on the structure, clarity and language of every article, while in-house art editors handle the figures (source: nature.com/natastron/about, accessed 10 October 2026).

How long does Nature Astronomy take to make a decision?

The median time from submission to first editorial decision is 13 days, and the median time from submission to acceptance is 176 days (source: nature.com/natastron/journal-impact, accessed 10 October 2026).

What is the acceptance rate of Nature Astronomy?

The journal does not publish an official acceptance rate (verified on the journal's pages, 10 October 2026).

Can I post my manuscript as a preprint before submitting?

Yes. Authors may post preprints on repositories such as arXiv or institutional equivalents, and may also share the published PDF via Springer Nature's free SharedIt initiative (source: nature.com/natastron/about, accessed 10 October 2026).

Is Nature Astronomy open access?

The journal is hybrid: authors of primary research articles can choose gold open access (freely available at publication, APC paid by institution/funder on acceptance) or the traditional subscription route. Non-primary articles (Reviews, Comments, News & Views) are not eligible for gold open access (source: nature.com/natastron/our-publishing-models, via search 10 October 2026).

What is the APC for Nature Astronomy?

No official standalone APC figure for Nature Astronomy was verified on the journal's pages in this research (checked 10 October 2026). The APC is determined at acceptance and is subject to VAT/local taxes where applicable; authors should verify the current charge on the journal's official open access pages, as institutional open access agreements may also cover the cost.

What topics does Nature Astronomy cover?

The scope spans observational astronomy, theoretical astrophysics, computational astrophysics, instrumentation and techniques, planetary science, exoplanets, solar and stellar physics, the interplanetary and interstellar medium, galactic and extragalactic astronomy, high-energy astrophysics, cosmology, astrochemistry and astronomical big data (source: nature.com/natastron/aims, via search 10 October 2026).

What article formats does the journal accept?

Primary research appears as Articles (up to 3,000 words) and Analyses; there are also Reviews, Perspectives, Correspondence, Matters Arising, Comments, News & Views, Meeting Reports, Books & Arts, Features and Obituaries — plus two distinctive columns, Mission Control (on instruments/missions) and Access Code (on widely used astrophysical codes) (source: nature.com/natastron/about/content, accessed 10 October 2026).

What is the ISO abbreviation and ISSN of Nature Astronomy?

The correct abbreviation for abstracting and indexing is Nat. Astron., and the electronic ISSN is 2397-3366 (source: nature.com/natastron/about, accessed 10 October 2026).

Who publishes Nature Astronomy?

Nature Portfolio, published by Springer Nature (source: nature.com/natastron/about, accessed 10 October 2026).

Where can I submit to Nature Astronomy?

Manuscripts are submitted through Springer Nature's online submission system, linked from the journal's submission pages at nature.com/natastron; authors should read the journal's formatting and submission guidelines first (source: nature.com/natastron/about/content, accessed 10 October 2026).

Profile compiled 10 October 2026 from official Nature Astronomy, Nature Portfolio and Springer Nature sources. Metrics and policies change over time — always verify current figures on the journal's official pages before citing or acting on them.