Nature Neuroscience

About Nature Neuroscience

Nature Neuroscience: Journal Overview

Nature Neuroscience is a monthly international scientific journal published by Springer Nature (Nature Portfolio). It publishes original research papers of the highest quality and significance across all areas of neuroscience. The journal describes itself on its official journal information page as "a monthly journal publishing the best neuroscience research from all areas of the field," and notes that all editorial decisions are made by a team of full-time professional editors — there is no external editorial board (source: nature.com/neuro/about).

Within the neuroscience community, Nature Neuroscience occupies a distinctive position: it is the leading primary-research journal devoted specifically to the discipline. It consistently ranks among the very top journals in the neuroscience category of Clarivate's Journal Citation Reports. According to the journal's official metrics page, its Journal Impact Factor stands at 20.3 (2025), with a 5-year Impact Factor of 24.9 (2025) (source: nature.com/neuro/journal-impact, accessed October 2026).

The journal's bibliographic identifiers: the correct abbreviation for abstracting and indexing purposes is Nat. Neurosci.; its print ISSN is 1097-6256 and its electronic ISSN (EISSN) is 1546-1726 (source: nature.com/neuro/about). As of late 2026, the journal is publishing Volume 29 (October 2026 saw Volume 29, Issue 10), meaning it is approaching three decades of continuous monthly publication (source: nature.com/neuro, homepage).

History of Nature Neuroscience

The first issue of Nature Neuroscience appeared in May 1998 (Volume 1, Issue 1). The founding chief editor was Charles Jennings, who had joined Nature as an editor in 1993 and was then appointed to lead the new neuroscience title (sources: nature.com editorial nn0508-521, "Nature Neuroscience turns 10"; stimulatingbrains.org interview with Charles Jennings). The three founding editors — Jennings, Kalyani Narasimhan and one other colleague — faced an anxious run-up to the inaugural issue: only six papers were available for copy editing a week before the deadline, but urgent appeals to authors delivered revisions on time, and the first issue ultimately carried 13 primary research papers (source: nature.com editorial nn0508-521, May 2008).

The journal's launch came with a programmatic editorial titled "From neurons to thoughts: exploring the new frontier" (nn0598_1, May 1998). The editors argued that the size of the neuroscience enterprise — over 26,000 papers in a single year of the Index Medicus with "brain" as subject — justified a new forum "where different disciplines can come together and exchange ideas." They set out to publish "a relatively small number of papers of exceptional significance and quality, drawn from all areas of neuroscience, as examples of what seems to us most interesting, significant, intellectually stimulating, even entertaining" (source: nature.com/articles/nn0598_1). The editors also noted that Nature Neuroscience papers would typically be somewhat longer than those in Nature itself, but still relatively short — "busy scientists value brevity as well as clarity" — and that they aimed for accessibility to "the widest possible range of readers" (same source).

The journal's reputation established quickly. An August 2002 editorial reported that the 2001 impact factor was 15.668, placing the journal fourth among 198 neuroscience journals listed by ISI and "first among the primary research journals." The editors wrote that "when we launched Nature Neuroscience in 1998, our stated aim was to become the leading journal in the field" — a goal the 2001 citation figures suggested was already being achieved (source: nature.com editorial nn0802-705b, "Our 2001 impact factor", August 2002). The same editorial cautioned that the journal did not regard impact factors as a precise measure of journal quality.

On its tenth anniversary in May 2008, the journal looked back on a remarkable decade: it had received almost 25,000 manuscript submissions and published just under 2,000 papers. The editorial staff had doubled from three to six editors. The journal reported an acceptance rate of less than 8% and noted that submission numbers continued to increase every year — evidence, the editors felt, that the journal "has become an integral part of the neuroscience field" (source: nature.com editorial nn0508-521, "Nature Neuroscience turns 10", May 2008).

The editorial leadership has changed hands several times since the founding. Kalyani Narasimhan, one of the three founding editors at the May 1998 launch, served as chief editor through the journal's first 200 issues before stepping down (remaining at Nature Publishing Group as Executive Editor overseeing the Nature Life Science Research journals). She was succeeded as the fourth chief editor by Meredith LeMasurier, who had begun her editorial career at Neuron (source: nature.com editorial, "Nature Neuroscience celebrates its 200th issue"). The current chief editor is Shari Wiseman, who took up the role in 2021 (source: nature.com/neuro/about-the-editors).

In May 2023 the journal celebrated its 25th anniversary with a retrospective editorial reflecting on a quarter century of change in the field — from the tools of microscopy and imaging of genetically encoded activity sensors to the ability to observe and manipulate brain gene expression, cell types, circuits and networks "in a way that could only be dreamt of 25 years ago." The editorial noted how the journal itself had evolved: new content types including Perspectives, Technical Reports and Resources had been introduced, and the journal had "led the field in rolling out a checklist for reporting methodological and statistical information" to improve reproducibility — a checklist later updated to reflect changing consensus on reporting specific methodological details. The editors also reaffirmed commitments to open science, including encouraging preprint posting (source: nature.com/articles/s41593-023-01343-2, "Twenty-five years of Nature Neuroscience", May 2023).

Leadership and Editorial Team

As with the flagship Nature journal, Nature Neuroscience has no external editorial board. All editorial decisions — from initial triage through peer review to final decisions — are made by a team of full-time professional editors employed by Springer Nature, each with a PhD and active research background. The current editorial team, as published on the journal's official editors page, comprises a Chief Editor, a Senior Editor and Team Leader, Senior Editors, and Associate Editors based in London, New York, Shanghai, Philadelphia and Madrid (source: nature.com/neuro/about-the-editors, accessed October 2026).

Chief Editor — Dr. Shari Wiseman. Dr. Wiseman joined Nature Neuroscience in 2017 and became Chief Editor in 2021. She received her PhD from Yale University, where she worked with Dr. Angus Nairn, using biochemical, proteomic and behavioral approaches to examine signal transduction mechanisms regulating neuronal protein synthesis. She then pursued postdoctoral research at Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center / Harvard Medical School, investigating animal models of autism spectrum disorders, followed by further postdoctoral training in Dr. Stephen Moss's laboratory at Tufts University, where she studied the regulation of GABA_B receptors by excitotoxic stimuli. Her research interests include cellular and molecular neuroscience, genetics/genomics, and addiction. She is based in the New York office (source: nature.com/neuro/about-the-editors).

Senior Editor and Team Leader — Dr. Leonie Welberg. Dr. Welberg received her PhD from the University of Edinburgh and did postdoctoral research in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University, where her research focused on the role of stress in the etiology of depression in animal models. Before joining Nature Neuroscience, she was an editor at Nature Reviews Neuroscience from 2006 to 2014 and a locum manuscript editor at Nature in 2015–2016. Her research interests include systems neuroscience, psychiatric disorders, innate behaviors, sleep and psychedelics. She also serves as an Advisory Editor for npj Biological Timing and Sleep. She is based in the London office (source: nature.com/neuro/about-the-editors).

Senior Editors. Dr. Henrietta (Etta) Howells joined Nature Neuroscience in 2024 after working as a Senior Editor at Nature Communications. She did postdoctoral research at the University of Milan integrating neuroimaging and brain stimulation in awake neurosurgery, and received her PhD in neuroimaging from King's College London studying cerebral white matter using diffusion tractography. Her interests span cognitive, systems and network neuroscience; she is based in London. Dr. Luis A. Mejia joined in 2018; previously a postdoctoral fellow at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in the laboratory of Bo Li, where he investigated striatum-projecting orbitofrontal neurons in decision-making behavior in mice, he received his PhD from Harvard University. His interests include neural circuits in behavior, systems neuroscience, and molecular mechanisms and circuits in psychiatric disease; he is based in New York. Dr. Qingzhong Ren, the newest senior editor, earned his PhD from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, transitioned from research at the Allen Institute and HHMI to scientific publishing first as a scientific editor at Cell Reports, then joined the Nature Portfolio Research Cross-Journal Editorial Team as a Senior Editor in September 2025 before joining the Nature Neuroscience team, where he evaluates manuscripts on brain aging and translational research on neurodegenerative diseases. He is based in Shanghai (source: nature.com/neuro/about-the-editors).

Associate Editors. Three associate editors joined the team in 2025: Dr. Ioana Marin (PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Virginia on brain–gut microbiome–immune interactions in stress and depression models; postdoctoral training at Stanford University on neuronally-expressed immune molecules in circuit development and plasticity; interests in neuroimmunology and cellular/molecular neuroscience; based in New York), Dr. Will Olson (postdoctoral research at Johns Hopkins University in Dan O'Connor's lab on proprioceptive representations in mice; PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in Wenqin Luo's lab on the somatotopic organization of pain circuits; interests in sensory/motor systems and computational neuroscience; based in Philadelphia), and Dr. Ana Uzquiano (PhD from Sorbonne University on cellular and molecular mechanisms of cerebral cortex malformations; postdoctoral research in Paola Arlotta's lab at Harvard University on molecular programs of cellular diversification in the human developing cerebral cortex; interests in transcriptomics, neurodevelopment and associated disorders, and cellular/molecular neuroscience; based in Madrid) (source: nature.com/neuro/about-the-editors).

Together, the team's expertise spans molecular and cellular neuroscience, systems and cognitive neuroscience, computational modeling, neuroimmunology, neurodevelopment, neurodegeneration and brain aging — coverage that mirrors the journal's broad disciplinary remit. Authors and referees can find direct contact details for each editor on the journal's official editors page (source: nature.com/neuro/about-the-editors).

Aims & Scope

According to the journal's official Aims & Scope page, Nature Neuroscience is "a multidisciplinary journal that publishes papers of the highest quality and significance in all areas of neuroscience." The editors welcome contributions in molecular, cellular, systems and cognitive neuroscience, as well as psychophysics, computational modeling and diseases of the nervous system. The page states that no area is excluded from consideration — "although priority is given to studies that provide fundamental insights into the functioning of the nervous system" (source: nature.com/neuro/aims, accessed October 2026).

The journal promises authors and readers high visibility, emphasis on interdisciplinary communication, accessibility to a broad readership, high standards of copy editing and production, rigorous peer review, rapid publication, and independence from academic societies and other vested interests. In addition to primary research, the journal publishes news and views, reviews, editorials, commentaries, perspectives, book reviews and correspondence. In this way, the journal states, it "aims to be the voice of the worldwide neuroscience community" (source: nature.com/neuro/aims).

In practice, this means the journal seeks papers that deliver fundamental, mechanistic insight into how the nervous system works — studies whose significance extends beyond a single narrow system, method or model to influence thinking in the field more broadly. The journal covers molecular, cellular, systems, behavioral, cognitive and computational neuroscience, including work on diseases of the nervous system (sources: nature.com/neuro/aims; nature.com/neuro/subscribe description page).

Content types. Alongside Articles and Brief Communications, the journal publishes Reviews, Perspectives, Comments, News & Views, Editorials and Correspondence, plus newer article formats introduced in recent years such as Technical Reports and Resources (sources: nature.com/neuro/for-authors; nature.com/articles/s41593-023-01343-2, May 2023).

Editorial Process and Peer Review

Nature Neuroscience operates the Nature Portfolio editorial model: all manuscripts are handled by the professional in-house editors listed above, with no external editorial board. The journal's "For Authors" pages lay out a structured submission pathway (source: nature.com/neuro/for-authors):

1. Before initial submission. Authors are asked to check that Nature Neuroscience is the most suitable journal (Aims & Scope), that the journal accepts the content type, and to read the editorial policies and understand the publishing models and costs. Presubmission enquiries are accepted, allowing authors to check whether a manuscript is likely to interest the journal before committing to a full submission. The journal has a preprint-friendly policy and participates in In Review (source: nature.com/neuro/for-authors).
2. Preparing the submission. The journal provides guidance on completeness of the submission, initial formatting requirements, and writing and language quality. Authors are offered the option of double-anonymized peer review — the journal publishes specific requirements for anonymized submissions (source: nature.com/neuro/for-authors).
3. Initial editorial assessment. As at all Nature Portfolio journals, every manuscript is first read by the editorial team. To conserve authors' and referees' time, only manuscripts judged most likely to meet the journal's stringent criteria — originality, importance and broad significance to the neuroscience community — are sent for formal external peer review; the remainder are declined promptly without external review. The journal's official metrics page defines "submission to first editorial decision" as the median time from receipt to the manuscript being either sent out for peer review or rejected (source: nature.com/neuro/journal-impact).
4. Formal peer review. Manuscripts sent out for review are assessed by expert referees against criteria of technical soundness, novelty and importance to the field. The journal publishes guidance and policies for referees on the Nature Portfolio platform (source: nature.com/neuro/for-authors).
5. Decision, appeals and transfers. The journal provides routes to appeal against a decision and to transfer a submission to another journal within the Nature Portfolio (source: nature.com/neuro/for-authors).
6. Acceptance and production. Articles accepted "in principle" go through final formatting; corresponding authors of accepted papers are asked to link their ORCID to their manuscript tracking system account before final acceptance; accepted articles then go to production for publication (source: nature.com/neuro/for-authors).

Speed. The journal publishes its own turnaround figures: the median time from submission to first editorial decision is 9 days, and the median time from submission to acceptance is 399 days (source: nature.com/neuro/journal-impact, current figures). The long submission-to-acceptance median reflects the journal's demanding review and revision process — manuscripts typically undergo substantial experimental revision.

Reproducibility standards. The journal led the field in rolling out a checklist for reporting methodological and statistical information, and has updated the checklist to reflect changing consensus on how to report specific methodological details — a reflection of its stated commitment to open science and reproducibility (source: nature.com/articles/s41593-023-01343-2, May 2023).

Metrics

The following metrics are published on Nature Neuroscience's official journal metrics page (nature.com/neuro/journal-impact, accessed October 2026). Years refer to the metric year as displayed by the journal:

Historical note: The 2024 metrics displayed on the journal's official metrics page earlier in 2026 were a Journal Impact Factor of 20.0 and a 5-year Impact Factor of 24.8; the 2024 Journal Citation Reports figure is reported as 19.5 (via the Wikipedia entry citing Clarivate's 2024 JCR — use the official page for the journal's own reporting). Earlier history: the 2001 Impact Factor was 15.668, which at the time placed the journal fourth among 198 neuroscience journals in ISI's listings and first among primary-research journals (source: nature.com editorial nn0802-705b, August 2002). As with all citation metrics, 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 journal's metrics page notes that citation measures such as the 2-year Journal Impact Factor are not necessarily measures of journal quality, and that authors and readers should consider a range of metrics when evaluating journals (source: nature.com/neuro/journal-impact).

Submission Guidelines

The journal's "For Authors" pages provide detailed guidance, and authors are advised to read them before submitting (source: nature.com/neuro/for-authors). Key points from the official guidance:

• Submission portal: Manuscripts are submitted through the journal's online submission system at mts-nn.nature.com ("Submit manuscript"), accessible from the For Authors pages. Authors log in or register when they submit (source: nature.com/neuro/for-authors).
• Fit check first: Authors should confirm that Nature Neuroscience is the most suitable journal for the work, that the journal accepts the intended content type, and that they understand the editorial policies and the publishing models and their costs (source: nature.com/neuro/for-authors).
• Presubmission enquiries: Offered as a service so authors can gauge whether a manuscript is likely to interest the editors before a full submission (source: nature.com/neuro/for-authors).
• Formatting: The journal publishes formatting requirements for initial submission and separate formatting guidelines to be followed once an article is accepted "in principle" (sources: nature.com/neuro/for-authors).
• Double-anonymized review option: Authors who wish to participate in double-anonymized peer review must follow the journal's published requirements for anonymized submissions (source: nature.com/neuro/for-authors).
• ORCID: Before final acceptance, corresponding authors of accepted papers are requested to link their Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier (ORCID) to their manuscript tracking system account (source: nature.com/neuro/for-authors).
• Preprints: The journal's preprint policy supports the posting of preprints, which are not considered to compromise novelty; the journal also participates in In Review, the preprint platform for journals (sources: nature.com/neuro/for-authors; Nature Portfolio editorial policies).
• Appeals and transfers: Routes exist to appeal against a decision or to transfer a submission to another journal within the Nature Portfolio (source: nature.com/neuro/for-authors).

Open Access and APC

Nature Neuroscience operates a hybrid publishing model. Authors of primary research articles can choose to publish either through the traditional subscription route or via gold open access. Non-primary articles — Reviews, Comments, News & Views and similar — are not eligible for gold open access and are published only via the traditional subscription route, with no publication fee charged (source: nature.com/neuro/our-publishing-models, official publishing-models page).

For authors whose funders require immediate open access (for example, under Plan S principles or the NIH public access policy), the gold OA route is the compliant option; the publishing-models page notes that publication under the subscription model is not suitable for authors whose funders require no embargo (source: nature.com/neuro/our-publishing-models).

APC figure — what is publicly documented: When open access publishing was introduced across the Nature-branded journals in 2021–2022, Nature Neuroscience announced an article processing charge of €9,500 / US$11,390 / £8,290 for 2022, reported by The Scientist in January 2022 (the announcement triggered wide public discussion among researchers). This figure is consistent with the standard APC applied across Nature-branded selective journals. However, APCs change over time, and the journal's current official open-access page does not display a live figure on the version accessible at the time of this profile — so readers should verify the current charge on the journal's official "Open Access Fees and Funding" page or contact the journal's open access support team before relying on any number (sources: the-scientist.com/opinion-is-open-access-worth-the-cost-70049; nature.com/neuro/our-publishing-models). Springer Nature also operates APC waiver and discount policies for authors in qualifying circumstances, and institutional open access agreements that can cover publishing costs (source: Springer Nature open access support pages).

Landmark Discoveries Published in Nature Neuroscience

Few journals have a claim as striking as this: in October 2026, the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for optogenetics and light-gated ion channels — and the foundational 2005 paper, "Millisecond-timescale, genetically targeted optical control of neural activity" by Edward Boyden, Feng Zhang, Ernst Bamberg, Georg Nagel and Karl Deisseroth (Stanford University), was published in Nature Neuroscience (doi:10.1038/nn1525). The paper demonstrated that expressing the microbial protein channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) from green algae in mammalian neurons allowed precise, millisecond-timescale control of neural activity with flashes of blue light — giving researchers the ability to selectively activate or silence defined populations of neurons and test causal roles in behavior, moving the field beyond correlational observation (sources: genengnews.com, October 2026; optica-opn.org, October 2026).

The journal's own inaugural issue (May 1998) included papers that went on to become highly cited, among them Sonia Lupien and colleagues' demonstration that cortisol levels during human aging predict hippocampal atrophy and memory deficits — linking chronic stress hormones to brain aging in humans (source: nature.com/neuro/volumes/1/issues/1). The journal's tenth-anniversary editorial noted that the inaugural issue contained "what is now one of the journal's ten most-cited papers of all time" (source: nature.com editorial nn0508-521, May 2008). Over the decades, the journal has been a preferred venue for major advances in optogenetics, neural coding, learning and memory, synaptic plasticity, sensory systems, and computational neuroscience — reflected in its near-10 million article downloads and more than 32,000 Altmetric mentions in 2025 alone (source: nature.com/neuro/journal-impact).

Key Facts

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Nature Neuroscience?

Nature Neuroscience is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Springer Nature (Nature Portfolio). It publishes original research papers of the highest quality and significance across all areas of neuroscience — molecular, cellular, systems, behavioral, cognitive and computational neuroscience — and is consistently ranked among the world's leading neuroscience journals (sources: nature.com/neuro/about; nature.com/neuro/journal-impact).

When was Nature Neuroscience founded?

The first issue appeared in May 1998, with Charles Jennings as the founding chief editor. The journal celebrated its 25th anniversary in May 2023 (sources: nature.com editorial nn0508-521, May 2008; nature.com/articles/s41593-023-01343-2).

Who is the current Chief Editor of Nature Neuroscience?

Dr. Shari Wiseman. She received her PhD from Yale University, did postdoctoral research at Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School and at Tufts University, joined the journal in 2017, and became Chief Editor in 2021 (source: nature.com/neuro/about-the-editors).

What is Nature Neuroscience's impact factor?

According to the journal's official metrics page, the Journal Impact Factor is 20.3 (2025), with a 5-year Impact Factor of 24.9 (2025). The 2024 figure displayed by the journal was 20.0. Metrics are updated annually — check nature.com/neuro/journal-impact for the current values (source: nature.com/neuro/journal-impact, accessed October 2026).

What is the acceptance rate?

The journal itself reported an acceptance rate of less than 8% in its tenth-anniversary editorial in 2008 (source: nature.com editorial nn0508-521). The journal does not publish a current acceptance rate on its official pages — the figure is not publicly disclosed — so the 2008 number is the most recent the journal has stated.

How does peer review work at Nature Neuroscience?

All manuscripts are first read by the in-house professional editorial team; only those judged most likely to meet the journal's criteria for originality, importance and broad significance are sent for formal external peer review. Authors can opt for double-anonymized peer review. The median time to first editorial decision is 9 days (sources: nature.com/neuro/for-authors; nature.com/neuro/journal-impact).

How long does review take?

The journal's published medians are 9 days from submission to first editorial decision and 399 days from submission to acceptance (the latter including all rounds of review and revision) (source: nature.com/neuro/journal-impact).

What are the journal's criteria for publication?

The journal prioritizes studies that provide fundamental insights into the functioning of the nervous system — papers whose significance extends beyond a single narrow system or method to interest a broad neuroscience readership. No area of neuroscience is formally excluded (source: nature.com/neuro/aims).

Is Nature Neuroscience open access? What is the APC?

It is a hybrid journal: authors of primary research can choose subscription or gold open access; reviews, comments and news articles are subscription-only. When OA was introduced across the Nature-branded journals, the announced APC for Nature Neuroscience was €9,500 / US$11,390 / £8,290 (reported January 2022) — but APCs change, so verify the current figure on the journal's official open access page before relying on it (sources: nature.com/neuro/our-publishing-models; the-scientist.com).

Can I post my manuscript as a preprint?

Yes. The journal's preprint policy supports preprint posting, and preprints are not considered to compromise novelty. The journal also participates in In Review (sources: nature.com/neuro/for-authors).

What are the ISSNs of Nature Neuroscience?

Print ISSN 1097-6256; electronic ISSN (EISSN) 1546-1726. The standard abbreviation is Nat. Neurosci. (source: nature.com/neuro/about).

How do I submit a manuscript?

Manuscripts are submitted through the journal's online submission system at mts-nn.nature.com ("Submit manuscript" on the For Authors page at nature.com/neuro/for-authors). Presubmission enquiries are accepted for authors who want to check likely editorial interest first (source: nature.com/neuro/for-authors).

Profile compiled October 2026 from official Nature and Springer Nature sources listed in the accompanying sources file. Metrics, policies and editorial personnel change over time — always verify current figures on the journal's official pages before citing or acting on them.