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Prepare your manuscript for Scientific Reports.

Review the checklist, choose your article type, and turn your draft into a cleaner submission package.

Checked 2026-07-15

Check readiness free Prepare this manuscript

Article types

Article

Registered Report

Readiness requirements

Review the key details below, or download the complete checklist with every stored source-backed requirement.

Abstract length

Provide an author-written abstract of no more than 200 words.
However, we strongly recommend that you write concisely and stick to the following guidelines: The abstract should be no more than 200 words.

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Abstract Please do not include any references in your Abstract.
Abstract should be unstructured, i.e. should not contain sections or subheadings.

Keywords

Include or confirm the keywords required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Reference style

Articlo formats your supplied references to the journal's stored style and checks that citations match the reference list; source validity is not verified.
You should then follow the main body of text with: References (limited to 60 references, though not strictly enforced).

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To avoid any delays to publication, please follow the guidelines below for creation, citation and submission of your Supplementary Information: Keep file sizes as small as possible, with a maximum size of 50 MB, so that they can be downloaded quickly.
To avoid any delays to publication, please follow the guidelines below for creation, citation and submission of your Supplementary Information: Supplementary video files should be provided in the standard video aspects: 4:3, 16:9, 21:9.
In your reference list, you should: Include all authors unless there are six or more, in which case only the first author should be given, followed by 'et al.'.
In your reference list, you should: List authors by last name first, followed by a comma and initials (followed by full stops) of given names.
In your reference list, you should: Use italics for book titles, giving all words in the title an initial capital.
In your reference list, you should: Use italics for journal and data repository names, abbreviating them according to common usage (with full stops).
In your reference list, you should: Use bold for volume numbers and the subsequent comma.
Article: In your reference list, you should: Give the full page range (or article number), where appropriate.
Provide text for figure legends in numerical order after the references.
Use numerical references only for citations.
So, when formatting your references, make sure they: Only include papers or datasets that have been published or accepted by a named publication, recognised preprint server or data repository (if you include any preprints of accepted papers in your reference list, make sure you submit them with the manuscript).
If you are making your submission by LaTeX, it must either contain all references within the manuscript.tex file itself, or (if you’re using the Overleaf template) include the.bbl file generated during the compilation process as a ‘LaTeX supplementary file’ (see the "Manuscripts" section for more details).
Article: In your reference list, you should: Use Roman text for Article and dataset titles, with only the first word of the title having an initial capital and written exactly as it appears in the work cited, ending with a full stop.
You should provide references, rather than detailed procedures, for known compounds, unless their protocols represent a departure from or improvement on published methods.
Sorry, we cannot accept BibTeX (.bib) bibliography files for references.

Figure and table rules

Keep every figure and table numbered, captioned, and cited in the manuscript. Keep figures embedded; Articlo also extracts numbered source files for the package.
You should then follow the main body of text with: Figure legends (these are limited to 350 words per figure).

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You should then follow the main body of text with: Tables (maximum size of one page).
Please note that schemes should not be used and should be presented as figures instead.
Your submission must also include: Individual figure files and optional supplementary information files.
Therefore: If you must use an abbreviation, make sure you spell it out fully in the text or legend the first time it appears.
Article: This numbering should be separate from that used in tables and figures appearing in the main article.
Tables that include statistical analysis of data should describe their standards of error analysis and ranges in a table legend.
Include a description of the statistical treatment of error analysis in the figure legend.
You should submit sequences of chemical reactions or experimental procedures as figures, with appropriate captions.
Use a clear, sans-serif typeface (for example, Helvetica) for figure lettering.
Use the same typeface in the same font size for all figures in your paper.
The thinnest lines in the final figure should be no smaller than one point wide.
Figures divided into parts should be labelled with a lower-case, bold letter ( a, b, c and so on) in the same type size as used elsewhere in the figure.
Lettering in figures should be in lower-case type, with only the first letter of each label capitalised.
Unusual units or abbreviations should be spelled out in full or defined in the legend.
Scale bars should be used rather than magnification factors, with the length of the bar defined on the bar itself rather than in the legend.
Figures for publication You must supply each complete figure as a separate file upload.
Multi-part/panel figures must be prepared and arranged as a single image file (including all sub-parts; a, b, c, etc.).
Macromolecular structural data If your manuscript is reporting new structures, it should contain a table summarising structural and refinement statistics.
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.
Consent to participate/Consent to publish Please note that: Study participant names (and other personally identifiable information) must be removed from all text/figures/tables/images.
Figures should not contain more than one panel unless the parts are logically connected; each panel of a multipart figure should be sized so that the whole figure can be reduced by the same amount and reproduced at the smallest size at which essential details are visible.
When submitting a revised manuscript, you must upload all figures as separate figure files, ensuring that the image quality and formatting conforms to the specifications below.
Crystallographic data for small molecules If your manuscript is reporting new three-dimensional structures of small molecules from crystallographic analysis, you should include a.cif file and a structural figure with probability ellipsoids for publication as Supplementary Information.
Display items are limited to 8 ( figures and/or tables ).
So, for Articles of 2,000 words or less, we suggest including no more than 4 figures/tables.
Keep each legend total to no more than 350 words.
Please do not refer to individual panels of supplementary figures.
Figures that do not meet these standards will not reproduce well and may delay publication until we receive high-resolution images.

Funding statement

Include or confirm the funding statement required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Competing interests

Add or confirm the author-written Competing interests statement; Articlo flags it if author input is still needed.
Add or confirm the author-written Conflict of interest statement; Articlo flags it if author input is still needed.

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You should then follow the main body of text with: Additional Information (including a Competing Interests Statement).
Competing interests You must supply a competing interests statement.
If there is no conflict of interest, you should include a statement declaring this.
Your statement must be explicit and unambiguous, describing any potential competing interest (or lack thereof) for EACH contributing author.

Data availability statement

Add or confirm the author-written Data availability statement; Articlo flags it if author input is still needed.
You should then follow the main body of text with: Data availability statement (mandatory).

Ethics statement

Add or confirm the author-written Ethics statement; Articlo flags it if author input is still needed.
If you’re reporting experiments on live vertebrates (or higher invertebrates), humans or human samples, you must include a statement of ethical approval in the Methods section (see our detailed requirements for further information on preparing these statements).

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Ethics declarations If your research includes human participants or animal subjects, you will need to include the appropriate ethics declarations in the Methods section of your manuscript.
Approval for human experiments For experiments involving human participants (or human tissue samples), your Methods section must include a statement that: Confirms that informed consent was obtained from all participants and/or their legal guardians.
For manuscripts that include information or images that could lead to identification of a study participant, your Methods section must include a statement that confirms informed consent was obtained to publish the information/image(s) in an online open access publication.

Cover letter

Provide the claims and editor-specific context for the cover letter; Articlo creates an editable companion without inventing content.
Your submission must also include: A cover letter.

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Cover letter In your cover letter, you should include: A brief explanation of why the work is appropriate for Scientific Reports.
Cover letter In your cover letter, you should include: The names and contact information of any reviewers you consider suitable.
Cover letter In your cover letter, you should include: The names of any referees you would like excluded from reviewing.
When resubmitting, in addition to your cover letter and revised manuscript files, you should include a response to the reviewers’ comments.
Please be aware: The information you provide in the submission system will be used as the source of truth when your paper is published.
We cannot publish images downloaded from the internet without appropriate permission.

Author contributions

Add or confirm the author-written Author contributions statement; Articlo flags it if author input is still needed.
You should then follow the main body of text with: Author contributions.

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Author contributions You must supply an Author Contribution Statement as described in the Author responsibilities section of our Editorial and Publishing Policies.

Supplementary files

Registered Report: Include every cited supplementary file and use matching labels in the manuscript.
Embed or attach the author-supplied supplementary material so Articlo can extract and label it for the package.

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Supplementary information should be combined and supplied as a single separate file, preferably in PDF format.
Supplementary Information You should submit any Supplementary Information together with the manuscript so that we can send it to referees during peer-review.
It’s vital that you carefully check your Supplementary Information before submission as any modification after your paper is published will require a formal correction.
If any data that is necessary to evaluate the claims of your paper is not available via a public depository, make sure you provide it as Supplementary Information.
Supplementary Note or Methods should not be numbered; titles for these are optional.
We do not support inclusion of any additional information or appendices in the main body of the paper; all supplementary information should be included in the dedicated Supplementary Information files.
We do not edit, typeset or proof Supplementary Information, so please present it clearly and succinctly at initial submission, making sure it conforms to the style and terminology of the rest of the paper.

Title page and author information

Cover letter In your cover letter, you should include: The affiliation and contact information of your corresponding author.
Please be aware: The author name you give as the corresponding author will be the main contact during the review process and should not change.

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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.

Article structure and word limits

Step 1: Before you submit There are several important things you need to know and understand before you begin the submission process.
You should: Describe the experimental protocol in detail, referring to amounts of reagents in parentheses, when possible (eg 1.03 g, 0.100 mmol).

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Thousands should be separated by commas (1,000).
Structures should then be exported into a 300 dpi RGB tiff file before being submitted.
Stereo images You should present stereo diagrams for divergent 'wall-eyed' viewing, with the two panels separated by 5.5 cm.
Use one name throughout and include the other at first mention: 'Oct4 (also known as Pou5f1)'.
Standard peak listings (see formatting guidelines below) for 1H NMR and proton-decoupled 13C NMR should be provided for all new compounds.
Other NMR data should be reported (31P NMR, 19F NMR, etc.) when appropriate.
Step 2: Ready to submit Completing our submission checklist before submitting your manuscript will help ensure that you have done everything you need to do and help to prevent delays to the assessment of your manuscript.
Three errors are particularly common: Small sample size: when the sample size is small (less than about 10), you should use tests appropriate to small samples or justify the use of large-sample tests.
To facilitate assessment of the quality of the structural data, you should submit with the manuscript a stereo image of a portion of the electron density map (for crystallography papers) or of the superimposed lowest energy structures (≳10; for NMR papers).
To go straight to this step, please visit our before you submit page.
However, we strongly recommend that you write concisely and stick to the following guidelines: Articles should ideally be no more than 11 typeset pages.
These should represent the main content of the submission.
You should then follow the main body of text with: Acknowledgements (optional).
We do not automatically include page or line numbers in the materials sent to Editorial Board Members and reviewers.
You may include a limited number of uncaptioned molecular structure graphics and numbered mathematical equations if necessary.
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.
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.
We strongly recommend that you ask a colleague with different expertise to review your manuscript before you submit it.
You should: Include descriptions of standard protocols and experimental procedures.
You should: Only identify commercial suppliers of reagents or instrumentation when the source is critical to the outcome of the experiments.
You should: Identify sources for any kits you use in your procedures.
You should: Include any experimental protocols that describe the synthesis of new compounds.
You should: Clearly identify safety hazards posed by reagents or protocols.
You should: Report isolated mass and percent yields at the end of each protocol.
For papers with more than five authors include only the first author’s name followed by ‘et al.’.
You should also acknowledge assistance from medical writers, proof-readers and editors.
Use any symbols in sequence and minimise the methodological details as much as possible.
You should state the source of any images used.
For software, you should state the name, version number and URL.
All chemical compounds must be assigned a bold, Arabic numeral in the order in which the compounds are presented in the manuscript text.
In the final accepted version of the manuscript, you should submit the stereo images at their final page size.
Graphs should include clearly labelled error bars.
You must state whether a number that follows the ± sign is a standard error (s.e.m.) or a standard deviation (s.d.).
You must justify the use of a particular test and explain whether the data conforms to the assumptions of the tests.
If the data does not meet the assumptions of the test, you should use a non-parametric alternative instead.
When possible, you should refer to chemical compounds and biomolecules using systematic nomenclature, preferably using IUPAC.
Gene nomenclature You should use approved nomenclature for gene symbols, and employ symbols rather than italicised full names (for example Ttn, not titin).
You must provide adequate data to support your assignment of identity and purity for each new compound described in your manuscript.
Chemical identity Chemical identity for organic and organometallic compounds should be established through spectroscopic analysis.
For new materials, you should also provide mass spectral data to support molecular weight identity.
You should provide melting-point ranges for crystalline materials.
In these cases, you must provide evidence of identity based on sequence (when appropriate) and mass spectral characterisation.
You should list specific NMR assignments after integration values only if they were unambiguously determined by multidimensional NMR or decoupling experiments.
You should submit crystallographic data for small molecules to the Cambridge Structural Database and the deposition number referenced appropriately in the manuscript.
If the reported structure represents a novel overall fold, you should also provide a stereo image of the entire structure (as a backbone trace).
Include error bars when appropriate.
Please do not use schemes.
Units should have a single space between the number and the unit, and follow SI nomenclature (for example, ms rather than msec) or the nomenclature common to a particular field.
Article: For proposed gene names that are not already approved, please submit the gene symbols to the appropriate nomenclature committees as soon as possible, as these must be deposited and approved before publication of an article.
Combinational compound libraries When describing the preparation of combinatorial libraries, you should include standard characterisation data for a diverse panel of library components.
These must have been checked using the IUCR's CheckCIF routine, and you must include a PDF copy of the output with the submission, together with a justification for any alerts reported.
Full access must be provided on publication.
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Article: Please note, we do not accept PDF files for the article text of revised manuscripts.
Please do not upload each panel individually.
Please do not supply Word or Powerpoint files with placed images.
Our system cannot accept.bib files.

Statistical reporting

Statistical guidelines If your paper contains statistical testing, it should state the name of the statistical test, the n value for each statistical analysis, the comparisons of interest, a justification for the use of that test (including, for example, a discussion of the normality of the data when the test is appropriate only for normal data), the alpha level for all tests, whether the tests were one-tailed or two-tailed, and the actual P value for each test (not merely "significant" or "P Data sets should be summarised with descriptive statistics, which should include the n value for each data set, a clearly labelled measure of centre (such as the mean or the median), and a clearly labelled measure of variability (such as standard deviation or range)).
Three errors are particularly common: Multiple comparisons: when making multiple statistical comparisons on a single data set, you should explain how you adjusted the alpha level to avoid an inflated Type I error rate, or you should select statistical tests appropriate for multiple groups (such as ANOVA rather than a series of t-tests).

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Three errors are particularly common: Normal distribution: many statistical tests require that the data be approximately normally distributed; when using these tests, you should explain how you tested your data for normality.

Preprints and prior publication

Include or confirm the preprints and prior publication required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Artificial intelligence disclosure

Include or confirm the artificial intelligence disclosure required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Article type and manuscript length

Article: However, we strongly recommend that you write concisely and stick to the following guidelines: The title should be no more than 20 words, should describe the main message of the article using a single scientifically accurate sentence, and should not contain puns or idioms.
However, we strongly recommend that you write concisely and stick to the following guidelines: The main text should be no more than 4,500 words (not including Abstract, Methods, References and figure legends).

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Data availability You must include a Data Availability Statement in all submitted manuscripts (at the end of the main text, before the References section); see ' Availability of materials and data ' section for more information.
In most cases, we do not impose strict limits on word count or page number.

Authorship and originality

Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, do not currently satisfy our authorship criteria.
Notably an attribution of authorship carries with it accountability for the work, which cannot be effectively applied to LLMs.

Manuscript structure

Use of an LLM should be properly documented in the Methods section (and if a Methods section is not available, in a suitable alternative part) of the manuscript.
Line art, graphs, charts and schematics For optimal results, you should supply all line art, graphs, charts and schematics in vector format, such as EPS or AI.

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You should provide information about how assignments were made in a general Methods section.
Please note, footnotes should not be used.
You should: Use the systematic name of any new compound and put its bold Arabic numeral in the heading for the experimental protocol, indicating it thereafter by its assigned, bold numeral.
Approval for animal experiments For experiments involving live vertebrates and/or higher invertebrates, your Methods section must include a statement that: Identifies the institutional and/or licensing committee that approved the experiments, including any relevant details.
Approval for animal experiments For experiments involving live vertebrates and/or higher invertebrates, your Methods section must include a statement that: Confirms that all experiments were performed in accordance with relevant named guidelines and regulations.
Approval for human experiments For experiments involving human participants (or human tissue samples), your Methods section must include a statement that: Identifies the institutional and/or licensing committee that approved the experiments, including any relevant details.
Approval for human experiments For experiments involving human participants (or human tissue samples), your Methods section must include a statement that: Confirms that all experiments were performed in accordance with relevant named guidelines and regulations.
You should provide a statement confirming the source, identity and purity of known compounds that are central to the scientific study, even if they are purchased or resynthesised using published methods.
Biological constructs You should provide sequencing or functional data that validates the identity of their biological constructs (plasmids, fusion proteins, site-directed mutants, etc.) either in the manuscript text or the Methods section, as appropriate.
Biomolecular identity For new biopolymeric materials (oligosaccharides, peptides, nucleic acids, etc.), direct structural analysis by NMR spectroscopic methods may not be possible.

Language and text style

Therefore: Keep abbreviations to a minimum, particularly when they are not standard.
You should: Use standard abbreviations for reagents and solvents.

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Chemical and biological nomenclature and abbreviations You should identify molecular structures by bold, Arabic numerals assigned in order of presentation in the text.
You should use standard chemical and biological abbreviations.
You may include in the manuscript a limited number of uncaptioned graphics depicting chemical structures - each labelled with their name, by a defined abbreviation, or by the bold Arabic numeral.

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What your package checks

Abstract: 200 words

Paper: 4,500 words

Cover letter: requested

Declarations: Data availability, Competing interests, Conflict of interest, Ethics, Author contributions

Source transparency

This preparation guide uses published journal-specific author requirements. Journal instructions can change, so authors should complete a final review before submission.

Open official guideline source