Definition of Nature (journal)

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Nature (journal): The name of a venerable British scientific journal that has over the past century or so published much of importance to medicine and the biomedical sciences.

There are now, in fact, eight publications in the Nature family of journals:

• The weekly Nature (founded in 1869), and
• Seven monthly journals:
  • Nature Genetics (launched in 1992),
  • Nature Structural Biology (launched in 1994),
  • Nature Medicine (launched in 1995),
  • Nature Biotechnology (formerly Bio/technology - re-launched as a new title in 1996),
  • Nature Neuroscience (launched in 1998),
  • Nature Cell Biology (launched in May 1999), and
  • Nature Immunology (launched in July, 2000).

Nature is a general science journal (one of the world's preeminent general science periodicals). It deals with a great range of scientific subjects, including those of medical and biomedical pertinence. The seven monthly journals address somewhat more specialized areas.

Nature states that it "publishes papers from any area of science with great potential impact. The importance of Nature papers often extends well beyond the confines of the specific discipline concerned. (Nature's "impact factor", measured by the independent organization the Institute of Scientific Information in Philadelphia, is higher than any other interdisciplinary scientific journal.) Nature also publishes a broad range of informal material in the form of Opinion articles, News stories, Briefings and Recruitment features, and contributed material such as Correspondence; Commentary; News and Views; Scientific Correspondence; book, software and product reviews; Reviews; Progress articles; etc."