Nature (journal)

Lore & Background

Nature was created not long after the conclusion of The Reader, a similar journal that had failed. Its name was taken from a line by William Wordsworth: 'To the solid ground of nature trusts the Mind that builds for aye.' Many early editions consisted of articles written by members of the X Club, a group of scientists with liberal, progressive, and somewhat controversial scientific beliefs, initiated by Thomas Henry Huxley and including Joseph Dalton Hooker, Herbert Spencer, and John Tyndall. These scientists were avid supporters of Darwin's theory of evolution as common descent, which received criticism among more conservative groups.

Reader's Guide

Nature's significance lies in its role as a premier venue for primary research, with fewer than 8% of submitted papers accepted. Its research articles are widely cited and often attract international attention, though the journal has occasionally been involved in disputes over retractions, peer-review processes, and methodological standards. The mid-20th century saw an editorial expansion, and the late 1980s and early 1990s brought a network of editorial offices outside Britain and ten new supplementary specialty publications. Since the late 2000s, dedicated editorial and current affairs columns have been created weekly, and electoral endorsements are featured. Its legacy includes shaping scientific communication and providing a forum for both research and commentary on science policy, ethics, and notable developments.

Did You Know?

• Nature was first circulated in the autumn of 1869 by Norman Lockyer and Alexander MacMillan.
• Fewer than 8% of submitted papers are accepted for publication.

Corporate Lineage and the Birth of Springer Nature

Nature's flagship weekly journal first appeared in 1869, and over the following decades and centuries, the publishing operation behind it passed through several corporate hands. For much of its modern history, the Nature Publishing Group operated as a division of Macmillan Science and Education, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of the German conglomerate Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. In 2013, Holtzbrinck took a controlling stake in the open-access publisher Frontiers, signaling a strategic pivot toward broader digital publishing. Then in 2015, the long-anticipated merger with Springer Science+Business Media was completed, giving birth to Springer Nature. The newly combined entity absorbed roughly 13,000 employees and inherited a vast portfolio of academic titles. Under its current banner, Nature Portfolio—previously called Nature Research and before that Nature Publishing Group—continues to publish journals, magazines, and online databases while also delivering science and medicine services. The corporate journey from a single Victorian-era weekly to a global publishing powerhouse illustrates how deeply intertwined academic publishing has become with large-scale corporate strategy.

A Vast and Layered Journal Portfolio

As of 2020, Nature Research oversaw 156 academic journals, a number that speaks to the sheer breadth of its output. At the center sits the original Nature, a weekly multidisciplinary journal in continuous publication since 1869. Surrounding it is a dense ecosystem of specialized titles: the Nature Reviews series, which has existed since 2000 and absorbed the former Nature Clinical Practice line in a 2009 rebrand; the npj (Nature Partner Journals) series; society-owned academic journals; and a growing family of fully open-access titles such as Scientific Reports and Nature Communications. Beyond the research journals, Springer Nature also publishes Scientific American in 16 languages, a magazine aimed squarely at the general public rather than the specialist reader. In 2011, the operation extended further still by launching its first electronic textbook for the college market, Principles of Biology, which was adopted by California State University. The publisher's leadership at the time described this move as a potential disruption of the traditional textbook model, hinting at ambitions that stretched well beyond the conventional journal subscription.

The Open Access Tug-of-War

The question of who can read, download, and share scientific research has been a persistent flashpoint for Nature's publishers. In most cases, revenue is recovered through individual and institutional subscriptions, though more than 40 journals permit authors to pay a publication charge for open-access articles. Authors are also permitted to post their accepted, unedited manuscripts on personal websites or funder archives, but only after a six-month embargo. In June 2010, University of California librarians circulated a widely shared letter detailing pricing grievances and floated the possibility of a boycott; by August of that year, both sides issued a joint statement pledging to explore new publishing models. A more dramatic shift came in December 2014, when NPG announced that all Nature journal content would be freely available online. However, the articles were delivered through ReadCube, a digital rights management platform that granted only read-only access—no downloading, copying, printing, or redistribution. Links could initially be generated only by subscribers and select media outlets. Critics argued this was a compromise dressed as openness, not a genuine open-access scheme, while the publisher framed it as a countermeasure against so-called dark sharing.

Global Reach and the Broader Ecosystem

Nature Portfolio's physical and digital footprint spans an extraordinary number of cities. Its offices are located in London, New York, San Francisco, Seoul, Washington D.C., Boston, Tokyo, Paris, Berlin, Munich, Madrid, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Delhi, Melbourne, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, and Basingstoke, employing thousands of staff. After the 2015 merger, the combined Springer Nature organization grew to approximately 13,000 employees. Beyond publishing, the portfolio includes Nature Careers, a hub for science job listings and professional advice; Nature Index, an open database tracking author affiliations and institutional research output in high-quality natural-science and health-science journals; and a companion site to the ENCODE project, a National Human Genome Research Institute–funded effort to map the human genome's functional elements. The publisher also experimented with online services that did not endure: Scitable for collaborative learning, Nature Precedings as a preprint server (discontinued in 2012), Connotea as a reference manager (shut down in 2013), and Nature Network, a social platform for scientists placed in read-only mode in 2013. In June 2025, the Trump administration moved to terminate certain federal contracts with Springer Nature, citing political bias.

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