2016 - All Press Releases

Nature Research introduces Nature Sustainability

London, 03 November 2016

Nature Research today announces the new journal Nature Sustainability, which will publish the most significant research about how humankind can sustain life in a finite world. The journal will launch in January 2018, enhancing Springer Nature’s longstanding commitment to publishing research that tackles some of the most pressing problems of our time.

Nature Sustainability will open for submissions in early 2017 and adopt the cross-disciplinary model of journals such as Nature Climate Change, Nature Energy, and the soon-to-launch Nature Human Behaviour.

The editorial team is led by Chief Editor Dr Monica Contestabile, an environmental economist with previous experience as Senior Editor at Nature Climate Change and at WWF-UK, where she led research on sustainable consumption. Dr Contestabile commented: “Sustainability is a rapidly emerging area of research, and we have received strong feedback from the community that they require a journal that can reinforce the importance of sustainability research within academia and support the establishment of new cross-disciplinary relationships, while also raising the visibility of sustainability research outside of universities. Nature Sustainability is committed to publishing original research from across sustainability, its policy dimensions and possible solutions. In so doing, Nature Sustainability will provide a fully rounded picture of the most significant advances in sustainability research.”

The new journal will provide an outlet for research aimed at understanding the causes and consequences of issues including environmental degradation, natural resources depletion, large-scale human migration, socioeconomic inequalities, and infrastructure failures and their interfaces. It will publish novel research on the drivers of human practices and their environmental and social impacts, as well as applied research that identifies viable solutions — technological, infrastructural or institutional — to sustain ecosystems and the well-being of populations across the globe.

Dr James Butcher, Publishing Director, Nature Research, said: “We are launching Nature Sustainability to provide a unique, high-impact and community-centric journal that publishes research and opinion from across the natural, social and engineering sciences. The journal aims to attract research papers that support and drive progress towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, which were adopted by 193 UN member states in 2015. Part of Nature Sustainability's mission is to explore the political and policy dimensions of building a sustainable future and to facilitate the translation of research into action. As a result, the journal will be relevant to academics, NGOs and policy makers.”

As with all Nature-branded research journals, Nature Sustainability will be characterised by a fair and rigorous peer-review process, high standards of copy-editing and production, swift publication and editorial independence. In addition to primary research, the journal will publish Reviews, Commentaries, Features, Perspectives, and News & Views pieces placing the very latest advances in our knowledge of sustainability-relevant topics in context for those both within and beyond the sustainability research community.

Nature Sustainability will be an online-only subscription journal. It will be included in Springer Nature’s SharedIt content sharing initiative, which was recently expanded across the Springer Nature owned portfolio. SharedIt provides authors and readers with shareable links to view-only versions of peer-reviewed research papers and enables more than 200 media outlets and blogs to link to a free-to-read version of research articles.

ENDS

For more information, contact:

Travis Taylor

Press Officer, Nature Research, UK

E: travis.taylor@nature.com

T: +44 20 7843 4658

Notes for editors:

About Nature Research

Nature Research is a portfolio of high quality products and services across the life, physical, chemical and applied sciences, including journals, online databases and researcher services, which are dedicated to serving the scientific community. Nature (founded in 1869) is the leading weekly, international scientific journal and sits at the heart of the brand. Nature Research also publishes a range of Nature branded research and reviews subscription journals, alongside leading open access multidisciplinary journal Nature Communications and other open access journals, including mega journal Scientific Reports and a range of partner journals known collectively as the Nature Partner Journals. Online, nature.com provides over 8 million visitors per month with access to Nature Research publications and services, including news and comment from Nature, and the leading scientific jobs board Naturejobs. Nature Research also offers a range of researcher services, including online and in-person training and expert language and editing services.

Nature Research is part of Springer Nature, a leading global research, educational and professional publisher. Springer Nature is the world's largest academic book publisher, publisher of the world's most influential journals and a pioneer in the field of open research. The company numbers almost 13,000 staff in over 50 countries. Springer Nature was formed in 2015 through the merger of Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, Macmillan Education and Springer Science+Business Media.

For more information, please visit nature.com and springernature.com and follow @nresearchnews and @SpringerNature