Submissions
Author Guidelines
Information For Authors
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United Kingdom (PNAS-UK) Submission Guidelines
PNAS-UK is format-neutral at initial submission, which means that manuscripts do not need to be formatted according to specific journal guidelines to be considered for review. We do, however, require the following information in order to evaluate your manuscript:
- A manuscript file (in any format) including the following:
- Title page (title, author list, classification, keywords)
- Abstract
- Significance statement
- Main text
- References
- Figures or tables with appropriate legends (may be uploaded separately)
- Supplementary information files (may be uploaded separately)
- Contact and competing interest information for all authors
- Data sharing plans (for all data, documentation, and code used in analysis)
- Funding information and whether an open access license has been selected
- List of appropriate Editorial Board members, qualified reviewers (minimum of three each) who are experts in the paper's scientific area. (A brief justification for suggested reviewers is welcome, particularly for interdisciplinary papers)
PNAS-UK will consider manuscripts for review as long as all components listed above are included in the submission. More granular details on manuscript formatting, including guidance on information to include in each section of the file, are included in the Manuscript Formatting Guidelines below.
Learn more about the initial submission process for member-contributed submissions.
The final version of the paper must be submitted by the last day of the year to count toward that year's annual limit.
Revised Submissions
Revised papers must be received within two months of the revision decision or they will be treated as new submissions. If you require additional time, please notify PNAS-UK. In addition to the information provided at initial submission, revised submissions must also include:
- A point-by-point response to reviewer comments
- A tracked-changes version of the revised manuscript
Revised submissions are encouraged to follow all Manuscript Formatting Guidelines, including the Publication-ready source file guidelines. Please note that multiple revisions are rarely permitted, and there is no guarantee that the paper will be accepted. Please contact us if you have any questions regarding manuscript formatting or the revision process.
Manuscript Formatting Guidelines
See the initial submission guidelines to learn about formatting requirements for submitting to PNAS-UK. Review the revised submission guidelines before preparing your revised submission. Detailed formatting guidelines are provided below.
Manuscript Templates
Please use the templates below to prepare your manuscript for PNAS-UK.
- Research article: Word | LaTeX (Overleaf)
- Brief Report: Word | LaTeX (Overleaf)
- SI Appendix: SI Appendix
Support for LaTeX templates is provided by Overleaf. Please contact PNAS-UK if you have questions about submitting in LaTeX and include the manuscript file as an attachment if possible.
Manuscript Order
Submitting manuscript sections in the following order will allow us to locate important information more easily and may speed the review process. Number all manuscript pages starting with the title page.
- Title page
- Abstract
- Explain to the general reader the major contributions of the article
- Include no more than 250 words
- Cite all references in the abstract in full within the abstract itself AND in the text
- Significance statement (Direct and Contributed Submissions only)
- Explain the significance of the research at a level understandable to an undergraduate-educated scientist outside their field of specialty
- Include no more than 120 words
- Main text
- Introduction
- Results
- Discussion
- Materials and methods (describe procedures in sufficient detail so that the work can be repeated)
- Acknowledgments and funding sources
- Spell out all abbreviations
- Use FundRef to identify the standard name for any funders
- Do not include dedications
- References
- Figure legends
Title Page Element
Please include the following information on the title page:
Title Page Element |
Description |
Title |
Keep the title brief (< 135 characters), descriptive, and comprehensible to a broad scientific audience. Include the studied organism. Avoid numbers, acronyms, abbreviations, punctuation, and puns. |
Author line |
Include full names of all authors in the order intended for publication. Use asterisks (*) to designate co-corresponding authors and numbered footnotes to indicate equal contributions. |
Author affiliations |
Include, in this order, department/laboratory/section/division, institution, city, state with ZIP code (for US institutions) or country with postal code (for non-US institutions). Use superscripts to match authors with institutions. Multiple affiliations are allowed. Affiliations where the work was done should be listed. If an author's affiliation has changed since the work was done, the current affiliation should also be listed and noted as such. |
Submission Preparation Checklist
All submissions must meet the following requirements.
- This submission meets the requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.
- This submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration.
- All references have been checked for accuracy and completeness.
- All tables and figures have been numbered and labeled.
- Permission has been obtained to publish all photos, datasets and other material provided with this submission.