An MS Word template may be downloaded from the Nature website. We prefer authors to use this when preparing their manuscript. If the details are brief, they can be given in the text with a reference to published methods used. Otherwise, they should be described at the end of the text in a Methods section, subdivided by short, bold headings referring to methods used. This section should not normally exceed 800 words and should ideally be shorter.
Acknowledgements are brief and follow the reference list.
References are numbered sequentially as they appear in the text, tables and figure legends. When cited in the text, reference numbers are superscript, not in brackets. The maximum number of references is 50 for Articles and 30 for Letters. Only one publication is given for each number. Published conference abstracts and recognized preprint servers may be included in reference lists, but text, grant details and acknowledgements may not.