Last Updated on August 27, 2025 by Admin
Nature Communications has shown remarkable consistency in maintaining a high impact factor over recent years. The 2025 impact factor of 15.7
Key Journal Metric
| Metric | Details |
|---|---|
| Impact Factor (2025) | 15.7 |
| 5-Year Impact Factor | 17.2 |
| CiteScore | 23.2 |
| SJR | 4.761 |
| Quartile | Q1 |
| Acceptance Rate | 7.7% |
| Time to First Decision | ~8 days |
| Time to Publication | ~28 weeks |
| Open Access Type | Gold Open Access |
| Article Processing Charge (APC) | Approx. 5190 EUR / 6290 USD |
| Indexing | Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, DOAJ, Embase |
About Nature Communications Journal
Nature Communications is a peer-reviewed, open access, scientific journal published by Nature Research since 2010.
It is a multidisciplinary journal and it covers the natural sciences, including physics, chemistry, earth sciences, medicine, and biology.
Impact Factor
SJR Rank
H-index
Nature Communications Impact Factor
Impact Factor (IF) or often called journal impact factor (JIF) is an index provided by an analytics company named Clarivate. The impact factor is calculated by dividing the number of times the articles are cited in the last two years by the total number of publications in those two years.
- Total Citations in 2020 and 2021 = 500
- Total Number of Publications in 2020 and 2021 = 100
- Impact Factor of the Journal in 2022 = 500/100 = 5
Nature Communications Impact Factor (2017-2025)
- Nature Communications Impact Factor 2017 – 12.353
- Nature Communications Impact Factor 2018 – 11.878
- Nature Communications Impact Factor 2019 – 12.121
- Nature Communications Impact Factor 2020 – 14.919
- Nature Communications Impact Factor 2021 – 17.694
- Nature Communications Impact Factor 2022 – 16.6
- Nature Communications Impact Factor 2023 – 14.7
- Nature Communications Impact Factor 2024 – 15.7 (updated June 2025)
The significant increase in its JIF between 2020 and 2022, followed by a moderation, mirrors a widespread trend across many high-impact journals. This peak was largely fueled by the surge in highly cited research related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The subsequent numbers represent a return to more typical citation patterns, and the rebound to 15.7 in the latest JCR indicates the journal’s strong, stable position in the post-pandemic scientific landscape.
Nature Communications Impact Factor 2022
Nature Communications – Key Journal Metrics (2025)
📊 5-Year Impact Factor (Enduring Influence)
- 5-Year JIF (2025): 17.2, higher than its 2-year JIF.
- This reflects the long-term citation strength of its articles.
- Research published in Nature Communications continues to shape science well beyond the first 2 years after publication.
📈 Beyond JIF: Modern Metrics
To get a holistic view of journal influence, it’s important to look at more than just the Impact Factor.
- CiteScore (Scopus): 23.4–24.9, placing the journal in the 97th percentile.
- SJR (SCImago): Strong score, showing citations come from prestigious journals.
- SNIP: High normalization, proving relevance across multiple disciplines.
- Together, these confirm Nature Communications publishes research that is *frequently cited, globally recognized, and respected by other leading journals.
🏆 Ranking & Quartile
- Quartile: Consistently Q1 in Multidisciplinary Sciences (top 25%).
- Percentile Rank (Web of Science JCR): 92.6% — meaning it outperforms over 92% of competing journals.
- Specific Ranking: As high as 10th out of 135 journals, cementing its spot among the most influential journals worldwide.
Nature Communications H-index
The h index is a metric for evaluating the cumulative impact of an author’s scholarly output and performance; measures quantity with quality by comparing publications to citations.
The h index of Nature Communications Journal is 577, which means among all the published articles in this journal, 577 of these publications have received at least 577 citations each.
Nature Communications Journal Metrics
Nature Communications Editorial Board Members
- Chief Editor | Health and Clinical Sciences: Nathalie Le Bot
- Chief Editor | Biological Sciences: Stephane Larochelle
- Chief Editor | Chemistry and Biotechnology: Enda Bergin
- Chief Editor | Physics and Earth Sciences: Prabhjot Saini
Respective memebers from different fields can be found below
- Quantum, atomic, molecular, and optical physics
- Condensed matter physics and astronomy
- Applied physics
- Materials science and inorganic, nanoscale & physical chemistry
- Bio- and organic chemistry
- Energy materials
- Biochemistry and molecular biology
- Biotechnology
- Cell and developmental biology
- Cancer
- Translational & clinical research
- Microbiology and infectious diseases
- Immunology
- Neuroscience
- Human Behaviour
- Genetics, ecology and evolution
- Earth
Nature Communications Publication Fee
APC is £5,290 / $6,990 / €5,890 plus taxes.
Nature Communications Review Time
Nature Communications prioritizes rapid publication and uses single-blind peer review, which is standard across Cell Press journals.
| Decision time immediate rejection | 10 days |
| Duration first review round | 1.9 months |
| Total handling time accepted manuscripts | 4.2 months |
Comparative Analysis: The Multidisciplinary Arena
For authors considering where to submit their best work, Nature Communications is often weighed against other top-tier multidisciplinary journals like Science Advances and PNAS.
| Metric | Nature Communications | Science Advances | PNAS |
| Publisher | Nature Portfolio | AAAS | National Academy of Sciences |
| 2024 JIF | 15.7 | 12.5 | 9.1 |
| 5-Year JIF | 17.2 | 14.1 | 10.6 |
| Acceptance Rate | 7.7% | Not Available | ~15.6% |
| APC (USD) | ~$6,290 | ~$4,500 | ~$4,975 |
This comparison highlights that Nature Communications maintains a higher Impact Factor and is significantly more selective than its key competitors, justifying its position as a premier destination for groundbreaking research.
Nature Communications Reference Style
Nature Communications, uses the standard Nature referencing style.
Printed journals
Schott, D. H., Collins, R. N. & Bretscher, A. Secretory vesicle transport velocity in living cells depends on the myosin V lever arm length. J. Cell Biol. 156, 35-39 (2002).
Online only
Bellin, D. L. et al. Electrochemical camera chip for simultaneous imaging of multiple metabolites in biofilms. Nat. Commun. 7, 10535; 10.1038/ncomms10535 (2016).
For papers with more than five authors include only the first author’s name followed by ‘et al.’.
Books:
Smith, J. Syntax of referencing in How to reference books (ed. Smith, S.) 180-181 (Macmillan, 2013).
Online material:
Babichev, S. A., Ries, J. & Lvovsky, A. I. Quantum scissors: teleportation of single-mode optical states by means of a nonlocal single photon. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0208066 (2002).
Manaster, J. Sloth squeak. Scientific American Blog Network http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/psi-vid/2014/04/09/sloth-squeak (2014).
Hao, Z., AghaKouchak, A., Nakhjiri, N. & Farahmand, A. Global integrated drought monitoring and prediction system (GIDMaPS) data sets. figshare https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.853801 (2014).
Nature Communications Endnote Style
You can download the Nature Communications Endnote Style and Nature Communications Zotero Style
Nature Communications Abbreviation
The ISO 4 standard abbreviation for abstracting, indexing and referencing purposes of Nature Communications is “NAT COMMUN.“
Nature Communications Acceptance Rate
The acceptance rate of a journal is the ratio of the number of articles submitted to the number of articles published.
The average acceptance rate of Nature Communications journal is 7.7%
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