We want to make the process of submitting your manuscript as simple as possible. Please carefully follow our step-by-step process, completing each step before progressing to the next. There are several important things you need to know and understand before you begin the submission process. From checking that your research is relevant to our journal, to preparing your manuscript and finding out about costs and funding, you will find it in this section.

Completing our submission checklist before submitting your manuscript will help ensure that you have done everything you need to do and help to prevent delays to the assessment of your manuscript. Once you have successfully completed it, you will be ready to submit your manuscript. After your manuscript is submitted via our online submission system, it enters our Editorial process

Our marketing and communications teams promote articles across multiple channels following publication. We have a pre-publicity policy for authors, and we also offer advice and guidance to help you promote your published article through your own channels and techniques.

Format of articles
We publish original research in one format: Article

In most cases, we do not impose strict limits on word count or page number. However, we strongly recommend that you write concisely and stick to the following guidelines:

1. Articles should ideally be no more than 11 typeset pages
2. The main text should be no more than 4,500 words (not including Abstract, Methods, References and figure legends)
3. The title should be no more than 20 words
4. The abstract should be no more than 200 words

Abstract
Please do not include any references in your Abstract. Make sure it serves both as a general introduction to the topic and as a brief, non-technical summary of the main results and their implications.

Manuscript
Your manuscript text file should start with a title page that shows author affiliations and contact information, identifying the corresponding author with an asterisk. We recommend that each section includes an introduction of referenced text that expands on the background of the work. Some overlap with the Abstract is acceptable.
For the main body of the text, there are no specific requirements. You can organize it in a way that best suits your research. However, the following structure will be suitable in many cases:
Introduction

1. Results (with subheadings)
2. Discussion (without subheadings)
3. Methods

You should then follow the main body of text with:

1. References (limited to 60 references, though not strictly enforced)
2. Acknowledgments (optional)
3. Author contributions (names must be given as initials)
4. Additional Information (including a Competing Interests Statement)
5. Figure legends (these are limited to 350 words per figure)
6. Tables (maximum size of one page)

Please note, footnotes should not be used.

You may include a limited number of uncaptioned molecular structure graphics and numbered mathematical equations if necessary. Display items are limited to 8 (figures and/or tables). However, to enable typesetting of papers, we advise making the number of display items commensurate with your overall word length. So, for Articles of 2,000 words or less, we suggest including no more than 4 figures/tables. Please note that schemes should not be used and should be presented as figures instead.

Writing your manuscript
We read by a truly diverse range of scientists, many of whom are non-native English speakers. Please therefore give careful thought to communicating your findings as clearly as possible.
Although you can assume a shared basic knowledge of science, please don’t expect that everyone will be familiar with the specialist language or concepts of your particular field. Therefore:

1. Avoid technical jargon wherever possible, explaining it clearly when it is unavoidable.
2. Keep abbreviations to a minimum, particularly when they are not standard.
3. If you must use an abbreviation, make sure you spell it out fully in the text or legend the first time it appears.
4. Clearly explain the background, rationale, and main conclusions of your study.
5. Write titles and abstracts in language that will be readily understood by any scientist.
6. We strongly recommend that you ask a colleague with different expertise to review your manuscript before you submit it. This will help you to identify concepts and terminology that non-specialist readers may find hard to grasp.

Methods
We recommend you limit your Methods section to 1,500 words. Make sure it includes adequate experimental and characterization data for others to be able to reproduce your work. You should:

1. Include descriptions of standard protocols and experimental procedures.
2. Identify sources for any kits you use in your procedures.
3. Include any experimental protocols that describe the synthesis of new compounds.
4. Use the systematic name of any new compound and put its bold Arabic numeral in the heading for the experimental protocol, indicating it thereafter by its assigned, bold numeral.

References
We don’t copy edit your references. Therefore, it’s essential you format them correctly, as they will be linked electronically to external databases where possible. At Scientific Reports, we use the standard Nature referencing style. So, when formatting your references, make sure they:

1. Run sequentially (and are always numerical).
2. Sit within square brackets.
3. Commence first in the text, followed by tables and figures (references that only appear in tables or figures should be last in the reference list).
4. Only have one publication linked to each number.
5. Only include papers or datasets that have been published or accepted by a named publication, recognised preprint server or data repository (if you include any preprints of accepted papers in your reference list, make sure you submit them with the manuscript).
6. Include published conference abstracts and numbered patents, if you wish.
7. Don’t include grant details and acknowledgments.

Sorry, we cannot accept BibTeX (.bib) bibliography files for references. If you are making your submission by LaTeX, it must either contain all references within the manuscript .tex file itself, or (if you’re using the Overleaf template) include the .bbl file generated during the compilation process as a ‘LaTeX supplementary file’ (see the "Manuscripts" section for more details).

In your reference list, you should:

1. Include all authors unless there are six or more, in which case only the first author should be given, followed by 'et al.'.
2. List authors by the last name first, followed by a comma and initials (followed by full stops) of given names.
3. Use Roman text for Article and dataset titles, with only the first word of the title having an initial capital and written exactly as it appears in the work cited, ending with a full stop.
4. Use italics for book titles, giving all words in the title an initial capital.
5. Use italics for journal and data repository names, abbreviating them according to common usage (with full stops).
6. Use bold for volume numbers and the subsequent comma.
7. Give the full page range (or article number), where appropriate.

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).

Acknowledgments
Please keep any acknowledgments brief, and don’t include thanks to anonymous referees and editors, or any effusive comments. You may acknowledge grant or contribution numbers. You should also acknowledge assistance from medical writers, proof-readers, and editors.

Author contributions
You must supply an Author Contribution Statement as described in the Author responsibilities section of our Editorial and Publishing Policies.
Please be aware:

1. The author's name you give as the corresponding author will be the main contact during the review process and should not change.
2. The information you provide in the submission system will be used as the source of truth when your paper is published.

Submission Preparation Checklist

1. TITLE
   Exactly matches the title entered on the submission system and in any supplementary information
2. AUTHORS
   A maximum of three corresponding author(s) are identified using an asterisk
   All author (corresponding and contributing) details are included on the submission system as well as in the Article File
   Affiliations are provided and linked to authors with superscript numbers
   The individual contribution of each author is specified in the author contributions statement
   For papers with consortia as part of the authorship, please include the consortium name as the main author in the author list on the title page. Please provide a full list of members of this consortium at the end of your Article file, after the references, providing affiliations marked by superscript numbers as per the main author list.
   The consortium name should also be entered as an author on the submission system, together with the contact details of a nominated consortia representative.
3. ABSTRACT
   Exactly matches the abstract entered on the submission system
   Does not contain citations
4. MAIN TEXT
   No footnotes
5. METHODS
   Included in the main Article File and contain sufficient detail to repeat experiments
   Please note that: (i) study participant names (and other personally identifiable information) must be removed from all text/figures/tables/images; (ii) the use of colored bars/shapes or blurring to obscure the eyes/facial region of study participants is not an acceptable means of anonymization. For manuscripts that include information or images that could lead to the identification of a study participant, the Methods section must include a statement that confirms informed consent was obtained to publish the information/image(s) in an online open-access publication.
   We will not consider manuscripts describing research that involves organs/tissues procured from prisoners. Authors of manuscripts describing human transplantation research must include a statement in their manuscript attesting that no organs/tissues were procured from prisoners. Authors must also name all institution(s)/clinic(s)/department(s) via which organs/tissues were procured
6. AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS STATEMENT
   Author contributions statement, specifying the individual contribution of each author, is provided. This should be included after the references, and every author’s contribution must be listed
7. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
   Competing interests statement is provided in the Article File under the heading “Additional Information”, and matches the information entered on the submission system. Competing financial and non-financial interests should be disclosed
8. LEGENDS
   A legend is provided for each main table and the main figure in the Article file. These should be placed at the end of the manuscript, after the references
9. REFERENCES
   In a numbered list and all in-line citations should be matched back to a reference via numbering in superscript
10. MAIN FIGURES
    As an online journal, Graphical abstracts, ‘Cover’ images, or table of contents figures are not permitted and must be labeled and numbered as either a figure or table as appropriate.
    Please ensure you have read our digital image integrity and standards policy
    Gel and blot images are presented in compliance with our digital image and integrity policies. Where cropped gels/blots are displayed, this should be noted in the figure legend; full-length/uncropped gels and blots should be included in a Supplementary Information file
11. MAIN TABLES
    Main tables are provided in the Article File, and not as separate files, in an editable format (not embedded as an image in the document)