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Author FAQ
PNAS Author Center
Publishing in PNAS
Does PNAS publish research from authors outside the United States?
As the official journal of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (NAS), PNAS welcomes authors, editors, and reviewers from around the globe. In 2018, about 62% of papers published in PNAS came from outside the United States, reflecting the global nature of high-impact scientific research.
What is the PNAS media embargo policy and what can I say about my work prior to publication?
Please see the PNAS News Office page. More than 5,600 journalists receive embargoed PNAS news information. PNAS is covered regularly by newspapers, The Economist, BBC, NPR, Science, Nature, and major television networks.
What are the Author Rights and Permissions?
View Author Rights and Permissions Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I get more information about PNAS?
View Frequently Asked Questions About PNAS
Submission Process
Do I have to know an Academy member to get published in PNAS?
Not at all. PNAS welcomes submissions from top researchers worldwide. You can submit your manuscript to the journal directly, without contacting an NAS member, at pnascentral.org.
PNAS has evolved substantially since our founding in 1914. The journal was created as a publishing venue for members of the National Academy of Sciences, and for much of our history we only published papers authored by NAS members or communicated by them on behalf of others. In 1995, under the leadership of then editor-in-chief Nicholas Cozzarelli, PNAS piloted a Direct Submission program; the goal was to strengthen the journal by allowing researchers to submit their original research to PNAS without sponsorship from an Academy member. The program has been a success: Direct Submissions have grown from 1,700 in 1996 to nearly 17,000 in 2018, with a competitive acceptance rate of 14%. The success of the Direct Submission track allowed us to discontinue communicated papers in 2010. In accordance with the guiding principles established by George Ellery Hale in 1914, PNAS continues to publish brief first announcements of NAS members' and foreign associates' more important contributions to research, but articles submitted through the Direct Submission process now constitute more than 75% of articles published in PNAS.
What are the criteria for publication in PNAS?
Submissions must be
- original scientific research of exceptional importance,
- work that appears to an NAS member to be of particular importance, and
- intelligible to a broad scientific audience.
In addition to research reports, PNAS publishes Commentaries, Perspectives, Colloquium Papers, Letters, Reviews, and Front Matter. See the Information for Authors for details about paper types.
What is the acceptance rate?
PNAS receives many more papers than it can publish each year: More than 18,000 submissions of all types in 2018. Because not all submissions are appropriate in scope for PNAS, this creates a heavy workload for editors and reviewers, and not all papers can be sent for peer review. The Editorial Board and the NAS member editors reject more than 50% of Direct Submissions without additional review if the papers do not appear to be of exceptional importance and scientific quality or broad enough for the journal’s readership. Not all papers rejected at this stage receive detailed comments from the editor.
PNAS received almost 17,000 Direct Submissions and published just over 2,400 (14%) in 2018. We also published just over 800 Contributed papers, or about 25% of 2018 PNAS articles.
Note: Since January 2017, the review process for all Contributed submissions has been handled by PNAS.
How do I submit a paper initially?
Initial submissions should combine text, tables, figures, and most supporting information (SI) into a single PDF file. PNAS is format-neutral; manuscripts do not need to be formatted according to specific journal guidelines at this stage. Carefully review this FAQ and the Information for Authors and visit our submission system. Click “Submit Manuscript” and select your manuscript type (Direct Submission is most common). Upload any manuscript files and provide additional details. You may review all submitted files before clicking “Submit Manuscript.” For details, see our Manuscript Submission page.
Review Process
Does the reputation of the authors influence the editors?
No, manuscripts across all tracks are evaluated based on the scientific merits of the work, not on who the authors are or where they are from.
What happens to a submitted paper, and who makes the final decision?
The Editorial Board member (who is also an NAS member) receives initial submissions and is responsible for the final decision. The Editorial Board member can reject the paper at initial submission, elect to serve as the NAS member editor, or select another NAS member editor. Currently, there are more than 210 Editorial Board members.
Next, the NAS member editor can reject the paper or send the paper for review. After review, the member editor makes a recommendation about acceptance to the Editorial Board member. Multiple rounds of review and revision are strongly discouraged. All 2,800 NAS members are eligible to serve as member editors; 1,236 member editors handled papers in 2018.
In rare cases where there are no NAS member editors available to review a submission or expert in the subject matter, a nonmember guest editor may be used. The final decision is still made by the Editorial Board, and the name of the Board member appears on the paper along with the name of the guest editor.
For additional information on the PNAS review process, please visit Editorial and Journal Policies.
How long is the decision process?
PNAS has a 3-tier process for Direct Submissions (Editorial Board member, NAS member editor, reviewers) and asks editors and reviewers to provide comments in a timely fashion.
- More than 50% of Direct Submissions are declined by the Editorial Board within the first 2 weeks of submission.
- For papers that are sent to an editor and reviewers, the average time to receive an initial decision is 45 days (median of 38 days).
- The average time from acceptance to online publication is 27 days.
- The average time from submission to online publication is 5.5 months. The average time from submission to issue publication is 6 months.
How do I submit a revised paper?
Follow the link in your PNAS decision letter to access your revised manuscript record or click the manuscript number on your author home page, underneath Author Tasks. The files uploaded for your original manuscript and your manuscript information will appear. Revisions must include production-ready files for both the main article and SI. Revision files must be uploaded individually along with a point-by-point response to the reviewers’ comments and a list of any other changes made to the manuscript. For details, see Manuscript Format and Files.
What does the decision letter mean?
All submissions to PNAS are evaluated by a member of the Editorial Board. In some cases, multiple rounds of review are necessary before an article is accepted. Authors may receive the following different types of decision letters:
- The paper is accepted for publication without any additional changes and will be sent to production for processing.
- The paper must be revised in response to the comments from the editor or reviewers. In this case, the decision regarding acceptance will be made after the editor and reviewers have evaluated the point-by-point response submitted by the authors.
- The majority of revised submissions will be returned to the reviewers, but in some instances we will request additional minor revisions that will not require rereview. In these cases, the editor or a member of the Editorial Board will evaluate the revision.
- For some revisions, the editor will state that a revised paper is unlikely to be accepted. In these cases, it may be worthwhile for the authors to consider submission elsewhere.
- The paper is rejected for publication. Rejections can occur when the Board, an editor, or at least one reviewer finds the paper not appropriate for publication in PNAS. The decision letter will explicitly state whether a resubmission would be considered. Resubmissions must be invited by the editor or Editorial Board, and should be submitted as a new submission. Resubmissions must include a resubmission/revision cover letter that references the original manuscript tracking number and outlines the changes made to the manuscript.
If my paper was rejected by PNAS, should I revise and resubmit it?
Unless your decision letter specifically invites you to revise and resubmit your work, you are strongly advised not to resubmit to PNAS. Many papers are declined because they are not of sufficient general interest for the broad readers of PNAS and may be more appropriate for a specialty journal. Given the high number of submissions, we are unable to give unsolicited resubmissions high priority, and they are not usually successful.
Should I appeal?
Given the high number of submissions and limited resources, PNAS rejects more than 16,000 papers per year. We understand that this can be frustrating to authors, particularly when papers are rejected without review or when authors disagree with reviewer or editor comments. Authors may appeal decisions on rejected papers by writing to PNAS@nas.edu, but we cannot guarantee a quick decision. Please note that decisions made by the Board regarding the novelty or general interest of a submission are unlikely to be reversed with an appeal. If an appeal is declined, further appeals will not be considered and the paper may not be resubmitted.
Permissions
When I give PNAS a license to publish my article, what rights do I have?
Please visit our licenses page for information about author rights under the PNAS exclusive and nonexclusive licenses.
How do I obtain a PNAS License to Publish form?
The license to publish form is completed during the submission process. Please visit our licenses page for more information about the PNAS exclusive and nonexclusive licenses.
What happens if PNAS does not publish my article?
If the paper is not published in PNAS, the license to publish is terminated and all rights revert to the author(s).
May I sign the PNAS License to Publish if I am employed by the US government?
Yes. The corresponding author may sign on behalf of all authors in the standard section of the License to Publish, if only some authors are US government employees. However, if all authors are US government employees, the corresponding author must sign the "All authors are US government employees" section only. Please note, employees of national laboratories, e.g., Brookhaven National Laboratory, are not US government employees, and should sign in the standard section. For questions, please contact PNASAuthorLicense@nas.edu.
How do I obtain permission to use previously published material in my paper?
Before submitting your paper to PNAS, please use our sample letter to ask a third-party owner of copyright for their written permission to use, in print and electronic format, any previously published text, illustrations, graphics, or other material.
Can I post my work on a preprint server?
Yes, please review our policy on preprint servers. The PNAS News Office asks that authors refrain from posting accepted manuscripts on publicly accessible preprint servers until after the media embargo has expired.
Posting a preprint of your article does not constitute prior publication and does not preclude publication in PNAS. You do not need to remove preprints of your manuscript from publicly available servers (including your personal web pages) after your article has been accepted for publication in PNAS. Any posting made after acceptance of the article for publication in PNAS must include a link to the article in PNAS.
Can I post my work on an institutional repository or on my personal website?
Authors may, after publication in PNAS, post a postprint (accepted manuscript) of their article on their personal web page, in their funding body’s archive, or to a designated noncommercial institutional repository, provided that a link to the work on PNAS.org is included.
How can I show my article to my colleagues?
For proper versioning and for article usage metrics, we prefer that you send colleagues a link to your paper at PNAS. PNAS does not allow articles to be systematically distributed as PDFs by email, posted on listservs, or placed in open archives. Please remember that PNAS retains an exclusive license for the presentation of the article (i.e., the typographical layout as a PDF and the links and features of the HTML full-text version). All PNAS articles are free online within 6 months of publication.
Can others (nonauthor third parties) use my original figures or tables in their works without asking PNAS for permission?
PNAS automatically permits others to use original figures or tables published in PNAS for noncommercial and educational use (i.e., in a review article, in a book that is not for sale), provided that the full journal reference is cited and, for articles published in volumes 90–105 (1993–2008), "Copyright (copyright year) National Academy of Sciences" is included. Commercial reuse of figures and tables (i.e., in promotional materials, in a textbook for sale) requires permission from PNAS. Please see PNAS Rights and Permissions.
Can the news media use my figures without asking PNAS for permission?
Yes, journalists may use original figures from your PNAS article to illustrate news stories. Written permission from PNAS is not required; however, all figures must be cited as reproduced with permission from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. Figures may not be used to illustrate news stories unrelated to a given PNAS article without express written permission from PNAS. To obtain high-resolution versions of figures, contact the PNAS News Office.
Where do I send requests for permission that I receive from others?
Please see PNAS Rights and Permissions. Permission requests may be sent to our Rights and Permissions department.
[07/19]