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Author: Siobhan Bates

Science and research are always in motion. New and exciting explorations and discoveries shape and reshape our understanding every day, across the globe. To support the advances in dynamic research horizons, Nature Portfolio extends its boundaries with a new series: Nature Progress.  

The new series unites with research communities to foster progress in rapidly advancing fields. What does this mean in practice and how will the series grow to support more diverse audiences globally? Nature Portfolio’s Allison Lang, Vice President Nature Communications Portfolio and Deborah Sweet, Executive Vice President, Journals, Nature Portfolio reveal details about the new series and share their enthusiasm for Nature Progress.  

What is Nature Progress?  

A. Lang: Nature Progress is a new series of fully open access journals in the Nature Portfolio family, covering a wide range of scientific disciplines. Collaborating with research communities in rapidly advancing fields, the new series will guide the progress of these fast growing, vibrant, and dynamic research areas.  

D. Sweet: Nature Progress journals are set up to support and serve research communities through the development of close relationships with them. They will do this while espousing the same values and focus on quality that researchers expect from Nature Portfolio. Journals in the Nature Progress series will enjoy the same editorial oversight, rigorous peer review, and high publication and production standards as any Nature Portfolio journals.  

A. Lang: We are building on Nature Portfolio’s longstanding reputation for rigour and high-quality research publications in creating and developing Nature Progress.  With the new series, we aim to reach a broader, global audience, and we are doing that in tandem with our communities. This is an evolution for the Nature brand. 

What prompted the launch of Nature Progress?  

D. Sweet: We saw the need for a new Nature Portfolio series from the authors who are already submitting to us. Through their publication behaviour as well as surveys we’ve done, our authors have communicated to us that they’d appreciate having another option within the Nature Portfolio journal family.  

Additionally, we noticed that there is growth in some fields that we don’t think we can support effectively within the range of journals that we currently have. The new series, Nature Progress, addresses both these needs. 

A. Lang: Indeed, the inspiration came from our desire and commitment to support our authors and help them find a home for their research.   

D. Sweet: We chose the name Nature Progress for this series because that is exactly what the papers in these journals will describe: progress! It’s also a reference to the focus on fields that are seeing particularly strong growth, and therefore also significant progress. 

“We chose a collaborative editorial model so we could really embed the Nature Progress journals in faster growing and dynamic fields.” 

- Allison Lang, Vice President Nature Communications Portfolio 

Tell us more about the collaboration with research communities in Nature Progress.  

A. Lang: We chose a collaborative editorial model so we could really embed the Nature Progress journals in faster growing and dynamic fields. In practice, it means developing editorial teams that represent the best of both worlds: We pair our in-house expertise with community knowledge by enlisting experts in the field as editorial board members. We already know that this model works extremely well for the Communications series of journals.  

Nature Progress editorial board members will handle manuscripts, and in-house editors will make the final decisions regarding publication. These editorial board members, all experts who are deeply embedded in their research community, will act as advocates for their journal and the Nature Progress series. In their roles in both the research community and the journals, they will directly support authors in their publication journey with us while shaping their discipline.   

What are the benefits of the collaborative editorial model for the Nature Progress series? 

D. Sweet: It’s clear that the time and dedication that professional, in-house editors are able to devote to journals has significant benefit for the journals and for the authors who publish in them, and we hear that all the time in feedback from authors.  

But particularly in fields that are changing quickly, people who are “on the ground” and working directly in relevant topic areas have valuable insights to bring as well. With academic editorial board members, Nature Progress journals will expand the overall editorial team’s topical expertise, and cover more areas directly than we otherwise could with only an in-house team.   

We’re really looking forward to working closely with the academic editors who will join us to collaborate on the Nature Progress series. We will equip this carefully selected group of editors with all the tools and background they need to be able to work effectively as part of the Nature Portfolio editorial team.  

“Open access publishing enables rapid dissemination and collaboration. These are meaningful to any field of research, but definitely so in those dynamic and evolving fields that Nature Progress will serve.” 

- Deborah Sweet, Executive Vice President, Journals, Nature Portfolio 

Nature Progress journals are fully open access. This means every accepted article will become immediately and entirely accessible to anyone, anywhere. Why did you decide to establish Nature Progress as a fully open access series?  

D. Sweet: We think open access is a good fit for the new Nature Progress series because it will help make sure that the papers we choose have wide readership right from the outset and enhance their global reach.   

Open access publishing enables rapid dissemination and collaboration. These are meaningful to any field of research, but definitely so in those dynamic and evolving fields that Nature Progress will serve. 

To enable more authors to publish open access in the Nature Progress journals, regardless of funding, we offer waivers and discounts on article processing charges (APCs). 

A. Lang: There is major support from funders, institutions, and authors for open access publishing. The data shows us there is significant uptake and support for the open access option in many fields.  

Publishing research open access has significant advantages of accessibility and readership to authors. We want the content from the Nature Progress series to be globally accessible and reach the widest possible audience. 

What can we expect to see from Nature Progress and how will it evolve?  

A. Lang: We have chosen two rapidly growing fields to kick off this series. In March 2026, we will launch the first two journals in the series: Nature Progress Oncology and Nature Progress Brain Health.  

Following the launch of our first two journals that cover clinical research, we will introduce additional titles later this year focusing on other areas of research. For every new journal and generally as the series grows, our priority will be to identify rapidly growing research areas in which we can support our authors better in their Nature Portfolio journey. 

D. Sweet: We plan to develop the series and announce new journals in topic areas where feedback from the research community suggests that a journal from the Nature Progress series could help the field grow and move forward.   

What excites you most about Nature Progress?   

D. Sweet: I’m always excited about a new way for us to support the research community, and that is what I see this series doing. We know authors are enthusiastic about publishing with Nature Portfolio, and this new journal series will give us an opportunity to offer that option to more authors, and particularly those working in some of the most exciting and rapidly growing fields.   

A. Lang: I am very enthusiastic about this new project! What excites me the most is bringing the reputation and rigour of the Nature Portfolio to a new series that is developed in response to the needs of research communities.  

I am looking forward to welcoming and working more closely with editorial board members in this context. I know from many previous experiences the wealth of opportunity and expertise that can be harnessed from community engagement, creating more diverse thinking.   

Nature Progress: What you need to know about the new journal series

Submissions  

The first two journals in the new Nature Progress journal series will open for submission on 19 March 2026.  

Scope: 

• Nature Progress Oncology, publishing high-quality primary research across basic, translational, and clinical oncology 
• Nature Progress Brain Health, spanning translational neuroscience, neurology, and neuropsychiatry 

Fully open access 

Nature Progress is a fully open access series. Its journals will complement 麻豆直播 Nature’s existing portfolio of around 700 fully open access journals and build on the more than 240,000 open access articles published each year across 麻豆直播 Nature’s portfolios.  

The APCs for the new series will be within the range of  EUR 4,390 – 5,090. As a fully open access series, the Nature Progress journals will be supported by 麻豆直播 Nature’s APC waiver policy. 

Collaborative editorial model  

Authors publishing in the new series will benefit from the expertise of both specialist in-house Nature Portfolio editors and  external editorial board members from the research community. The in-house editorial team will include a chief editor, a deputy editor, and an associate editor.  Full editorial details and processes will be published when the journals open for submission. 

You can follow our  to be the first to hear more about the journals when they open for submissions.