Journal profile
Nature Communications
Nature Communications is published by Nature Portfolio under ISSN 2041-1723. It holds an h-index of 754 across 92,686 indexed works, with a two-year mean citedness of 17.54, and is open access. Its main subject areas are RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms, RNA Research and Splicing, RNA modifications and cancer.
Below: the full publication record, and one real article from the journal formatted in IEEE, APA, and BibTeX so you can match field order against a source you can check.
Publication record and impact metrics
| Publisher | Nature Portfolio |
|---|---|
| ISSN-L | 2041-1723 |
| Indexed works | 92,686 |
| Total citations | 7,810,778 |
| h-index | 754 |
| 2-year mean citedness | 17.54 |
| Open access | Open access, listed in DOAJ |
| Main topics | RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms · RNA Research and Splicing · RNA modifications and cancer · CRISPR and Genetic Engineering · Epigenetics and DNA Methylation |
Publication figures come from this journal's OpenAlex record, released under CC0, and are a dated snapshot rather than a live count. Check the publisher for current scope and submission requirements.
A worked example from this journal
The source
Metascape provides a biologist-oriented resource for the analysis of systems-level datasets
- Authors
- Yingyao Zhou, Bin Zhou, Lars Pache, Max W. Chang, Alireza Hadj Khodabakhshi, Olga Tanaseichuk, and 2 more
- Year
- 2019
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1523
IEEE
Y. Zhou, B. Zhou, L. Pache, M. W. Chang, A. H. Khodabakhshi, O. Tanaseichuk et al. "Metascape provides a biologist-oriented resource for the analysis of systems-level datasets," Nature Communications, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 1523, 2019, doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-09234-6.
IEEE prints author initials before the surname and abbreviates the periodical title. Check the abbreviation for Nature Communications against your target publication's reference list before submitting.
APA
Zhou, Y., Zhou, B., Pache, L., Chang, M. W., Khodabakhshi, A. H., & Tanaseichuk, O., et al. (2019). Metascape provides a biologist-oriented resource for the analysis of systems-level datasets. Nature Communications, 10(1), 1523. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09234-6
APA puts the year directly after the authors, keeps the full journal title in italics, and renders the DOI as a URL.
BibTeX
@article{zhou2019,
author = {Yingyao Zhou and Bin Zhou and Lars Pache and Max W. Chang and Alireza Hadj Khodabakhshi and Olga Tanaseichuk},
title = {Metascape provides a biologist-oriented resource for the analysis of systems-level datasets},
journal = {Nature Communications},
volume = {10},
number = {1},
pages = {1523},
year = {2019},
issn = {2041-1723},
doi = {10.1038/s41467-019-09234-6}
}The citation key is the first author's surname and the year. Keep it stable once it appears in a draft, because renaming it breaks every cite that used it.
What to verify before you submit
- The volume and page range. Nature Communications records 92,686 works, and articles published online first can carry a different volume from the final issue. Cite the version you read.
- The abbreviated title. IEEE style uses standard periodical abbreviations, and registry metadata almost always returns the full name instead.
- Author name order. Registry records store full given names; IEEE and APA both want initials, formatted differently from each other.
- Whether the article is open access. This journal is open access and listed in DOAJ, which affects whether a reader can reach the version you cited.
- That the source supports your claim. A correctly formatted reference says nothing about whether the passage backs the sentence citing it.
How this journal sits in the record
Nature Communications carries an h-index of 754, which is above 97% of the journals covered here, and its articles have accumulated 7,810,778 citations across 92,686 indexed works. Its two-year mean citedness is 17.54.
21 of the journals covered here are published by Nature Portfolio. Reference style is set per title rather than per publisher, so do not carry a format across from a sibling journal without checking.
These are indexing figures describing how often work in this venue is cited. They say nothing about whether a particular article is sound, and they are not a substitute for reading it.
Questions about Nature Communications
What is the ISSN of Nature Communications?
The linking ISSN is 2041-1723. Use it in a BibTeX issn field so the entry stays resolvable.
Who publishes Nature Communications?
Nature Portfolio publishes it. 21 journals covered here come from the same publisher, and they do not all share one reference style, so check the requirements for this title rather than the publisher.
Is Nature Communications open access?
OpenAlex records it as open access and it is listed in DOAJ. An open-access article is reachable by any reader, so a reviewer can check the passage you cited without a subscription.
How do I cite an article from Nature Communications in LaTeX?
Use the BibTeX entry above as the pattern. The entry type is article, the journal field holds the full title, and the citation key zhou2019 follows the first author's surname and the year. Brace any acronym in the title so your bibliography style does not lowercase it.
Does Nature Communications use page numbers or article numbers?
The example article runs from page 1523, so this journal used page ranges at least for that volume. Newer issues in many journals switched to article numbers, so check the version you are citing.
How influential is Nature Communications?
Its h-index is 754, above 97% of the journals covered here, and its articles have been cited 7,810,778 times in total. Its two-year mean citedness is 17.54. These are indexing figures, not a judgement of whether a specific article is sound.
Does Nature Communications have a Journal Impact Factor?
Not one shown here. The Journal Impact Factor is Clarivate's metric, published in Journal Citation Reports and readable only with a JCR subscription, so this page does not restate it. The figures above come from OpenAlex: an h-index of 754 and a two-year mean citedness of 17.54 across 92,686 indexed works, captured on 2026-09-18. Mean citedness averages citations per work over a two-year window, which makes it closer in construction to CiteScore than to the Impact Factor. The three are not interchangeable, so quote whichever one your target venue actually asks for.