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Nature reference style is a numbered system: each reference gets one number in order of first citation, the number is a superscript in the text, and the reference list gives surname-first authors, a full article title, an italic abbreviated journal name, a bold volume number, the page range and the year in parentheses. The rules below come from the instructions that Nature and Nature Communications publish for authors (checked 2026-10-29), and they include the reference-manager traps that cause most formatting rework.
What Nature reference style is
Nature reference style is the numbered citation format described in the Formatting guide of the journal Nature. It is not a separate standard maintained by a style body such as the ones behind APA or Chicago; it is the house style of a journal, written down in its author instructions. Nature Communications states that it “uses standard Nature referencing style”, so authors preparing for either journal follow the same core pattern.
In practice the style has three working parts: numbering that follows citation order, superscript numbers in the text, and a compact reference list entry. Each part is covered below with the wording the journals use.
Who uses it and what it covers
Nature
The Nature Formatting guide sets the rules for the reference section of its papers. As a guideline, Articles allow up to 50 references in the main text if needed and within the average page budget. Only one publication can be listed for each number. Additional references for Methods or Supplementary Information are not included in that count.
Nature Communications
Nature Communications points to the same style and adds submission rules: footnotes are not used, BibTeX bibliography files cannot be accepted, and LaTeX submissions must contain all references within the manuscript .tex file itself. This page covers only these two journals. Other journals with the Nature name or the same publisher may publish their own instructions, so check the author guidelines of the journal you are submitting to.
How to format references, step by step
- Number in order of first citation. Nature numbers references sequentially as they appear in the text, tables, boxes, figure legends, Methods, Extended Data tables and Extended Data figure legends. Nature Communications words the order as text first, then tables, then figures, then boxes, so a reference that appears only in a table, figure or box comes last in the list.
- Use superscript numbers in the text. Nature says reference numbers are superscript, not in brackets, unless they are likely to be confused with a superscript number.
- List authors surname first. Write the surname, a comma, then the initials of the given names. Nature Communications adds that initials are followed by full stops.
- Know the et al. threshold. Include all authors unless there are more than five, in which case give only the first author followed by “et al.” Nature Communications words the same threshold as “six or more”.
- Always give the article title. Nature requires titles of all cited articles. Set them in upright text, capitalize only the first word, write the title exactly as it appears in the work cited, and end it with a full stop.
- Format the journal, volume and pages. The journal title is italic and abbreviated according to common usage. The volume number is bold (Nature Communications specifies that the comma after it is bold too). Give the full page range where appropriate, then the year in parentheses.
- For books, add publisher and city. Nature requires both. Book titles are italic with all main words capitalized.
Worked examples by source type
These examples are the ones printed in the journals’ own instructions, reproduced as written there.
| Source type | Example from the journal instructions |
|---|---|
| Journal article | Eigler, D. M. & Schweizer, E. K. Positioning single atoms with a scanning tunnelling microscope. Nature 344, 524-526 (1990). |
| Commentary or News & Views (no article title) | Iijima, S. Nature 354, 56-58 (1991). |
| Book | Jones, R. A. L. Soft Machines: Nanotechnology and Life Ch. 3 (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 2004). |
| Research dataset with a DOI | Hao, Z., AghaKouchak, A., Nakhjiri, N. & Farahmand, A. Global Integrated Drought Monitoring and Prediction System (GIDMaPS) data sets. figshare http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.853801 (2014). |
| Preprint on a recognized server | 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 http://arXiv.org/quant-ph/0208066 (2002). |
For web-only journals, Nature asks for authors, article title and journal name as above, followed by the full URL (or DOI if known) and the year of publication in parentheses. For websites it asks for authors if known, the title of the cited page, the URL in full and the year of posting in parentheses.
What may and may not go in the list
Can I cite preprints, datasets and unpublished work?
Yes for preprints and datasets, with conditions. Nature allows articles that are published or accepted by a named publication, or uploaded to a recognized preprint server (for example arXiv or bioRxiv). Published conference abstracts, numbered patents, preprints on recognized servers, papers in press and research datasets that have been assigned a DOI may also be listed. Papers in preparation do not go in the list; Nature says to mention them in the text with a list of authors. Grant details and acknowledgements may not be listed as numbered references.
Do I need article titles?
Yes. Nature requires titles of all cited articles, and its initial-submission instructions say the reference list should include article titles. The exception in Nature Communications is Commentaries and News & Views, where titles of cited articles are not included.
Reference-manager traps
EndNote linked fields
Nature instructs authors not to use linked fields produced by EndNote and similar programs, and to use EndNote’s one-click button to remove EndNote codes before saving the file. Our guide to numbered styles in EndNote and Word covers the Word side of that workflow.
BibTeX and LaTeX
Nature Communications cannot accept BibTeX bibliography files. Its LaTeX instructions say to copy the reference list from the .bbl file, paste it into the main .tex file, and delete the associated bibliography and bibliographystyle commands before submission.
Footnotes
Nature Communications does not use footnotes, so convert any footnote citations into numbered references.
Strengths and limits
- Strength: compact in the text. A superscript number takes almost no line space, which suits papers under tight page budgets.
- Strength: one rule for order. Numbers follow first citation, so the list order is fixed by the text rather than by alphabetizing.
- Limit: it belongs to specific journals. The rules are published by Nature and Nature Communications. Third-party templates sold as “Nature style” may differ from the journals’ own instructions, so confirm which instructions you are being held to.
- Limit: reordering is costly by hand. Adding a citation early in the paper shifts every later number, so recheck every number before submitting.
Nature versus Nature Communications, and other numbered styles
| Point | Nature | Nature Communications |
|---|---|---|
| Relationship to the style | Defines the style in its Formatting guide | “Uses standard Nature referencing style” |
| Authors before et al. | All, unless more than five; then first author + et al. | All, unless six or more; then first author + et al. |
| In-text numbers | Superscript, not in brackets unless confusable with a superscript number | Numbered sequentially: text, then tables, figures, boxes |
| Reference-manager rules | No linked EndNote fields | No BibTeX files; no footnotes |
If a journal asks for a different numbered format, our guides to Vancouver (ICMJE) style, IEEE reference format and AMA citation style cover those systems, and citation styles and referencing formats gives the wider overview. For software that inserts numbered citations in Word, see reference managers that work inside Microsoft Word.
FAQ
Are Nature references superscript or in brackets?
Superscript. Nature says reference numbers are superscript, not in brackets, unless they are likely to be confused with a superscript number.
How many authors are listed before “et al.”?
Up to five are listed in full. With more than five authors, give only the first author followed by “et al.”
How many references does a Nature Article allow?
As a guideline, up to 50 in the main text if needed and within the average page budget. References for Methods or Supplementary Information are not included in that count.
Can I use BibTeX?
Not as a file for Nature Communications. Paste the formatted list from the .bbl file into your .tex manuscript instead.
Where do references that appear only in a table or figure go?
It depends on the journal. Nature numbers references in order of appearance across the text, tables, boxes, figure legends, Methods, Extended Data tables and Extended Data figure legends. Nature Communications numbers them through the text first, then tables, then figures, then boxes, so a reference cited only in a table, figure or box comes after those first cited in the text.
Sources
- Nature, Formatting guide (References section), checked 2026-10-29.
- Nature, Initial submission, checked 2026-10-29.
- Nature Communications, How to submit (References and TeX/LaTeX sections), checked 2026-10-29.
