About this journal — editorial-policies

Editorial Policies

npj Quantum Biology adheres to the highest standards of research integrity and editorial practice, aligning with Nature Portfolio guidelines and international standards from COPE, ICMJE, and the STM Association.

Peer Review Process

All research submissions undergo rigorous peer review by independent experts. The journal operates a double-anonymous review process by default, in which the identities of both authors and reviewers are concealed throughout the review process. Authors may opt for single-anonymous review at the point of submission.

Initial Assessment

All submissions are first assessed by a member of the editorial board. Manuscripts that do not meet the journal’s scope or minimum standards are returned without review, typically within five working days.

External Review

Manuscripts passing initial assessment are sent to at least two independent reviewers with relevant expertise. Reviewers assess originality, methodological soundness, clarity, and significance.

Decision

Following receipt of reviewer reports, an associate editor makes one of the following decisions: Accept, Minor Revision, Major Revision, or Reject. Authors of rejected manuscripts may appeal if they believe an error of fact has occurred.

Median time from submission to first decision: 21 days. Median time from submission to acceptance: 68 days.

Data Availability and Code Sharing

Authors are required to make the data and code underlying their published findings available to the scientific community, in accordance with Nature Portfolio’s data sharing policy.

Data Availability Statement

All research articles must include a Data Availability Statement indicating where the underlying data can be accessed.

Preferred Repositories

Zenodo (https://zenodo.org) — general research data
figshare (https://figshare.com) — figures, datasets, media
Dryad (https://datadryad.org) — biological and ecological data
NCBI (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) — sequence data
GitHub / GitLab (with Zenodo archiving) — software and analysis code

Code Availability

Custom code integral to the findings reported must be made openly available, either as supplementary material or via a public repository.

Conflict of Interest Policy

All authors are required to disclose any financial or non-financial competing interests that could be perceived to influence the work at the time of submission.

Disclosure

Competing interest disclosures are published with each article. If no competing interests exist, the statement “The authors declare no competing interests” will be published.

Reviewer Conflicts

Reviewers are required to recuse themselves from reviewing any manuscript in which a potential conflict of interest exists.

Industry sponsorship disclosure: Research sponsored by industry partners, including JinOn Biotech, must be explicitly declared in the Acknowledgements section.

Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

The journal is committed to maintaining the integrity of the published record. Where errors are discovered post-publication, the following procedures apply.

Publisher Correction

Errors introduced in the editorial or production process that materially affect the accuracy of the published article will be corrected by Publisher Correction.

Author Correction

Errors made by the authors that do not affect conclusions will be addressed by Author Correction. Authors should contact the editorial office promptly upon identifying such errors.

Retraction

Articles that contain fundamental errors affecting the validity of conclusions, or that violate research ethics, may be retracted in accordance with COPE guidelines.