en-natsci-journal-workflow - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: en-natsci-journal-workflow description: Use when deciding which English natural-science / clinical / physical / formal-science journal skill to invoke next, comparing fit across the 100-journal natural-science roadmap, or routing a manuscript before venue-specific re-framing.

English natural-science journal workflow (en-natsci-journal-workflow)

Purpose

This is the routing skill. It does not replace a single-journal profile; it first classifies the manuscript by discipline, advance type, evidence shape, and audience breadth, then routes into the matching per-journal skill for fit and re-framing. It is a sibling to en-journal-workflow, which covers the econ / finance / management 100.

Resources to Load When Needed

If the target family is unclear, read ../../resources/worked-examples/venue-routing.md before choosing a venue.
If a manuscript sits between broad and specialist venues, read ../../resources/exemplars/selection-patterns.md.
Before submission-ready advice, use ../../resources/journal-roster.md and ../../resources/official-source-map.md to open the current official author instructions for the chosen journal.

Ask four things first

Advance type: a single broadly-significant discovery, a mechanism, a new method/tool, a definitive clinical result, a theoretical/mathematical result, or an authoritative review/synthesis?
Evidence shape: molecular/mechanistic experiment, in vivo / animal model, human clinical trial or cohort, observational/field data, simulation/theory, structure determination, benchmark/algorithm, or proof?
Audience breadth: all of science (Nature/Science/PNAS), a whole discipline (Nature-subject / society flagship), or a specialty community?
Submission goal: swing for a general-science or flagship venue, or optimize topic–venue fit and review odds at a strong specialty journal?

Quick routing

Manuscript signature	Prefer skill
Single advance significant to all science	`nature` / `science` / `pnas`
Solid complete advance, broad but not flagship	`nature-communications` / `science-advances` / `national-science-review` / `the-innovation`
Complete mechanistic molecular story	`cell` / `molecular-cell` / `nature-cell-biology` / `the-embo-journal`
Genetics / genomics / functional genomics	`nature-genetics` / `genome-biology` / `nucleic-acids-research`
New method / tool / platform	`nature-methods` / `nature-biotechnology`
Stem cell / cancer biology / metabolism	`cell-stem-cell` / `cancer-cell` / `cell-metabolism` / `developmental-cell`
Immunology mechanism	`immunity` / `nature-immunology` / `science-immunology` / `journal-of-experimental-medicine`
Microbiology / host–microbe / microbiome	`nature-microbiology` / `cell-host-and-microbe`
Neuroscience / human behaviour	`neuron` / `nature-neuroscience` / `nature-human-behaviour` / `molecular-psychiatry`
Ecology / evolution / plant	`nature-ecology-and-evolution` / `ecology-letters` / `molecular-biology-and-evolution` / `the-plant-cell` / `nature-plants`→`the-plant-cell`
Open-access general biology	`elife` / `plos-biology` / `current-biology`
Practice-changing clinical trial, general medicine	`nejm` / `the-lancet` / `jama` / `the-bmj` / `annals-of-internal-medicine`
Translational mechanism-to-bedside	`nature-medicine` / `science-translational-medicine` / `journal-of-clinical-investigation`
Oncology (clinical / translational)	`journal-of-clinical-oncology` / `the-lancet-oncology` / `cancer-discovery` / `annals-of-oncology`→`journal-of-clinical-oncology`
Cardiology	`circulation` / `journal-of-the-american-college-of-cardiology` / `european-heart-journal`
GI / hematology / ID / neurology / diabetes	`gastroenterology` / `gut` / `blood` / `the-lancet-infectious-diseases` / `the-lancet-neurology` / `diabetes-care`
Public-health / OA medicine	`plos-medicine` / `the-bmj`
Physics Letter, broad + immediate	`physical-review-letters` / `physical-review-x`
Condensed matter / particles-gravitation	`physical-review-b` / `physical-review-d`
Physics conceptual advance / photonics / quantum	`nature-physics` / `nature-photonics` / `prx-quantum`
Authoritative physics review	`reviews-of-modern-physics` / `reports-on-progress-in-physics`
Astronomy / astrophysics	`nature-astronomy` / `the-astrophysical-journal` / `monthly-notices-of-the-royal-astronomical-society`
Broad chemistry, significant + general	`journal-of-the-american-chemical-society` / `angewandte-chemie-international-edition` / `nature-chemistry`
Catalysis / nano / Cell-Press chemistry	`nature-catalysis` / `acs-nano` / `nature-nanotechnology` / `chem`
Authoritative chemistry review	`chemical-reviews` / `chemical-society-reviews` / `accounts-of-chemical-research`
Materials / energy	`nature-materials` / `advanced-materials` / `nature-energy` / `joule` / `energy-and-environmental-science`
Earth / climate / sustainability / environment	`nature-geoscience` / `nature-climate-change` / `nature-sustainability` / `one-earth` / `environmental-science-and-technology`
AI/ML / robotics / CV methods	`nature-machine-intelligence` / `science-robotics` / `ieee-transactions-on-pattern-analysis-and-machine-intelligence` / `journal-of-machine-learning-research`
Pure mathematics, top result	`annals-of-mathematics` / `inventiones-mathematicae` / `journal-of-the-american-mathematical-society`

Sibling-Journal Disambiguation

Confusable targets	Decision rule
Nature/Science/Cell/PNAS vs specialist venues	Use broad venues only when the advance changes a field-wide model or practice; completeness alone is not enough.
NEJM/Lancet/JAMA/BMJ vs specialty clinical venues	General medicine needs practice-changing clinical evidence; disease-area nuance often belongs in specialty journals.
JACS/Angewandte/Nature Chemistry vs ACS Catalysis/materials venues	Decide whether the central advance is molecular chemistry, catalysis mechanism, or materials/device performance.
PRL/Nature Physics/Physical Review family	Route by immediacy and conceptual physics breadth, then by subfield and article format.
Mathematics vs physics vs CS	Theorem, physical insight, and algorithmic benchmark are different products; pick the reviewer community that evaluates the main claim.

Decision rules

Significance before submission. Nature/Science/Cell/PNAS triage most papers before review on "broad significance." If the advance is solid but incremental, route to the strong specialty or open-access multidisciplinary venue rather than burning a flagship desk-reject.
"First to report X" is not a contribution at flagship venues — name the conceptual advance, the mechanism, or the definitive evidence.
Descriptive ≠ mechanistic. A correlation, an omics catalogue, or a structure with no functional insight routes below Cell/Nature-subject; add mechanism or route to a data-resource venue.
Clinical evidence hierarchy. A practice-changing randomized trial belongs at NEJM/Lancet/JAMA; an observational cohort or secondary analysis usually routes to a society specialty journal. Trial registration + the right reporting checklist (CONSORT/PRISMA/STROBE) are prerequisites, not nice-to-haves.
Review vs. primary. Reviews of Modern Physics, Chemical Reviews, Accounts of Chemical Research, CA, and Trends are largely invited — do not route an unsolicited primary-data paper there.
Format gates. A PRL must fit the Letter length limit; a Nature/Cell paper must survive editorial triage; an eLife paper enters the Reviewed-Preprint model.
Always enter the single-journal skill's official-submission checklist before submitting; never rely on a stale template.

Output format

[Top journal skill] <skill-name>
[Alt 1] <skill-name> (reason)
[Alt 2] <skill-name> (reason)
[Do not submit to] <journal> (one-line mismatch reason)
[Biggest current gap] significance / mechanism / evidence / reporting-checklist / formatting / official requirements
[Next step] invoke <skill-name> for single-venue fit and re-framing