Agent Skills
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nature-photonics
GitHub用于评估光学光子学稿件是否符合《自然·光子学》的高影响力定位，提供期刊定位、选题范围、方法证据标准及拒稿启发式规则，辅助作者进行投稿决策与内容重构。
Trigger Scenarios
目标投稿《自然·光子学》的光子学成果
需在《自然·光子学》与其他期刊间做选择
了解投稿前的筛选标准与框架期望
稿件被直接退回需重新规划投稿方向
Install
npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill nature-photonics -g -y
SKILL.md
Frontmatter
{
"name": "nature-photonics",
"description": "Use when targeting Nature Photonics (Nat Photonics) or deciding whether an optics or photonics manuscript fits this high-impact, broad-significance Nature-family venue. Encodes the journal's fit, framing, method-and-evidence bar, house style, official-submission re-check, and desk-reject heuristics."
}
Nature Photonics (nature-photonics)
Journal positioning
Nature Photonics is the Springer Nature flagship for optics and photonics, publishing breakthrough research across the spectrum from fundamental light-matter interaction to transformative photonic technologies and applications. It serves a dual readership: physicists and engineers working across photonics, and the broader scientific community that needs to understand where photonics is enabling new science and technology. Like all Nature-family journals, it applies aggressive editorial triage and expects both technical excellence and a compelling case that the advance will be widely significant — not only within photonics but across the adjacent physics, materials, and technology communities.
This skill is a fit / venue-selection / re-framing tool. It does not replace the journal's current official submission guidelines. Before submitting, re-check the live author instructions on the Springer Nature site and the Nature Photonics editorial submission system.
When to trigger
- The author is targeting Nature Photonics for a fundamental or applied optics/photonics result with broad significance.
- A photonics or laser physics manuscript needs to be evaluated against Nature Photonics versus
nature-physics,physical-review-letters, or a specialist optics journal. - The author needs to understand Nature Photonics's triage criteria and framing expectations before drafting or submitting.
- A paper was returned without review and the author needs to re-route within the optics/photonics or physics landscape.
Scope & topic fit
- Fundamental light-matter interaction discoveries: nonlinear optics, ultrafast phenomena, cavity QED, quantum optics, optical forces, and new optical physics at the nanoscale.
- Laser science breakthroughs: new laser sources, extreme-intensity regimes, frequency comb advances with broad metrological or physical implications.
- Photonic materials and structures: metamaterials, photonic crystals, topological photonics, plasmonics — when a new physical property or functionality is demonstrated.
- Quantum photonics: single-photon sources, entangled photon generation, photonic quantum computing and communication — when the photonics advance is central (for quantum-information-first framing, consider
prx-quantum). - Transformative photonic technologies with demonstrated performance: integrated photonic platforms, optical communications, LIDAR, imaging breakthroughs, biosensing — when device performance represents a step-change, not incremental improvement.
- Solar-energy photovoltaics and solar-fuel photocatalysis are generally outside core scope unless the photonics advance is primary.
Method & evidence bar
- The result must demonstrate a genuine breakthrough — a new physical phenomenon, a new capability, or a performance threshold that changes what is possible — not an optimization of existing designs.
- Experimental demonstrations require full optical characterization: spectral, temporal, spatial, and coherence properties as relevant; device claims must be benchmarked against the prior state of the art.
- Quantum photonics results must report relevant figures of merit (efficiency, purity, indistinguishability, fidelity) measured under conditions comparable to prior leading demonstrations.
- Theoretical or computational papers must make clear, testable predictions; simulation-only demonstrations of known phenomena do not clear the bar.
- Data and code availability, reporting summary, and statistical methods must meet current Nature Portfolio standards.
Structure & house style
- Research Articles are the primary format; Nature Photonics also publishes Letters (check current article-type availability), Review Articles, and Perspective pieces.
- The abstract must communicate the advance in plain English accessible to scientists outside photonics; keep it concise and within the current length limit, without subfield notation.
- The introduction should open with the broad scientific or technological problem, not the specific device or material under study; editors and referees assess fit from the abstract and first two paragraphs.
- Methods are placed at the end of the article or in a separate online Methods section; the main narrative develops the physics and results without method interruption.
- Extended Data and Supplementary Information carry calibration data, extended characterization, and reproducibility protocols.
- Figures must be of publication quality and convey the key advance visually; schematic diagrams of the physical concept or device architecture are essential.
Official-submission checklist
- Before giving submission-ready advice, read
../../resources/source-basis.mdand../../resources/official-source-map.md; start from the official source anchors for this journal family, then cite the current journal-specific page you checked. - Search the live site for "Nature Photonics author guidelines" and follow the current Springer Nature version.
- Re-check article type availability and current word and figure limits for each type.
- Re-check Nature Portfolio data availability, code availability, and mandatory reporting summary requirements.
- Re-check competing-interests, funding, ethics, and AI-use disclosure policies.
- Confirm preprint policy (arXiv posting is generally permitted; re-check embargo rules if the work is embargoed or press-coordinated).
- Confirm open-access options if the author's funder or institution requires OA publication; re-check current APC and licensing options.
- If the live official instructions conflict with this skill, the official instructions win.
Pre-submission self-check
- The advance is a breakthrough (new phenomenon, new capability threshold, or step-change in performance) not an optimization of a known approach.
- The abstract and introduction are accessible to scientists outside photonics and articulate why the advance matters broadly.
- All key optical figures of merit are reported with appropriate comparisons to prior state of the art.
- Extended Data, Supplementary Information, reporting summary, and data/code availability statement are prepared.
- The framing foregrounds the new physics or capability, not the fabrication or characterization process.
Common desk-reject triggers
- Incremental device optimization without a new physical phenomenon or step-change capability; editors triage these without review regardless of engineering quality.
- An introduction and abstract written in specialist notation or acronym-heavy photonics jargon inaccessible in editorial triage.
- Purely simulation-based results without experimental validation or clear falsifiable predictions.
- Missing Nature Portfolio mandatory items (reporting summary, data availability, competing-interests) at the point of submission.
- Results of clear relevance only to one narrow photonics community (e.g., telecom fiber engineering) without a broader physical insight.
Re-routing decision
If the result is important within photonics/optics but not at Nature Photonics's cross-community significance level: quantum optics with broad physics implications → nature-physics or physical-review-letters; quantum photonics with quantum-information-first framing → prx-quantum; photonic materials / metamaterials with materials-physics primacy → physical-review-b or nature-materials. For high-impact photonics results that need longer treatment than a Letter format allows → physical-review-x.
Output format
[Fit] High / Medium / Low (one-line reason)
[Target] Nature Photonics
[Topic tags] <2–3 closest topics>
[Method/evidence] <does the result represent a photonics breakthrough with broad scientific or technological significance?>
[Top risk] <the single most likely reason for rejection>
[Official items to re-check] <article type / data/code availability / reporting summary / abstract format / preprint policy>
[Re-route suggestion] <if not a fit, a better-matched venue>
Version History
- 1839142 Current 2026-07-05 13:03
