Nature Protocols is an online journal of high-quality peer-reviewed protocols for researchers. Protocols are commissioned by the editors or submitted by authors as Presubmission Enquiries. They are presented in a 'recipe' style, providing step-by-step descriptions of procedures that users can take to the lab and immediately apply in their own research. All protocols have been proven to work already, having been used to generate data reported in published research papers. Our scope covers all areas of the biological and biomedical sciences, including methods grounded in physics and chemistry with biological applications.

At Nature Protocols, we aim to publish protocols for the best approaches to techniques from leading experts in each field. All of our protocols have been proven to work already and used to generate data published in a supporting primary research paper. Protocols are externally peer-reviewed and edited in-house to the highest standards. Each protocol contains a full list of reagents and equipment, timing information, and step-by-step instructions for performing the experiment, as well as information on designing and adapting the technique, its advantages and limitations compared to alternatives, troubleshooting, analysing data, and interpreting results. We also encourage authors to submit videos for steps that are technically challenging.