NAR Paper

Overivew

The Nucleic Acids Research (NAR) paper in the annual database issue presents to the world our latest data and software developments. There is a long history of different authors and this page provides a place to find resources regarding the process.

NAR provides many instructions for writing the paper, important to review. A template is provided at this link.

NAR provides a Checklist and a Revision Instructions Sheet after you submit your paper, but review them first to help you write your first drafts better.

Presentations

• Cath wrote the paper in 2016 (2017 Update is submitted in Sept. 2016) and put together a "Reflections: Writing the NAR" presentation with slides available here.
• Jairo wrote the paper in 2020 and put together a "Writing the NAR Update" presentation with slides available here.
• BrianL wrote the paper in 2021 and put together a "Writing the NAR Paper" slide deck available here.

Tips

Cath's tips seem pretty timeless for any potential NAR author.

Schedule

Here is a model reverse timeline schedule from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Note how it takes into account planned vacations to frame things in a realistic context.

Week end 9/Z: (9/15 Due)
Week end 9/Z:  (Labor Day Holiday)
Week end 9/Z:
Week end 8/Y: FINALIZED DRAFT TO ENTIRE TEAM
Week end 8/Y: 
Week end 8/Y:  DRAFT2  REVIEW TEAM_2
Week end 8/Y:  (Vacation_2 if planned 8/A-8/B)
Week end 7/X:  DRAFT1    REVIEW TEAM_1
Week end 7/X:  
Week end 7/X: (Vacation_1 if planned 7/A-7/B)
Week end 7/X:  (4th of July Holiday)
Week end 7/X:  (Week of Memorial Day Holiday)

Outline

Here is a conceptual skeleton outline to help launch things.

ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
NEW DATA IN THE GENOME BROWSER
-subsection 1
-subsection 2 
-subsection 3 - as makes sense
NEW SOFTWARE FEATURES IN THE GENOME BROWSER
-subsection 1
-subsection 2
-subsection 3 - as makes sense
FUTURE PLANS
OUTREACH AND CONTACT INFORMATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
FUNDING
REFERENCES

References

There is an internal wikipage about using Zotero that can be helpful for references.

Previous NAR papers

2021 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7779060/
2020 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7145642/
2019 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6323953/
2018 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5753355/
2017 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5210591/
2016 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4702902/
2015 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4383971
2014 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3964947
2013 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3531082
2012 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3245018
2011 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3242726
2010 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2808870

Licence charge

To publish the paper there is a PO (Purchase Order) required, you want to contact GI Finance (genomics.finance@ucsc.edu). The past we have used the "CC BY" which is explained at NAR: The Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY) is the most liberal of the Creative Commons licences and allows for unrestricted reuse, even commercial, as long as the author is credited for their original creation. While Oxford Journals Author Services allows you to pay online using a credit card, our grant and finance requires a PO for this transaction (don't ask ProCard holder for the Browser credit card number). The PO for this charge was $1,385 USD in 2016 and $3,800 USD in 2020, so don't be surprised if it is a lot more in the future.