The NATO Journal of Science and Technology is a scientific journal highlighting the research outcomes of NATO’s Science and Technology Office (STO).

Submission to the journal is open to authors participating to NATO’s STO research activities and Collaborative Programme of Work; to NATO co-hosted or linked research; and to NATO Agencies producing recognised scientific and technological research.

Manuscript submitted to the NATO Journal of Science and Technology uphold certain rules, such as structure and appropriate referencing, ensuring the papers are evaluated on their merits and contribution to scientific and technological discourse.

Please note that - if drawn from a conference proceedings paper – the article submitted to the journal must substantially extend the results, methodology, analysis, conclusions and/or implications over the conference proceedings paper.

Early Career Submissions

Early Career Scientists and Researchers engaged in NATO Science and Technology research activities are particularly encouraged to submit to the journal, including articles reporting on the interim outcomes of their research. Should you have any queries, please contact the journal This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., who will be happy to assist.

Article Types

The journal currently considers four types of manuscripts: research papers, opinion papers, systematic reviews, and method articles (including case studies). All article submissions must include two documents: a cover page, and the anonymised manuscript.

Cover page

All submissions should provide the following details and manuscript meta-data in the cover page:

  1. Manuscript title (preferably a fully descriptive article title).
  2. All authors (in the order they wish to appear upon publication), including affiliations and addresses; institutional emails; Nation; and ORCID if applicable. The author order should reflect the magnitude of the contribution of each author to the article. Each author’s individual contribution should be substantial in terms of research conception and design; data acquisition, analysis, and management (including tailored software design); or authorship drafting and revisions. If you have any queries about authorship, please contact the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
  3. Corresponding author: name, affiliation (including Nation), institutional email.
  4. Keywords: up to five keywords reflecting the main research areas and contributions of the paper. Please reflect upon which areas of research you would like your paper to appear under, and what online search terms would help identify it. Avoid acronyms (e.g. AVT, SAS) and very general terms (e.g. NATO).
  5. Conflict of interest statement: up to 150 words long, detailing any competing interests (financial or others) that affect the angle of the research. If there are no conflicts of interest, please state this. Authors should also be able to confirm that the paper is not submitted for consideration at any other journal.
  6. Acknowledgments: up to 150 words long, detailing: any contributors to the paper that do not meet the criteria for authorship; funding; and presentations at working groups and conferences.
  7. Abstract: up to 150 words long, the abstract summarizes the main methods and findings of the research. What is the manuscript’s contribution to knowledge in its field? What is its wider significance?
  8. Military relevance and application: up to 250 words long, this section is crucial to research published in the NATO Journal of Science and Technology. Why is the research relevant to the military community? How does it advance military understanding and influence decision-making? What is its core contribution? How can this research be practically applied to a military need or end?

Research papers

Research papers present the results of Collaborative Programme of Work and CMRE research workshops, research specialist meetings, or other symposia. If drawn from a conference proceedings paper, the journal article must substantially extend the results, methodology, analysis, conclusions and/or implications over the conference proceedings paper.

The main manuscript should contain the following sections:

  1. Introduction and literature review.
  2. Methodology/ Methods.
  3. Results.
  4. Discussion.
  5. Conclusion.
  6. Bibliography/ references.

Opinion papers

Opinion papers provide a state-of-the-discipline overview of a specific subject area, together with a commentary on the discussions and arguments surrounding and underpinning research this area. The role of opinion papers is to advance the debate around a specific subject, its strategic technological and scientific considerations, through a constructive and thoughtful critique of any aspects of research on the subject matter. Submissions from OCS are particularly welcome, as are opinion pieces that foster new ideas for interdisciplinary thinking and suggest directions for future research.

 Submissions for this section are required to:

  • Articulate the issue that is the subject of the paper.
  • Recognise alternative perspectives and/or opinions on the issue.
  • Clearly define implications for military practice or applications.
  • Refer to recent research and/or publications, embedding the article in a wider body of research.

Whilst respectfully presenting a specific viewpoint or angle on a topic, opinion papers must acknowledge that different (and possibly contrasting) views exist. The opinions expressed in the paper must be supported through appropriate referencing.

The main manuscript should contain, a minima, the following sections:

  1. Introduction and presentation of the debate.
  2. Discussion.
  3. Conclusion.
  4. Bibliography/ references.

Systematic Reviews

The NATO Journal of Science and Technology considers systematic reviews linked to a NATO research activity. These submissions should have a detailed methods section that outlines the approaches employed in undertaking the review or meta-analysis, and that shows how these methods meet current best practice. We encourage authors to employ the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) for the selection process.

Authors should clearly recognize potential biases in the analysis, and their implications for interpretations of the results; as well as acknowledge prior systematic reviews and/or meta-analysis in the same or comparable areas. Author(s) should detail the additional value of the review they are submitting, and how it contributes to the field. The rationale for the review must link it to the relevant NATO research activity and present its contribution to the direction taken by the research project.

The main manuscript should contain the following sections:

  1. Background.
  2. Methods (qualitative or systematic; with or without metanalysis).
  3. Findings.
  4. Interpretation.
  5. Conclusion.
  6. Bibliography/references.

Method articles

Method articles looking at of novel applications of existing methodologies to the military domain (including case studies and technical surveys) are welcome for consideration at the NATO Journal of Science and Technology. These papers analyse the innovative applications of existing methods to new models or scientific/ technological questions in the defense sphere, often by reporting on specific case studies or examples.

The main manuscript should follow the standard layout and sections described above for research articles. Please include a data and software availability statement, even if there is no data associated with the article, bearing in mind the restrictions surrounding the availability and replicability of data generated through NATO STO research.

Formatting, Figures and Tables

Please submit your paper in Word format. British spelling is preferred, although any consistent spelling style is acceptable.

All manuscripts must be anonymised (i.e. exclude author names or any other identifier that would link the paper to an author or group of authors).

Maximum paper length (including references) is as follows:

  • 5000 words: research papers, systematic reviews, method articles.
  • 2500 words: opinion papers.

Figures include images, charts, photographs, screenshots, or maps. Tables report the results of the research and analysis conducted. Figures and tables must be labelled in order of appearance in the manuscript. The legend needs to describe the content of the image (enabling accessibility) and include appropriate referencing of sources and copyright where applicable.

It is the author(s)’ responsibility to check the reproduction and copyright of any figures used, and obtain permission where necessary.

Bibliography and References

Please submit references in Chicago or IEEE style formats.

The review of existing/ published material in the literature review section, related to the research presented in the manuscript, must be rich and properly referenced using Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs); thus providing proper foundation and context.

References such as Wikipedia, or other open source collaborations, are not accepted; please reference material through its version of record, rather than its use in other platforms.

If drawn from a conference proceedings paper, the journal article should substantially extend the results, methodology, analysis, conclusions and/or implications over the conference proceedings paper. Authors must provide details of the conference proceedings paper with their submission, including relevant citation, in the submitted manuscript. Authors must obtain all necessary permissions to re-use previously published material and attribute appropriately.

Please also include any references to pre-print papers. Self-citation, whilst not encouraged by the journal, should be properly attributed as well.

Nomination of Referees

Authors nominate three reviewers, whom they regard as authorities competent to evaluate their work. These reviewers should be experts who have no relationship with the authors. If the authors decide to nominate reviewers with a past or present relationship, a declaration on the association must be made. The journal Editorial Team reserve the right to use neither, some, or all of the nominations.

Submission Checks and additional Documentation

All manuscripts submitted to the journal are subject to automated submission checks, including plagiarism (ithenticate) and other similarity checks.

Upon submission, authors are required to provide the completed and signed “NATO Publication Release and Clearance Certificate Authorization form” (henceforth referred to as “Publications Clearance Form”). Authors fill in an individual and a collective clearance form. This ensures that the article submitted to the journal is cleared for open access publication. The form also serves as a confirmation that all authors have approved the manuscript submission to the journal.

Use of Generative AI and LLMs

There is widespread use of artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs) in data analysis and language editing; further uses are quickly evolving. However, there are important limitations to the use of AI in articles for the NATO Journal of Science and Technology. The journal emphasises that:

  • Authors are fully responsible for the entire content of their work.
  • Authors should familiarize themselves with research security issues around the use of artificial intelligence, especially the use of any input to AI platforms for their training.
  • Although the papers published in the journal are open access, authors should not upload manuscripts to software or AI-assisted tools for language editing or other purposes. Confidentiality is not assured.
  • Authors must disclose which parts of their work, if any, were created by or in assistance with Generative AI, specifically in the acknowledgments section of their paper, and, in detail, in the Methods section of the paper. Beyond being good practice, this is a requirement of the Committee on Publishing Ethics.

Review Process

Upon submission, manuscripts are checked and assigned to a qualified Editor. They assess the paper and its suitability to the journal. Manuscripts considered unsuitable (due to subject matter, quality, similarity, or other) may be desk-rejected at this stage.

All manuscripts are subject to single-blind review with a minimum of two independent reviewers. The journal will notify authors of the outcome of the review process (acceptance; minor revisions; major revisions; or rejection); and provided feedback to improve the manuscript.

Please note that a major revision does not automatically guarantee that, once revised, the manuscript will be accepted by the journal.

Data and Replicability

Due to the classification, confidentiality and sensitivity of NATO science and technology research, data sharing (in the spirit of Open Science research) is not currently possible at the NATO Journal of Science and Technology.

Data sets for individual research projects may be available upon request from NATO’s National Distribution Centres (NDCs), subject to security and clearance checks. The deposition and availability of project data depends on the nature and classification of such data, and is beyond the journal’s remit.

Ethics

The NATO Journal of Science and Technology upholds the highest standards throughout its review and publication process. Author and Reviewer guidelines support our collaborators’ best practice understanding and implementation. Editors and Guest Editors abide by the journal’s Editorial Team guidelines, which ensure that best practice standards are consistently implemented throughout the editorial process, and across the journal’s cross-disciplinary content.

The journal abides by the Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE) guidelines for best practice and dispute resolutions.

Copyright and Self-Archiving

The NATO Journal of Science and Technology is a platinum open access journal: it does not charge authors any article processing fees, nor readers for access to its content.

Authors can deposit the final published PDF of their article in their institutional repository (the accepted manuscript should not be released to the public prior to publication on the journal’s website). Deposited articles should link to the NATO Journal of Science and Technology webpage where their article is published, and be accompanied by the following statement:

The version of record of this article, first published in the NATO Journal of Science and Technology, is available online at the journal’s website: http://dx.doi.org/[insert DOI]

This procedure protects the integrity of the scientific document trail, and marks the version of the paper published online on the journal’s website as the definitive version of record.

We encourage authors whose paper is published in the NATO Journal of Science and Technology to promote it as widely as possible. The journal supports the dissemination of NATO’s scientific knowledge and discoveries beyond its specialised research community, in the understanding that security research filters outward and informs the development of civilian applications, amplifying the benefits of the work and innovation currently undertaken by NATO and its partners.

Contact

Please contact the NATO Journal of Science and Technology’s This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with any questions or suggestions.