About Journal of Biological Engineering

What is Journal of Biological Engineering?

Journal of Biological Engineering, the official journal of the Institute of Biological Engineering, is an open access, online journal that publishes articles on all aspects of biological engineering.

Biological engineering is an emerging discipline that encompasses engineering theory and practice connected to and derived from the science of biology, just as mechanical engineering and electrical engineering are rooted in physics and chemical engineering in chemistry.

Topical areas include, but are not limited to:

• synthetic biology and cellular design
• engineering of biomolecular and cellular devices
• bioproduction and bioproduct engineering
• ecological and environmental engineering
• biological engineering education and the biodesign process

Journal of Biological Engineering provides a home for the continuum from biological information science, molecules and cells, product formation, wastes and remediation, and educational advances in curriculum content and pedagogy at the undergraduate and graduate-levels.

Manuscripts should explore commonalities with other fields of application by providing some discussion of the broader context of the work and how it connects to other areas within the field.

Content overview

Journal of Biological Engineering considers the following types of article:

• Research: reports of data from original research.
• Book Review: short summaries of the strengths and weaknesses of a book. They should evaluate its overall usefulness to the intended audience and are usually about 400 words.
• Letter to the Editor: they can take three forms: a substantial re-analysis of a previously published article, or a substantial response to such a re-analysis from the authors of the original publication, or an article that may not cover 'standard research' but that may be relevant to readers.
• Meeting Report: a short description of a conference that the author has attended. It is usually best for the article to be published as soon after the meeting as possible, and should focus on the key developments presented and discussed at the meeting. These articles are usually commissioned but reports and suggestions may also be submitted for the editors' consideration.
• Methodology: present a new experimental method, test or procedure. The method described may either be completely new, or may offer a better version of an existing method. The article must describe a demonstrable advance on what is currently available. The method needs to have been well tested and ideally, but not necessarily, used in a way that proves its value.
• Review: comprehensive, authoritative, descriptions of any subject within the scope of the journal. These articles are usually written by opinion leaders that have been invited by the Editorial Board.

Peer review policies

Journal of Biological Engineering has a ‘closed’ peer review policy. All manuscripts will be peer reviewed by internationally recognized experts in the field of biological engineering. The peer review process will aim to ensure that all published manuscripts are scientifically sound and provide new scientific knowledge. Final decisions will be made by the Editor-in-Chief.

Edited by Mark A. Eiteman, Journal of Biological Engineering is supported by an expert Editorial Board.

Publishing in Journal of Biological Engineering

All articles are listed in PubMed immediately upon acceptance (after peer review), and are covered by PubMed Central, CAS and Scopus.

Articles in Journal of Biological Engineering should be cited in the same way as articles in a traditional journal. However, because articles in this journal are not printed, they do not have page numbers. Instead, they have a unique article number.

The following citation:

J Biol Eng 2004, 2:1

refers to article 1 from volume 2 of the journal.

As an online journal, Journal of Biological Engineering does not have issue numbers. Each volume corresponds to a calendar year.

To keep up to date with the latest articles from Journal of Biological Engineering, why not register to receive alerts? Registration also enables you to customise your subject areas of interest, store your searches, and submit your manuscripts.

Submission of manuscripts

Manuscripts should be submitted electronically to Journal of Biological Engineering using the online submission system. Full details of how to submit a manuscript are given in the instructions for authors.

General journal policies

Journal of Biological Engineering is published by BioMed Central, an independent publisher committed to ensuring peer-reviewed biomedical research is open access. That means it is freely and universally accessible online, it is archived in at least one internationally recognised free access repository, and its authors retain copyright, allowing anyone to reproduce or disseminate articles, according to the BioMed Central copyright and licence agreement. Journal of Biological Engineering however, has taken this further by making all its content open access.

Journal of Biological Engineering's articles are archived in PubMed Central, the US National Library of Medicine's full-text repository of life science literature, and also at INIST in France and in e-Depot, the National Library of the Netherlands' digital archive of all electronic publications. The journal is also participating in the British Library's e-journals pilot project, and plans to deposit copies of all articles with the British Library.

Journal of Biological Engineering is able to deliver summaries of frequently updated content via Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds. These are accessible via the orange "XML" button at the top of the list of recent articles or the list of most accessed articles. For more information about RSS feeds see our publisher's website.

For further information about general policies please see the instructions for authors.