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About Journal of Circadian Rhythms

Aims and scope | Open access | Article-processing charges | Indexing services | Publication and peer review process | Editorial policies | Citing articles in Journal of Circadian Rhythms | Why publish your article in Journal of Circadian Rhythms?

This page includes information about the aims and scope of Journal of Circadian Rhythms, editorial policies, open access and article-processing charges, the peer review process and other information. For details of how to prepare and submit a manuscript through the online submission system, please see the instructions for authors.

Aims & scope

Journal of Circadian Rhythms is an open access, peer-reviewed online journal that publishes research articles dealing with circadian and nycthemeral (daily) rhythms in living organisms, including processes associated with photoperiodism and daily torpor.

Journal of Circadian Rhythms aims to include both basic and applied research at any level of biological organization (molecular, cellular, organic, organismal, and populational). Studies of daily rhythms in environmental factors that directly affect circadian rhythms are also pertinent to the journal's mission.

The study of circadian rhythms has experienced enormous growth in the recent past. From fungi and plants to birds and mammals, and from molecules and cells to organisms and populations, research on circadian rhythms has advanced at full speed into the 21st century. Journal of Circadian Rhythms provides the first open access journal dedicated to this expanding field.

Open access

All articles published by Journal of Circadian Rhythms are made freely and permanently accessible online immediately upon publication, without subscription charges or registration barriers. Further information about open access can be found here.

Authors of articles published in Journal of Circadian Rhythms are the copyright holders of their articles and have granted to any third party, in advance and in perpetuity, the right to use, reproduce or disseminate the article, according to the BioMed Central copyright and license agreement.

Article-processing charges

Open access publishing is not without costs. Journal of Circadian Rhythms therefore levies an article-processing charge of £1115/$1715/€1310 for each article accepted for publication. We routinely waive charges for authors from low-income countries. Generally, if the submitting author's institution is a Member the cost of the article-processing charge is covered by the membership, and no further charge is payable. In the case of authors whose institutions are Supporter Members, however, a discounted article-processing charge is payable by the author. For further details, see our article-processing charge page. A limited number of waivers for article-processing charges are also available at the editors' discretion, and authors wishing to apply for these waivers should contact the editors.

Indexing services

All articles published in Journal of Circadian Rhythms are included in:

  • CAS
  • Citebase
  • Embase
  • Google Scholar
  • Index Copernicus
  • OAIster
  • PubMed
  • PubMed Central
  • SCImago
  • Scirus
  • Scopus
  • SOCOLAR
  • Zetoc
  • Zoological Record

The full text of all research articles is deposited in digital archives including e-Depot (The Netherlands).

BioMed Central is working closely with Thomson Reuters (ISI) to ensure that citation analysis of articles published in Journal of Circadian Rhythms will be available.

Publication and peer review process

Criteria for publication

Journal of Circadian Rhythms considers the following types of articles:

  • Research: reports of data from original research and clinical trial outcomes.
  • Reviews: comprehensive, authoritative descriptions of any subject within the scope of the journal.
  • Debate articles - present an argument that is not essentially based on practical research. They can report on all aspects of the subject, including historical, sociological, and ethical aspects.
  • Short papers - brief reports of experimental or clinical findings.

Peer review policies

  • Peer review in the Journal of Circadian Rhythms is designed to ensure that the research published is "good science".
  • The journal accepts articles spanning a wide range of scientific interests, as long as the results and conclusions are scientifically justified.
  • Submitted manuscripts are peer-reviewed by two or more members of the editorial board or ad hoc reviewers, who make recommendations to the Editor-in-Chief.
  • Electronic publication and an open access policy not only provide rapid and widespread dissemination of articles but also free the journal from page limitations. Thus, research that is well conducted but has limited interest to a wide audience at the current time can be published in the journal.

Authors will be able to check the progress of their manuscript through the submission system at any time by logging into My Journal of Circadian Rhythms, a personalized section of the site.

Reprints

High-quality, bound reprints can be purchased for all articles published. Please see our reprints website for further information about ordering reprints.

Supplements

Journal of Circadian Rhythms will consider supplements based on proceedings (full articles or meeting abstracts), reviews or research. All articles submitted for publication in supplements are subject to peer review. Published supplements are fully searchable and freely accessible online and can also be produced in print. For further information, please contact us.

Editorial policies

All manuscripts submitted to JCR should adhere to BioMed Central's editorial policies.

Citing articles in Journal of Circadian Rhythms

Articles in Journal of Circadian Rhythms should be cited in the same way as articles in a traditional journal. Because articles are not printed, they do not have page numbers; instead, they are given a unique article number.

Article citations follow this format:

Authors: Title. J Circad Rhythms [year], [volume number]:[article number].

e.g. Roberts LD, Hassall DG, Winegar DA, Haselden JN, Nicholls AW, Griffin JL: Increased hepatic oxidative metabolism distinguishes the action of Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor delta from Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor gamma in the Ob/Ob mouse. J Circad Rhythms 2009, 1:115.

refers to article 115 from Volume 1 of the journal.

Why publish your article in Journal of Circadian Rhythms?

High visibility

Journal of Circadian Rhythms's open access policy allows maximum visibility of articles published in the journal as they are available to a wide, global audience. Articles that have been especially highly accessed are highlighted with a 'Highly accessed' graphic, which appears on the journal's contents pages and search results.

Speed of publication

Journal of Circadian Rhythms offers a fast publication schedule whilst maintaining rigorous peer review; all articles must be submitted online, and peer review is managed fully electronically (articles are distributed in PDF form, which is automatically generated from the submitted files). Articles are published with their final citation immediately upon acceptance in a provisional PDF form. The article will subsequently be published in both fully browsable web form, and as a formatted PDF; the article will then be available through Journal of Circadian Rhythms and BioMed Central.

Flexibility

Online publication in Journal of Circadian Rhythms gives authors the opportunity to publish large datasets, large numbers of color illustrations and moving pictures, to display data in a form that can be read directly by other software packages so as to allow readers to manipulate the data for themselves, and to create all relevant links (for example, to PubMed, to sequence and other databases, and to other papers).

Promotion and press coverage

Articles published in Journal of Circadian Rhythms are included in article alerts and regular email updates. Some may be included in abstract books mailed to academics and are highlighted on Journal of Circadian Rhythms's pages and on the BioMed Central homepage.

In addition, articles published in Journal of Circadian Rhythms may be promoted by press releases to the general or scientific press. These activities increase the exposure and number of accesses for articles published in Journal of Circadian Rhythms. A list of articles recently press-released by journals published by BioMed Central is available here.

Authors of articles published in Journal of Circadian Rhythms retain the copyright of their articles and are free to reproduce and disseminate their work (for further details, see the BioMed Central copyright and license agreement).

For further information about the advantages of publishing in a journal from BioMed Central, please click here.