About Journal of Circadian Rhythms

What is Journal of Circadian Rhythms?

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. Circadian rhythm research is currently published in prestigious general-science journals such as Nature and Science, as well as in specialty journals such as Biological Rhythm Research, Chronobiology International and the Journal of Biological Rhythms. Journal of Circadian Rhythms provides the first Open Access journal dedicated to this expanding field.

Content overview

Journal of Circadian Rhythms considers the following types of articles:

• Research - reports of original research on circadian rhythms.
• 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.
• Reviews - summaries of recent insights in specific research areas within the scope of Journal of Circadian Rhythms. They can be submitted either upon specific invitation or editorial acceptance of an author's proposal. To submit a proposal, authors should send a tentative title and abstract to the Editor-in-Chief and justify their expertise in the target area, and also both the scientific relevance and the lack of recent reviews on the topic.
• 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.

Edited by Roberto Refinetti, Journal of Circadian Rhythms is supported by an expert Editorial Board.

Publishing in Journal of Circadian Rhythms

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

Articles in Journal of Circadian Rhythms 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 Circad Rhythms 2004, 2:1

refers to article 1 from volume 2 of the journal.

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

To keep up to date with the latest articles from Journal of Circadian Rhythms, 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 Circadian Rhythms 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 Circadian Rhythms 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 Circadian Rhythms however, has taken this further by making all its content Open Access.

Journal of Circadian Rhythms'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.

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

Journal of Circadian Rhythms 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.