Aims and scope

The Journal of Experimental Biology (JEB) is the leading journal in comparative animal physiology and is published by The Company of Biologists, a not-for-profit charitable organization run by biologists for the benefit of the biological community.

From its launch as The British Journal of Experimental Biology in 1923 to the present day, JEB continues to publish papers on the form and function of living organisms at all levels of biological organisation, from the molecular and subcellular to the integrated whole animal. Our authors and readers reflect a broad interdisciplinary group of scientists who study molecular, cellular and organismal physiology in an evolutionary and environmental context.

JEB receives many more manuscripts than it can publish. In recent years, the number of published manuscripts constitutes only about 40% of those submitted.

The single most important criterion for publication in JEB is significant advancement of scientific knowledge. In general, this means that a manuscript should pose and test a significant hypothesis or answer an important question that is relevant to basic issues of experimental biology. Manuscripts should be of general importance to the field of comparative physiology and be of interest to the broad readership of JEB. The journal does not have room for descriptive papers that do not make clear their broader mechanistic and scientific relevance. Only under compelling circumstances will an Editor decide that an exception to this guideline is warranted.

What JEB offers

• Impact factor of 3.040 for 2010 (the average IF over 5 years is 3.424)
• Editorial decisions made by expert academic editors
• Copyediting by experienced scientific editors
• Fast publication, online and in print
• No page charges
• Free colour reproduction
• Online archive back to 1923
• Articles freely available six months after publication
• Open Access publication option
• Free electronic reprints
• Deposition of manuscripts to PubMed Central for authors whose funding providers mandate deposition
• Wide international circulation
• High-quality printing

JEB online

All JEB's content - including the entire archive dating back to 1923 - is available online and is fully browsable and searchable. All JEB papers are freely available online six months after publication, and authors may choose to make their articles Open Access by paying a subsidized fee. Special review volumes of JEB are always freely available online from the time of publication. In addition, JEB deposits manuscripts in PubMed Central for those authors whose funding providers mandate deposition.

JEB is also a participant of the LOCKSS project, an international community initiative through which libraries and publishers work together to preserve their digital content for the long-term.

Supporting the community

JEB is a community journal that strives to support the members and the research of the comparative physiology community. For example, JEB supports younger researchers through its Travelling Fellowships programme, through which it offers up to £2500 to graduate students and post-docs who wish to make collaborative visits to other laboratories. The Company of Biologists, the publisher of JEB, is also a generous financial supporter of the Society for Experimental Biology and sponsors numerous meetings and workshops in the field through its travel and meeting grants. JEB also funds and hosts its own annual symposium - these themed meetings unite outstanding biologists and bring together their varied expertise on one particular subject, culminating in the publication of an annual review volume of the journal.

Publishing in JEB is free of any charges, and authors are provided with free electronic reprints of their papers. All of JEB's content is also freely available to community members in developing countries through the HINARI initiative.