About the Journal
Aims & Scope
Biology & Molecular Medicine is a peer-reviewed open access journal focused on understanding pathogenesis at the cellular and molecular level and developing novel methods of diagnosis, prevention, and treatment. Biology & Molecular Medicine publishes original research, high-quality reviews, and other types of publication such as case reports. We aim to promote reproducibility and transparency in medical research, and to support the work of graduate students and early-career researchers.
Subject Areas
- biochemistry of disease and treatment
- molecular and cellular function
- biotechnology
- research methods
- individualized genomics and gene expression
- cancer research
- immunology
- molecular diagnostics
- molecular epidemiology
- molecular surgery
- molecular imagery
Open Access
“Open access” means readers can access all published material for free, without any charges or subscription fees. All Biology & Molecular Medicine content is published under a Creative Commons open access license.
Funding
Biology and Molecular Medicine is supported by the volunteer efforts of its staff and members. We plan to set up a donation portal so you can help support the journal’s operation in the future.
Publication Schedule
Articles in Biology and Molecular Medicine are published online on a continuous basis, eg, each article is published immediately once the manuscript preparation process is complete. We publish 2 issues per year, with articles grouped into issues post facto.
Archiving
To guarantee digital preservation, articles will be archived on PubMed Central (or a similar archiving service such as CLOCKSS or Portico) pending application and acceptance.
Advertising
Biology & Molecular Medicine may accept paid advertisements, with revenue used to support website upkeep and other costs. Any use of advertising on our site is done in accordance with the policies of the American Medical Association. Allowed advertisements have been assessed by the editor and determined to be relevant to scientific research or publishing and in line with the journal’s ethics. Ads are presented in such a way as to be nonintrusive and not negatively affect reader experience.
Copyright
Accepted submissions will be published under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license, which allows any material to be shared, copied, redistributed, or adapted into any format for any purpose as long as appropriate attribution to the original authors is given. Upon submission, authors will be asked to fill out the author agreement form (download here).
Our Team
Our Team content
Types of Publication
Research Article
These report on original research. Research articles should include an Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion or Concluding Remarks. Please see guidelines for reporting and data-sharing/availability standards. Research articles must undergo peer review.
Review
These review existing literature within a field of study. The authors should strive to give an overview of the topic while citing recent important studies and related developments. Authors should not just summarize but synthesize literature reviewed, such as by identifying current gaps or problems. Reviews should be critical and constructive and provide recommendations for future research. No new, previously unpublished data should be presented.
The structure can include an Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, relevant sections, Future Directions (optional), and Conclusion or Concluding Remarks. Subtypes of review are described below. All review articles must undergo peer review.
Systematic review
Systematic reviews (also known as structured reviews or meta-analyses) are “robust, reproducible, structured critical synthes[e]s of existing research” (Munn et al, 2018) using defined search parameters and methods for analyzing data. They are often used to assess the effectiveness of an intervention but may also address other questions such as cost, prevalence/incidence, risk, or diagnostic test accuracy. In conducting a systematic review, authors should follow an existing set of guidelines.
Scoping Review
Scoping reviews differ from systematic reviews in that they can be used to “determine the scope or coverage of a body of literature on a given topic” and “are useful for examining emerging evidence when it is still unclear what other, more specific questions can be posed” (Munn et al, 2018). They are structured similarly to systematic reviews and should follow the PRISMA scoping reviews checklist (https://www.prisma-statement.org/scoping). Authors are encouraged to register their protocols in a public registry such as the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/) before collecting data, and should include a statement about following the PRISMA guidelines in the Methods section.
Mini Review
Mini reviews provide a concise overview of existing literature within a field of study, as well as identifying current gaps or problems and providing recommendations for future research. Recommended length is a minimum of 2500 words in the main text and 1 figure, table, or graphic. Mini reviews should be structured similarly to full-length reviews.
Mapping Review
Mapping reviews are similar to scoping reviews, but have different approaches and goals: for example, “mapping reviews are distinguished from a scoping review because the subsequent outcome may involve either further review work or primary research and this outcome is not known beforehand” (Campbell et al 2023). They are also described as being “question based rather than topic based” (University of Houston). Mapping reviews can be structured similarly to systematic and scoping reviews and follow the PRISMA guidelines.
Narrative Review
Narrative reviews provide a summary and overview of a selected topic, along with the author’s analysis and interpretation. They differ from systematic reviews in that they do not use a predetermined method to identify studies to include or extract data for analysis, and can include a wider range of sources. Most mini reviews are considered narrative reviews. For more information, see Sukhera, 2022).
Exploratory Report
Exploratory Reports are articles that fall outside the standard empirical framework of testing a hypothesis, and instead “focus more broadly on pattern-finding, parameter estimation, and hypothesis generation” (McIntosh, 2017). This category of paper may focus on aspects of research including definition, exploratory data analysis, description of phenomena of interest, experimentation, and methods development; see Cortex, 2021. Exploratory reports should attempt to adhere to the structure of either original articles or review articles, and must undergo peer review.
Opinion/Editorial/Essay
Editorials present the author’s views on a topic, area of research, or new research finding. They should make their point in a fair, even-handed manner and consider possible counterarguments to the author’s view. Editorials may be structured similarly to narrative reviews, but with more focus on the author’s opinion and less on existing research.
Short essays calling attention to urgent developments will also be published as editorials/opinion pieces. Such urgent developments include world events, matters of policy, and international concerns related to medicine and research, as well as matters of moral or philosophical interest relative to medical research, academia, or scholarship. While many journals accept such pieces by invitation only, Biology & Molecular Medicine encourages these submissions as a way for students and early-career researchers to share their work and get involved in academia. These pieces are assessed only by an editor for quality of content and composition, but do not undergo peer review. This and quick time to publication are potentially beneficial to new authors.
Letter to the Editor
Letters to the editor are short communications that raise issues of interest to our readers, re-analyze results of an article recently published in Biology & Molecular Medicine, or briefly report on relevant research findings. As with opinion pieces these do not undergo peer review, and may be a good option for new authors, students, and early-career researchers.
