The Journal of Biological Chemistry welcomes high-quality science that seeks to elucidate the molecular and cellular basis of biological processes. Papers published in JBC can therefore fall under the umbrellas of not only biological chemistry, chemical biology, or biochemistry, but also allied disciplines such as biophysics, systems biology, RNA biology, immunology, microbiology, neurobiology, epigenetics, computational biology, ’omics, and many more. The outcome of our focus on papers that contribute novel and important mechanistic insights, rather than on a particular topic area, is that JBC is truly a melting pot for scientists across disciplines. In addition, JBC welcomes papers that describe methods that will help scientists push their biochemical inquiries forward and resources that will be of use to the research community. Learn more about JBC’s scope here.

Beyond the consideration of any one particular article, our mission as a journal is to bring significant, enduring research to the scientific community. We believe it is our responsibility to safeguard the research we publish by providing high-quality review and maintaining strict standards on data presentation and deposition. It is our goal to help scientists disclose their findings in the most efficient and effective way possible by keeping review times short, providing editorial feedback on manuscript text and promoting papers after publication. It is our aspiration to facilitate scientific discovery in new ways by exploring new technologies and forging new partnerships.

The heart of this mission is the publication of original research in the form of Articles and Accelerated Communications, a subset of JBC’s articles that succinctly report particularly compelling advances across biological chemistry. Some JBC papers are also selected as Editors’ Picks, which represent top content in the journal and are highlighted with additional coverage. The journal publishes JBC Reviews to keep readers up to speed with the latest advances across diverse scientific topics; Thematic Series are collections of reviews that cover multiple aspects of a particular field. JBC also publishes Editorials and eLetters to facilitate communication within the biological chemistry community, Meeting Reports to discuss findings presented at conferences, Virtual Issues to help readers find collections of papers on their favorite topics, and Classics and Reflections that honor the papers and people that have shaped scientific progress. Find more information and instructions about these content types here. Finally, JBC administers an award program established in honor of Herbert Tabor, JBC’s editor-in-chief from 1971-2012.

The review process at JBC relies predominantly on editorial board members who have been vetted and appointed by the editor-in-chief and associate editors. Our editorial board members undergo a comprehensive training process to make our reviews as consistent, thoughtful and fair as possible for our authors.

As of January 2021, JBC is a gold open access journal; the final versions of all articles are free to read without a subscription. The author versions of accepted research papers and JBC Reviews are also posted and freely available within 24 hours of acceptance as Papers in Press. Learn more here.

JBC is owned and published by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

Editorial process
The Journal of Biological Chemistry welcomes high-quality science across the broad scope of biological chemistry. The editor-in-chief, associate editors and editorial board members, along with any external referees, are responsible for creating and upholding editorial policies under the general authority of the ASBMB Publications Committee and ASBMB Council. These policies in turn are used to inform decisions regarding the suitability of manuscripts for publication.

Submitted manuscripts are assigned by the editor-in-chief, deputy editor or co-editor to an associate editor, who may decline the manuscript without review if they judge it does not provide a sufficient advance, is topically inappropriate, does not meet journal data quality standards, or is otherwise poorly suited for eventual publication at JBC. This practice is meant to expedite resubmission to a more appropriate journal. In most cases, the associate editor sends the paper out to review, typically to two members of the editorial board. External referees are consulted when additional expertise is required. A member of the early career reviewer (ECR) board can also be brought on as an additional referee. Learn more about our ECR board here. During initial submission, prospective authors are encouraged to recommend one or more associate editors who would be particularly appropriate to handle their manuscript, and are also given an opportunity to suggest (and exclude) potential referees with the expertise needed to evaluate the manuscript. The reviewers make a recommendation for acceptance, revision or declination based upon the scientific merit and technical quality of the studies reported; to be published, manuscripts must not only be judged as technically sound, but as reporting novel and scientifically important results suitable for the journal’s broad readership. Authors are given 120 days to complete any revisions; if additional time is needed to complete experiments for a revised manuscript, authors may request an extension from the associate editor handling their manuscript. Accepted manuscripts are subject to publication charges; more information can be found here.

JBC aims to provide authors with constructive, fair and timely feedback. The journal uses single-blind peer review: identities of referees remain unknown to the authors and each other. The editors and referees treat each manuscript as privileged information, and they are instructed to exclude themselves from review of any manuscript that might involve a conflict of interest or the appearance thereof.