Information For Authors

Focus and Scope of the Journal

The "Journal of Applied Systems Biology" (JASB) is an international, multi-disciplinary, open access, peer-reviewed journal that provides rapid publication of the most advanced scientific research in theoretical and experimental aspects of systems biology.  It ac­cepts Original Papers, Review Articles, Short Communications and Let­ters to the Editor in the fields of Systems biology and Bioinformatics. Research findings must be novel and the original data must be available for review by the Editors, if necessary. Studies that are preliminary, of weak originality or merely descriptive as well as negative results, are not appropriate for the journal. Papers considered for publication must be unpublished work (except in an abstract form) that is not under consideration for publication anywhere else, and all co-authors should have agreed to the submission. Manuscripts should be written in English. The Editorial Board of the journal reserves the right to accept or reject the article at any stage and any time or delete a part of the text, tables or figures, if necessary.

Manuscript Review Process

The peer-review process and editorial scrutiny are the main mechanisms for ensuring the quality of published articles. All submitted manuscripts are subject to peer review and editorial approval. Articles will be sent to at least three reviewers. Sometimes, the reviewers are masked as to the identity of the authors and their affiliation. Authors are usually notified within 1-2 months about the acceptability of their manuscript. Reviewers are selected based on their expertise within the topic area of the submission, and their purpose is to assist the authors and the journal by providing a critical review of the manuscript. On receiving reviewers comments, authors are requested to send the revised article, and a copy of their reply to the reviewers, including the comment and explaining the replies to questions and changes made to the revised version. Communication regarding a specific manuscript will take place between the journal and the designated corresponding author only. Decisions on peer-reviewed papers are sent to the authors within an average of 3-6 weeks from the date of submission.    

 

  1. Manuscript submitted via the journal online submission system.
  2. Primary manuscript check by the editorial assistants against the Checklist, to check if components of manuscript are complete and conforming to the submission requirements, and cross-check if there is duplicate submission, plagiarism. If a manuscript does not meet the submission requirements, then the manuscript will be returned to the authors for corrections and resubmission.
  3. If the manuscript meets the submission requirements, the editorial assistant will assign this manuscript to an editor from the editorial board after matching the subject of the article and the editor’s expertise.
  4. If the editor finds the article lacks sufficient quality or the topic is not well within the journal scope, the editor will reject the submission without further consideration.
  5. If the manuscript is found with sufficient quality worth further consideration, the editor will assign this manuscript to 2-3 external reviewers for peer-reviewing.
  6. The peer-reviewers will send back the review comments with their recommendations as accepted unchanged; minor revision; major revision; or rejected.
  7. Based on the reviewers’ comments and recommendations, editors will make the editorial decision.
  8. The peer-review process is single blinded with the reviewers aware of whom the authors of the manuscript are, the authors do not know who the reviewers are.

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Ethics of human and animal experimentation: Manuscripts describing any experimental work with humans should include a statement that the Ethical Committee of the institution in which the work was done has approved it, and that the subjects gave informed consent to the work. Experiments with animals should be done in accordance with the legal requirements of the relevant local or national authority.

Funding and Conflict of interest: All authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial, personal or other relationship with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence their work. A separate page should cover this proclamation and any further details can be mentioned in the cover letter.

 Submission declaration and verification: Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the copyright holder.

 Contributors: All authors must have significantly participated in the research and/or article preparation. The statement that all authors have approved the final article should be included in the disclosure.

Cover Letter and Signatures: The Manuscript must be accompanied by a cover letter (one page) to the Editor, containing the title and author(s) name and a summary of why your paper is a valuable addition to the scientific literature. In addition, lists are recommended (at least 4) or opposed reviewers. Your cover letter should not include requests to reduce or waive publication fees. When your manuscript is accepted, you will have the opportunity to include your requests at that time.

Publication and authorship

  1. All submitted manuscripts to the JASB are subject to a strict peer-review process by at least three reviewers that are experts in the area of Systems Biology.
  2. The factors that are taken into account in the review are relevance, soundness, significance, originality, readability, and language.
  3. The possible decisions include acceptance, acceptance with revisions, or rejection.
  4. If authors are encouraged to revise and resubmit a submission, there is no guarantee that the revised submission will be accepted.
  5. Rejected manuscripts will not be re-reviewed.
  6. The manuscript acceptance is constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism.
  7. No research can be included in more than one publication.

 

Authors' responsibilities

  1. Authors must certify that their manuscripts are their original work.
  2. Authors must certify that the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere.
  3. Authors must certify that the manuscript is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere.
  4. Authors must participate in the peer-review process.
  5. Authors are obliged to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes.
  6. All Authors mentioned in the paper must have significantly contributed to the research.
  7. Authors must state that all data in the paper are real and authentic.
  8. Authors must notify the editors of any conflicts of interest.
  9. Authors must identify all sources used in the creation of their manuscript.
  10. Authors must report any errors they discover in their published paper to the editors.

 

Reviewers' responsibilities

  1. Reviewers should keep all information regarding papers confidential and treat them as privileged information.
  2. Reviews should be conducted objectively, with no personal criticism of the author
  3. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments
  4. Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors.
  5. Reviewers should also call to the editor- in-chief's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.
  6. Reviewers should not review manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

 

Editors' responsibilities

  1. Editors have complete responsibility and authority to reject/accept an article.
  2. Editors are responsible for the contents and overall quality of the publication.
  3. Editors should always consider the needs of the authors and the readers when attempting to improve the publication.
  4. Editors should guarantee the quality of the papers and the integrity of the academic record.
  5. Editors should publish errata pages or make corrections when needed.
  6. Editors should have a clear picture of research's funding sources.
  7. Editors should base their decisions solely on the papers' importance, originality, clarity, and relevance to the publication's scope.
  8. Editors should not reverse their decisions nor overturn the ones of previous editors without serious reason.
  9. Editors should preserve the anonymity of reviewers.
  10. Editors should ensure that all research material they publish conforms to internationally accept ethical guidelines.
  11. Editors should only accept a paper when reasonably certain.
  12. Editors should act if they suspect misconduct, whether a paper is published or unpublished, and make all reasonable attempts to persist in obtaining a resolution to the problem.
  13. Editors should not reject papers based on suspicions, they should have proof of misconduct.
  14. Editors should not allow any conflicts of interest between staff, authors, reviewers, and board members.

Publishing Ethics Issues

  1. All editorial members, reviewers, and authors must confirm and obey rules defined by COPE.
  2. The corresponding author is the main owner of the article so she/he can withdraw the article when it is incomplete (before entering the review process or when a revision is asked for).
  3. Authors cannot make major changes in the article after acceptance without a serious reason.
  4. All editorial members and authors must will to publish any kind of corrections honestly and completely.
  5. Any notes of plagiarism, fraudulent data or any other kinds of fraud must be reported completely to COPE.

Interested in submitting to this journal? We recommend that you review the About the Journal page for the journal's section policies, as well as the Author Guidelines. Authors need to register with the journal prior to submitting or, if already registered, can simply log in and begin the five-step process.