Journal of Biological Rhythms


Journal of Biological Rhythms is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers focused on chronobiology, or any aspect of biological rhythms with a special emphasis on seasonal and circadian rhythms. However, papers on various other rhythms are also published in the Journal of Biological Rhythms. These publications can be primary reports of new discoveries, reviews, commentaries, or letters. As such, the authors of the publications have a diverse set of backgrounds and base their findings in areas like ecology, neurobiology and behavior, psychology and psychiatry, endocrinology, developmental biology, pharmacology, cell biology, biochemistry, genetics, molecular biology, and mathematical modeling. The Journal of Biological Rhythms has been in publication since 1986 and is currently published by SAGE Publications. The Journal of Biological Rhythms is the official publication of the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms. The journal's Chief Editor is William J Schwartz.

History

The journal was founded as the official publication of the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms. It released its first issue in March 1986, under first editor-in-chief Ben Rusak, who served from 1986 to 1994. The original Associate Editors were Gene Block, Serge Daan, Jerry Feldman, Bruce Goldman, Mike Menaker, Bob Moore, and Terry Page. The first issue largely focused on zoology and physiology, but over the years the field of discussion has expanded to include neurobiology, cell and molecular biology, photobiology, computational biology, behavioral ecology, and translational medicine. Early experiments focused on Syrian and Siberian hamsters, ground squirrels, and bubble snails. Since those first publications, experimental subjects represented in the journal have grown to be more diverse, as well as the techniques used to research them. The techniques mentioned in the first few publications involved behavioral and physiological monitoring, circumscribed brain lesions, melatonin radioimmunoassays, electroretinography, and electrophysiological recordings. Early research topics included “splitting,” circannual rhythmicity, photoperiodic time measurement, and circadian pacemaker development, coupling, and output.
The original publishing company before SAGE Publishing was Guilford Press. The cover of the first publication was a simple dark background with the name of the editor and a list of the associate editors. By 1995, when a new journal design was selected by editor Fred Turek for the 10th volume, the journal had already switched to SAGE Science Press. In 1997, he also changed the frequency of the journal from quarterly to bimonthly. There have been two new journal covers since the one from 1995, all in line with the themes of the journal.
The cover selected by editor Martin Zatz in 2001 depicts a pendulum, representing time and oscillation. The most recent one selected by current editor-in-chief William J. Schwartz in 2016 shows the mechanistic perspective of the relationships between biological clocks, rhythms, entrainment, and other themes of chronobiology.
In 2001, under Editor-in-chief Martin Zatz, the journal began to release a number of special issues and special features, which have continued throughout the years:

Special Issues

Journal of Biological Rhythms publishes papers on the understanding of basic nature, mechanisms, and functions underlying the generation, entrainment and expression of biological rhythms in plants, animals, and humans. The journal contains original research primarily on circadian and seasonal rhythms. It covers all aspects of biological rhythms, using genetic, biochemical, physiological, behavioral, epidemiological & modeling approaches, as well as clinical trials.

Themes

The Journal of Biological Rhythms covers topics in chronobiology, namely circadian and seasonal rhythms from a variety of different disciplines. Rhythms are placed within the context of their functional significance for the health and well-being of relevant organisms, including humans. The journal presents work that aims to understand the basic nature, mechanisms, and functions underlying rhythm generation, entrainment, and expression in plants, animals, and humans.

Publications

All Issues

Most Cited Publications

YearVolumeIssueTitlePrimary AuthorsTimes Cited
2011265A New ImageJ Plug-in “ActogramJ” for Chronobiological AnalysesBenjamin Schmid, Charlotte Helfrich-Förster, Taishi Yoshii29
2008234An Endogenous Circadian Rhythm in Sleep Inertia Results in Greatest Cognitive Impairment upon Awakening during the Biological NightFrank A. J. L. Scheer, Thomas J. Shea, Michael F. Hilton, Steven A. Shea26
2005203Short-Wavelength Sensitivity of the Human Circadian System to Phase-Advancing LightVictoria L. Revell, Josephine Arendt, Michael Terman, Debra J. Skene16
2003181Life between Clocks: Daily Temporal Patterns of Human ChronotypesTill Roenneberg, Anna Wirz-Justice, Martha Merrow100+
2002172Comparisons of the Variability of Three Markers of the Human Circadian PacemakerElizabeth B. Klerman, Hayley B. Gershengorn, Jeanne F. Duffy, Richard E. Kronauer75
1997125Salivary Melatonin as a Circadian Phase Marker: Validation and Comparison to Plasma MelatoninAthena Voultsios, David J. Kennaway, Drew Dawson61

Most Read Publications

YearVolumeIssueTitlePrimary Authors
2016316In-depth Characterization of Firefly Luciferase as a Reporter of Circadian Gene Expression in Mammalian CellsKevin A. Feeney, Marrit Putker, Marco Brancaccio, John S. O’Neill
2016316Differential Phasing between Circadian Clocks in the Brain and Peripheral Organs in HumansJacob J. Hughey, Atul J. Butte
2015304Circadian Clocks in the Immune SystemNathalie Labrecque, Nicolas Cermakian
2015301Timing of Examinations Affects School Performance Differently in Early and Late ChronotypesVincent van der Vinne, Giulia Zerbini, Anne Siersema, Amy Pieper, Martha Merrow, Roelof A. Hut, Till Roenneberg, Thomas Kantermann
2006216Neurobiology of the Sleep-Wake Cycle: Sleep Architecture, Circadian Regulation, and Regulatory FeedbackPatrick M. Fuller, Joshua J. Gooley, Clifford B. Saper
2003181Life between Clocks: Daily Temporal Patterns of Human ChronotypesTill Roenneberg, Anna Wirz-Justice, Martha Merrow

Publication Process

All publication submissions are processed through SAGE Publishing. Manuscripts that do not maintain sufficient quality and meet the aims and scope of the Journal of Biological Rhythms will not be reviewed. The journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics and thus requests that all submissions abide by the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical journal Editors. The researcher must have submitted an original manuscript that is neither being considered for publication elsewhere nor has been published elsewhere. For any copyright works that are not owned by the relevant researchers, it is required that they supply all necessary permissions for its reproduction.
The journal maintains no publication charges except in cases of heavy color printing and exceptionally long articles.

Editors

The journal's current Editor-in-Chief is William J. Schwartz, a professor in the department of neurology at The University of Texas at Austin. The journal's Deputy Editor is Dave Weaver, a professor at University of Massachusetts Medical School in the department of neurobiology. The journal's founding editor, Benjamin Rusak, teaches at Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine in Nova Scotia, where he researches the effects of sleep and circadian rhythms on human health. The second editor, Fred W. Turek, researches the genetic basis of sleep and circadian rhythms in the department of neurobiology at Northwestern University. Martin Zatz, a researcher at the National Institute for Mental Health best known for his work on the chick pineal gland, was the editor for the Journal of Biological Rhythms from 2000 to 2013. A collection of his editorials, often satirical in nature, was compiled by the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms, or SRBR.
List of Editors-in-Chief:
Journal of Biological Rhythms is abstracted and indexed in, among other databases: SCOPUS, and the Social Sciences Citation Index.

Availability

The full journal is available online on the Journal of Biological Rhythms website through SAGE Publishing. All published issues can be accessed and are searchable by decade, volume, and issue. Articles that appear in each issue can be viewed online or downloaded as a PDF. Journal subscriptions are available at a variety of levels, including options for individuals and institutions for both print and online content. Target audiences include medical professionals and researchers in the field of chronobiology, though the journal's material is accessible to the general public.
Current article abstracts can be viewed on PubMed, with links to the full text redirecting to the Journal of Biological Rhythms website for viewing. Older article texts can also be requested on ResearchGate. The journal also publishes special publication collections consisting of selected articles on a chosen topic. These collections can be viewed on the journal website.

Impact and awards

According to the Journal Citation Reports, its 2015 impact factor is 2.824. Impact factor is the average number of citations per publication by a given journal in a year, and serves as an indicator of readership and relevance. Research Gate gives the journal a 2015/2016 Impact Factor of 2.38. According to Sage Publications, the journal has a 2015 Five-Year Impact Factor of 3.167, ranking it 19th out of 86 journals under the Biology category, and 29th out of 83 journals under the Physiology category.