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
- Vol 16, issue 4, on seasonal timing
- Vol 18, issue 3, on entrainment pathways
- Vol 19, issue 5, on molecular and cellular clock components
- Vol 20, issue 4, on human circadian rhythms
- Vol 21, issue 6, on clock outputs
Special Features
- In Vol 22, issue 3, on mathematical modeling
- Vols 30 and 31, 17 reviews on body clocks
Scope
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
| Year | Volume | Issue | Title | Primary Authors | Times Cited |
| 2011 | 26 | 5 | A New ImageJ Plug-in “ActogramJ” for Chronobiological Analyses | Benjamin Schmid, Charlotte Helfrich-Förster, Taishi Yoshii | 29 |
| 2008 | 23 | 4 | An Endogenous Circadian Rhythm in Sleep Inertia Results in Greatest Cognitive Impairment upon Awakening during the Biological Night | Frank A. J. L. Scheer, Thomas J. Shea, Michael F. Hilton, Steven A. Shea | 26 |
| 2005 | 20 | 3 | Short-Wavelength Sensitivity of the Human Circadian System to Phase-Advancing Light | Victoria L. Revell, Josephine Arendt, Michael Terman, Debra J. Skene | 16 |
| 2003 | 18 | 1 | Life between Clocks: Daily Temporal Patterns of Human Chronotypes | Till Roenneberg, Anna Wirz-Justice, Martha Merrow | 100+ |
| 2002 | 17 | 2 | Comparisons of the Variability of Three Markers of the Human Circadian Pacemaker | Elizabeth B. Klerman, Hayley B. Gershengorn, Jeanne F. Duffy, Richard E. Kronauer | 75 |
| 1997 | 12 | 5 | Salivary Melatonin as a Circadian Phase Marker: Validation and Comparison to Plasma Melatonin | Athena Voultsios, David J. Kennaway, Drew Dawson | 61 |
Most Read Publications
| Year | Volume | Issue | Title | Primary Authors |
| 2016 | 31 | 6 | In-depth Characterization of Firefly Luciferase as a Reporter of Circadian Gene Expression in Mammalian Cells | Kevin A. Feeney, Marrit Putker, Marco Brancaccio, John S. O’Neill |
| 2016 | 31 | 6 | Differential Phasing between Circadian Clocks in the Brain and Peripheral Organs in Humans | Jacob J. Hughey, Atul J. Butte |
| 2015 | 30 | 4 | Circadian Clocks in the Immune System | Nathalie Labrecque, Nicolas Cermakian |
| 2015 | 30 | 1 | Timing of Examinations Affects School Performance Differently in Early and Late Chronotypes | Vincent van der Vinne, Giulia Zerbini, Anne Siersema, Amy Pieper, Martha Merrow, Roelof A. Hut, Till Roenneberg, Thomas Kantermann |
| 2006 | 21 | 6 | Neurobiology of the Sleep-Wake Cycle: Sleep Architecture, Circadian Regulation, and Regulatory Feedback | Patrick M. Fuller, Joshua J. Gooley, Clifford B. Saper |
| 2003 | 18 | 1 | Life between Clocks: Daily Temporal Patterns of Human Chronotypes | Till 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:
- Benjamin Rusak
- Fred W. Turek
- Martin Zatz
- William Schwartz
Abstracting and indexing
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.