1. Submission

The author will receive a tracking number (JB+No.) following a submission.

2. Preliminary Check

All submitted manuscripts will be reviewed by the journal Editor for compliance with guidelines for preparation of articles, the journal’s scope, standard guidelines, quality, novelty, and adherence to ethical issues. Articles that do not comply with the guidelines will be sent back to the authors.

3. Peer-review

JBRHA adopts double-blind peer review. Once a manuscript passes the initial checks, it will be assigned to at least two independent experts for peer-review. JBRHA editors will check to make sure there are no conflicts of interest before contacting reviewers, and will not consider those with competing interests. Reviewers are asked to declare any conflicts of interest before reviewing any submitted manuscript.

4. Author Revision

In cases minor revisions/major revisions are recommended, the author is usually requested to revise the paper before referring to the Editor-in-Chief and/or Editorial Members recognized by the Editor-in-Chief. Articles may or may not be sent to reviewers after minor revision, which depends on whether the reviewer requested to see the revised version or not. The revised manuscript after major revision will be sent back to reviewers again. Normally, we will allow no more than two rounds of major revision each manuscript. Any further revision needed will follow the decision of the Editor-in-Chief and/or Editorial Members recognized by the Editor-in-Chief.

All reviewer comments should be responded point-by-point. Where the authors disagree with a reviewer, they must provide a clear response or rebuttal.

5. Editor Decision

The acceptance of the manuscript will depend on the revisions made to the manuscript. Authors need to provide a point-by-point response or a rebuttal if some of the reviewer’s comments cannot be revised. The acceptance or rejection decision will be made by the Editor-in-Chief and/or Editorial Members recognized by the Editor-in-Chief after peer review. The Editor-in-Chief and/or Editorial Members recognized by the Editor-in-Chief can select from the following options: accept in current form, accept with minor revisions, reject.

Journal of Biological Regulators and Homeostatic Agents (JBRHA) requires that members of the Editorial office and Editorial Board not be involved in processing their own academic work. The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board. Submissions will be assigned to at least two independent outside reviewers. The submitting Editor/Board members will have no involvement in the decision-making process. Decisions will be made by Editor-in-Chief and/or other Editorial Board Members recognized by the Editor-in-Chief who do not have a conflict of interest with the author.

Guest Editors should not hold conflicts of interest with authors whose work they are assessing (e.g., from the same institution or collaborate closely). In this case, the Editor-in-Chief or a suitable Editorial Board Member recognized by the Editor-in-Chief will make final acceptance decisions for submitted papers.

6. Author Appeals

Please note: Appeals must provide detailed justification, including a point-by-point response to the reviewers' and/or editor's comments. Only if these requirements are met will the Managing Editor of the journal will forward the manuscript and relevant information (including the identity of the reviewers) to the Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editor, or a member of the Editorial Board. The consulted editors are then asked to provide advice on the manuscript, on the basis of which the editor-in-chief makes the final decision to accept, further peer review, or maintain the initial retraction. A reject decision at this stage is final and cannot be reversed.

7. Production

JBRHA carries out production on all manuscripts, including copy editing, layout and conversion to XML. Language editing is carried out by professional English editing editors. We recommend authors use language editing service prior to publication or during revisions.

The published dates will be shown in the PDF and XML/HTML files of the published articles, a digital object identifier (DOI) number will also be assigned for each published article. The submitted date is the date on which the editors receive the original (or if previously rejected, the resubmitted) manuscript. The revised date is the date on which the editors receive the final revision of manuscript. The accepted date is when the editors send the acceptance letter. Since 2024, JBRHA has clarified the display of publication times, the published date is the earliest date that the final version-of-record is made available on the publisher's website.

8. Publishing Standards and Report Guidelines

JBRHA follows the following guidelines and standards:

ICMJE: JBRHA follows the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. The guidelines comprehensively cover all aspects of editing, from how the journal is managed to details about peer review and handling complaints.

CONSORT statement covers reporting of randomized, controlled trials. We encourage authors to verify their work against the checklist and flow diagram and upload them with their submission.

PRISMA covers systematic reviews and meta-analyses of interventional studies and MOOSE for systematic reviews and meta-analyses of observational studies. Authors are recommended to complete the checklist and flow diagram and include them with their submission.

ARRIVE contains guidelines for reporting in vivo experiments. Authors are recommended to verify their work against the checklist and include it with their submission.

STROBE guidelines cover reporting of observational studies. Also, for diagnostic studies, authors are encouraged to use STARD guideline.

Submission of a manuscript to JBRHA implies that all authors have read and agreed to its content and that the manuscript conforms to the journal’s policies.

9. Ethical Standards

JBRHA follows the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

JBRHA follows COPE’s procedures for dealing with potentially unethical behavior by authors, reviewers or editors. Our editorial staff are trained in how to detect and respond to potential ethical issues.

For further details on our Publishing Ethics policy, please refer to our website.

10. Editorial Independence

Editorial independence dictates that decision to accept or reject a manuscript is based on the scientific merit of the article rather than any other relations, for example pressure from the publisher to the journal editor. This means that the editor is independent in his/her decision and will not be under pressure of any influential body or organization. Our editorial policy is consistent with the principles of editorial independence presented by the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

Updated on 1 June 2024