About us
Submission process
This page summarises the editorial steps applied to publish a research paper in Bioscience Horizons and describes in detail the peer-review process taking place between submission and publication. All submissions to the Bioscience Horizons are free of charge.
Research paper submission guidelines
Important guidelines for authors
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Check eligibility criteria for submissions to the journal
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Obtain authorisation for submission from the project supervisor or senior academic member of staff.
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In order to submit a manuscript to the journal, register with Janeway as an author by following this link.
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To start the submission, press the button "Start Submission" and follow the instructions on the Janeway platform.
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Format manuscript according to the formatting guide, based on the type of manuscript being submitted (research article, review).
By submitting to Bioscience Horizons, the author agrees to our policies and our contributor agreement.
Eligibility criteria
To be published in Bioscience Horizons scientific papers should follow the following criteria:
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Research papers should be of exceptional relevance, accuracy and delivery.
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Manuscripts must contain novel research findings or critical appraisal.
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Research papers should be of substantial scientific interest.
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Research papers should be appealing both to students, academics and researchers in the biosciences and to the general public.
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Submitted research papers must describe work carried out while the author was an undergraduate or masters students.
Graduate students can submit research articles regarding projects performed during their undergraduate degree, provided that it is submitted within 6 months from graduation. -
The author must be able to obtain authorization for submission from their project supervisor or senior academic member of staff.
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Main results and conclusions of the research must not have been submitted or published elsewhere.
Submission checklist
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all the following items. If authors do not adhere to these guidelines, submissions may be returned.
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The submission has not been previously published, nor it is before another journal for consideration.
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The submission file is in Microsoft Word or OpenOffice document format.
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Where available, reference URLs have been provided.
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The submission follows the eligibility criteria described above.
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If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.
Following submission
Provided that your submission adheres to the eligibility criteria, it will first be reviewed by Bioscience Horizons officers to determine progression to peer-review. Attractive and exciting papers will be forwarded to two or three referees to assess the manuscript for originality, clarity, validity, sound methodology and appeal to an undergraduate audience. Scientific merit will be evaluated by the Academic Board and experts in the field.
Bioscience Horizons operates a double-blind peer review where both author and reviewers remain anonymous unless otherwise requested.
The review period is expected to take no longer than ten weeks. Reviewers are asked to provide formative feedback, even if an article is not deemed suitable for publication in the journal. Based on the reviewer reports, the Academic Board will make a recommendation for rejection, minor or major revision, or acceptance. The submission offer will get back to the author with the decision of the Academic Board:
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Acceptance. The paper is accepted and does not require revision from the author
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Acceptance with minor revision. The paper is accepted provided that the author implements the manuscript by taking into consideration the referees' comments.
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Acceptance with major revisions. The paper is accepted provided that the author provides further experiments taking into account the reviewer's comments. To be eligible for another review, the paper must be sent back with an accurate description of the improvements made.
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Rejection. The paper is rejected with no possibility of sending a subsequent edited version.
Overall editorial responsibility rests with the journal Academic Board.
All reviewers must be independent of the submission and will be asked to declare all competing interests.
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Before publication
Formatting officers will edit and format the articles submitted before publication:
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Papers are edited to ensure correct and engaging use of the English language. Bioscience Horizons does not accept papers in other languages other than English.
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The paper's terminology and style should be appropriate for an undergraduate audience.
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The paper's format (paper length, structure and appearance of figure and tables) is precisely checked.
The author should attentively follow the formatting guide before publication.
The edited paper will be sent to the author before final approval of typesetting. Authors will be notified via email of their publication to www.biosciencehorizons.com and will receive a PDF of the published paper.
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UCL Open Access Student Journals do not charge authors of accepted Bioscience Horizons papers an Article-Processing Charge (APC). Bioscience Horizon authors of accepted papers will not be required to make an APC payment before publication of their article.