About Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling

What is Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling?

Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling (TBiomed) is an Open Access, peer-reviewed, online journal adopting a broad definition of "biology" and focusing on the theoretical ideas and models to which advances in biology and medicine are giving rise. Mathematicians, biologists and clinicians of various specialisms, philosophers and historians of science are all contributing to the emergence of novel concepts in an age of systems biology and bioinformatics. This is the field in which TBioMed operates.

Manuscripts submitted to conventional theoretical journals experience long delays before they are refereed. Reviewers do not usually see the articles as topical and requiring urgent publication, but TBioMed adopts the opposite view. Theoretical issues have become as topical as any other research activity, and authors require a quick turn-around time.

The online nature of TBioMed not only facilitates rapid peer review but also provides an excellent medium for communication in theoretical work. Comments from reviewers and other interested readers can be posted online to encourage debate.

Content overview

Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling considers the following types of articles:

• Research - reports of original theoretical and modeling work.
• Commentaries - short, focused and opinionated articles on any subject within the scope of TBioMed; these articles are usually related to a contemporary issue, such as recent research findings.
• Reviews - comprehensive, authoritative accounts of any subject within the scope of TBioMed.
• Book reviews.

Peer review policies

• TBiomed will publish articles on aspects of theoretical biology or medical modelling that are judged acceptable by strong peer review. Manuscripts need not be explicitly mathematical, but preference will be given to work that aims to explain rather than simply describe experimental or observational data.
• TBiomed peer reviewers will aim to:
  • Keep lead-times to a minimum.
  • Ensure that illustrations and mathematical formulae etc. are pertinent to the article and appropriate to the context.
  • Request the presentation of raw data where the concepts or models explored in the article require further support or elucidation.
  • Assist in the continued discussion [1] that follows publication of an article.

  [1] Eagleman DM and Holcombe AO: Improving science through online commentary. Nature 423, 15 only, 2003

Edited by Pier Paolo Delsanto, Hans-Peter Meinzer and Denys Wheatley, Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling is supported by an international Editorial Board.

Publishing in Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling

All articles will be listed in PubMed immediately upon acceptance (after peer review), and will be covered by PubMed Central, MEDLINE, CAS and Embase.

Articles in Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling should be cited in the same way as articles in a traditional journal. However, because articles in this journal are not printed, they do not have page numbers. Instead, they have a unique article number.

The following citation:

Theor Biol Med Model 2004, 2:1

refers to article 1 from volume 2 of the journal.

As an online journal, Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling does not have issue numbers either. Each volume corresponds to a calendar year.

To keep up to date with the latest articles from Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling, why not register to receive alerts? Registration also enables you to customise your subject areas of interest, store your searches, and submit your manuscripts.

Submission of manuscripts

Manuscripts should be submitted electronically to Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling using the online submission system. Full details of how to submit a manuscript are given in the instructions for authors.

General journal policies

Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling is published by BioMed Central, an independent publisher committed to ensuring peer-reviewed biomedical research is Open Access. That means it is freely and universally accessible online, it is archived in at least one internationally recognised free access repository, and its authors retain copyright, allowing anyone to reproduce or disseminate articles, according to the BioMed Central copyright and licence agreement. Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling however, has taken this further by making all its content Open Access.

Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling's articles are archived in PubMed Central, the US National Library of Medicine's full-text repository of life science literature, and also in repositories at the University of Potsdam in Germany, at INIST in France and in e-Depot, the National Library of the Netherlands' digital archive of all electronic publications. The journal is also participating in the British Library's e-journals pilot project, and plans to deposit copies of all articles with the British Library.

BioMed Central is working closely with the Institute for Scientific Information to ensure that citation analysis of articles published in Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling will be available.

Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling is able to deliver summaries of frequently updated content via Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds. These are accessible via the orange "XML" button at the top of the list of recent articles or the list of most accessed articles. For more information about RSS feeds see our publisher's website.

For further information about general policies please see the instructions for authors.

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