About Us
Aims and scope
The HFSP Journal aims to promote understanding across a broad readership from diverse scientific backgrounds and to facilitate communication and exchange of ideas and discoveries within the interdisciplinary science community by publishing high quality, innovative interdisciplinary basic research at the frontier of biology over a wide range of organizational levels (from the molecular level to population biology) using strategies or technologies from the more quantitative disciplines (e.g. physics, chemistry, mathematics, engineering, or informatics). Examples of such studies include but are not restricted to the following:
- computational approaches to gene, protein or signal transduction networks
- physical studies of the structure and dynamics of the molecular machinery of the cell
- mathematical, chemical and physical approaches to biological processes (e.g. morphogenesis, growth, genotype/phenotype relationship)
- novel chemical and physical approaches to studying biological phenomena (such as from synthetic chemistry and materials science)
- single molecule approaches to biological systems
- new ways of studying intracellular processes (e.g. novel methods from non-linear optics)
- novel physical and computational approaches to understanding brain and cognitive functions
- new methods in experimental and theoretical sciences that open up new approaches to understanding biological systems
- mathematical and computational approaches to evolutionary studies
The HFSP Journal is published both online and in print. Articles are published online rapidly and ahead of their assignment to an issue and publication in print.
The HFSP Journal is operated by HFSP Publishing, a non-for-profit organization. One of the goals of the HFSP Journal is to enhance the scientific impact of the Human Frontier Science Program which is run by the International Human Frontier Science Program Organization (HFSPO). This international funding agency has been supporting innovative research at the frontier of biology since its establishment in 1989.
Benefits of publishing in the HFSP Journal
- Guaranteed quality and interdisciplinary peer review process
- Fast submission and review process
- Research reaches the different scientific communities interested in your research in a timely manner
- Qubits: fast publication of short, striking reports
- Commentaries and Perspective articles highlighting up and coming developments in interdisciplinary research in a language and format accessible across scientific disciplines
- Authors retain the copyright on their work
- Open-access publication is possible for research articles
- Compliant with NHS and Wellcome Trust open access policies
Peer Review of interdisciplinary articles
Peer review of interdisciplinary articles presents considerable challenges to ensure that all aspects of a paper receive fair and rigorous review. HFSP Journal's review procedures are designed to optimize review of such articles through interaction between Editorial Board members and external reviewers from different disciplines, while not compromising the speed of publication.
The suitability of submitted manuscripts for review is first evaluated by the Managing Editor and the Editor-in-Chief, after consultation with Editorial Board members whose expertise is relevant to a given manuscript. For each manuscript, referees are assigned and post-review decisions are made by a member of the editorial board member, after consultation with other editorial board members with expertise in disciplines other than their own where appropriate. Referees might also be asked to comment on the criticisms of other referees in cases where conflicting reports are received and to ensure that all aspects of the research are appreciated by the reviewers from the different relevant disciplines.
In some circumstances, at the author’s request and provided the referees have given their consent, information about a manuscript considered by the HFSP Journal and subsequently submitted to another journal may be provided to the editor of that journal. Such information might include the comments and identities of referees. Conversely, if provided with the comments and identity of the reviewers by another journal that a manuscript was considered by, the HFSP Journal will in some circumstances make a decision based on those reviews. This is to speed up the reviewing process and avoid reviewer fatigue.
Open access, subscription-restricted access, and not-for-profit policy
Immediate open access of Qubits is free. The HFSP Journal aims to make primary research as widely accessible as possible while maintaining financial sustainability. Primary research published in the HFSP Journal will be freely available to all researchers worldwide 6 months after publication, ensuring maximum dissemination of content. The HFSP Journal is thus compliant with the open access policies of e.g. the NIH and the Wellcome Trust.
The HFSP Journal has opted for a 'hybrid' financial model to cover for its editorial and production costs. Access to primary research articles is free immediately on publication if the authors of this article have opted for the open access option and paid the open access fee (USD2,000). For other articles, access is restricted to subscribers; non open access research articles become freely accessible 6 months after publication.
No page charges or colour figure charges apply for articles that do not exceed 10 pages and contain no more than 3 colour figures. The number of pages can be estimated by 1/3 of the number of manuscript pages + 1/4 of the number of figures. Charges apply for articles in excess of 10 pages and/or 3 colour figures (see Charges).
Authors are requested to fill in and sign a Production
Form 
and a License
to Publish
upon acceptance of their manuscript stating which publication model
they chose for their article and which charges will apply.
All income will be used to cover the costs of running the HFSP Journal, first to reimburse the loan that HFSP Publishing received to launch the journal; subscription and open access fees, and excess page charges will subsequently be revisited on a regular basis depending on the journal's revenue and expenses.
The HFSP Journal enables developing countries to access its content free or at discount prices through its partnership with the HINARI (Health InterNet Access to Research Initiative), OARE (Online Access to Research on the Environment) and AGORA (Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture).
Copyright and Archiving Policy
Authors of research articles accepted for publication in the HFSP Journal retain the copyright of the contents of the article.
Provided that the HFSP Journal is acknowledged and referenced and that permission has been obtained from HFSPP (please email kthompson@hfsp-publishing.org for permission requests), the authors retain the rights to reproduce parts of any article (also review articles) in other articles that they author of or for teaching purposes.
However if an article published in the HFSP Journal is republished by another publisher for commercial purposes, permission has to be obtained from HFSPP (please email kthompson@hfsp-publishing.org for permission requests) and a reproduction fee will apply to the publisher.
All authors are entitled to self-archive their primary research article and may post a copy of the accepted version of their manuscript on their own website or institutional repository or the authors' funding body archive 6 months after the date of publication of the article, or immediately if the authors have opted for open access publication.
Authors that have opted for immediate open access and have paid an open access fee may use the final version of articles produced by the HFSP Journal for self-archiving; if the authors have not opted for open access, they should refrain from using the version produced by the journal for self-archiving for the first six months after its original print publication in the HFSP Journal.
Upon acceptance of their manuscript for publication in the HFSP
Journal, authors are required to sign a License
to Publish
which grants HFSP the exclusive license to publish, reproduce, distribute,
display and store the article (as well as summaries, extracts or other
derivative works based on the article) in all forms, formats and media
whether currently known or hereafter developed throughout the world,
to license others to do so, and to include links from the article to
third-party material.
HFSP Publishing's Guidelines Regarding Ethical Scientific Behaviour
HFSP Publishing endorses the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines on good publication practice (available at http://www.publicationethics.org.uk/guidelines ) and we expect our editors, author, reviewers and subscribers to comply with it.
Types of article
The HFSP Journal publishes Primary Research Articles, Qubits, Perspectives and Commentaries. Qubits are short communications reporting on exciting, preliminary observations. Perspectives are review articles discussing up and coming topics of interest to the interdisciplinary community, and Commentaries are mini-reviews discussing recent interdisciplinary research articles and explaining the context and the importance of this research.
Perspectives and Commentaries are usually commissioned but suggestions can be considered: please contact the Managing Editor, Valerie Ferrier: vferrier@hfsp-publishing.org
Please refer to our Guidelines
to authors
for further information about the format of HFSP Journal articles.
Submission
Manuscripts should be submitted at the following URL: http://www.editorialmanager.com/hfspj/.
Speed of publication
Research articles are usually published online 3 weeks after acceptance and in print in the next available issue.
Subscriptions and Charges
Authors of primary research articles can choose either subscription-restricted access or immediate open access of their article.
The open access fee is USD 2,000.
No page charges or colour figure charges apply for articles that do not exceed 10 pages and do not contain more than 3 colour figures. Pages in excess of 10 will be charged USD600/page and colour figures in excess of 3 will be charged USD500/figure.
Subscription prices valid till December 31st 2008 and for a period of 12 months.
All prices in USD -
For additional information and to subscribe please contact
American Institute of Physics
Customer Service Department
2 Huntington Quadrangle Suite N1O1
Melville, New York 11747-4502
Tel. 800 344 6902 (USA only)
Tel. + 1 516 576 2270
Fax + 1 516 349 9704
Email: subs@aip.org
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