About this journal
Aims and scope
Journal of Biological Education is firmly established as the authoritative voice in the world of biological education. The journal provides a forum where the latest advances in research into the teaching, learning and assessment of biology can contribute to policy and practice in biological education for all ages, connecting teachers, researchers and educators in a common endeavor to enhance biological education internationally.
Special emphasis is placed on research relevant to educational practice, guided by educational realities in systems, schools, colleges, universities (including biology teacher education) and informal learning settings, and manuscripts are welcome from educators and researchers working in all of these settings. Manuscripts should be theoretically informed and methodologically rigorous.
The Journal accepts the following submission types. Authors should be careful to choose the correct type upon submission (italicised).
• original empirical research articles, founded in a recognized educational research methodological approach, and embedded in a critical review of relevant literature. Manuscripts should include an account of the methodology and methods used, explain the analysis carried out, discuss the findings in relation to existing knowledge (such as that explored in the literature review), identify conclusions and implications for educational research and practice, and recognise any limitations to the study. Authors should also note that purely experimental studies (with control and intervention groups of learners) will not be accepted unless they include sufficiently large sample sizes and randomized group membership.
• review articles, developing a comprehensive understanding of a particular subject, drawing on the peer-reviewed and, if appropriate, professional literature, and deriving conclusions which may lead to valuable discussion and debate. If possible, the review should be founded in a recognized approach; for example, including ‘state of the art’ narrative reviews, meta-analyses, systematic reviews, critical reviews, and evidence syntheses.
• critical evaluative reports of innovative or novel practical activities or other teaching and learning approaches in biological education. Such reports should not be presented as experimental trials (with control and intervention groups) of such approaches, unless they involve large sample sizes and randomized group membership. However, evaluations which draw on a combination of quantitative and qualitative data would be appropriate, particularly for practitioner-led reports. If drawing only on empirical data yielded by the procedure (e.g. students’ experimental results from successful completion of a practical procedure), authors should critically examine the approach and its learning outcomes, drawing on existing literature about students’ understanding of the subject areas concerned, and students’ successful implementation of the approach, to justify its potential relevance and efficacy in securing students’ learning.
• critical or analytical commentaries or position papers (comment) on policy (and its impact on practice), curriculum, or contemporary issues and debates in biological education. Such commentaries should be carefully reasoned, firmly rooted in the relevant academic and professional literature, and engage with contrasting viewpoints.
Authors should ensure that manuscripts contribute to the international discourse on biological education. As such, manuscripts should be relevant beyond the local context. Likewise, manuscripts reporting on generic educational strategies, will proceed to review only if they make a direct contribution to knowledge about biological education in particular; the biological context must be important to the study. Manuscripts which are only concerned with general educational matters will not be considered for publication. Implications for research and practice should be made explicit.
Authors are strongly encouraged to read the guidance from Taylor and Francis about identifying key words, and using them to help write the manuscript title and abstract. Authors can find the guidance here ( https://authorservices.taylorandfrancis.com/publishing-your-research/writing-your-paper/using-keywords-to-write-title-and-abstract/)
Authors are invited, but are not obliged, to submit original, anonymised, data as supplementary material in a separate file or files. Any such submission must comply with local institutional, legislative and ethical restrictions.
Please note that this journal only publishes manuscripts in English; we realise that authors who do not have English as a first language may need to ask others to proof-read their manuscript, or use the services of Taylor and Francis, to ensure English is of high quality before submission.
All research articles in this journal have undergone rigorous peer review, based on initial editor screening and anonymised refereeing by at least two anonymous referees.
If a manuscript includes a large number of figures or tables, authors should indicate which of those can be reallocated as online supplementary material.
All manuscripts reporting on work involving human subjects must adhere, as appropriate, to the Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research, published by the British Educational Research Association, viewable here: https://www.bera.ac.uk/publication/ethical-guidelines-for-educational-research-2018-online
All manuscripts reporting on work involving animals must adhere, as appropriate, to the ARRIVE guidelines, viewable here: https://arriveguidelines.org/arrive-guidelines.
Journal metrics
Usage
- 141K annual downloads/views
Citation metrics
- 1.0 (2023) Impact Factor
- 1.2 (2023) 5 year IF
- 3.0 (2023) CiteScore (Scopus)
- Q2 CiteScore Best Quartile
- 0.866 (2023) SNIP
- 0.438 (2023) SJR
Speed/acceptance
- 13 days avg. from submission to first decision
- 81 days avg. from submission to first post-review decision
- 22 days avg. from acceptance to online publication
- 16% acceptance rate
Understanding and using journal metrics
Journal metrics can be a useful tool for readers, as well as for authors who are deciding where to submit their next manuscript for publication. However, any one metric only tells a part of the story of a journal’s quality and impact. Each metric has its limitations which means that it should never be considered in isolation, and metrics should be used to support and not replace qualitative review.
We strongly recommend that you always use a number of metrics, alongside other qualitative factors such as a journal’s aims & scope, its readership, and a review of past content published in the journal. In addition, a single article should always be assessed on its own merits and never based on the metrics of the journal it was published in.
For more details, please read the Author Services guide to understanding journal metrics.
Journal metrics in brief
Usage and acceptance rate data above are for the last full calendar year and are updated annually in February. Speed data is updated every six months, based on the prior six months. Citation metrics are updated annually mid-year. Please note that some journals do not display all of the following metrics (find out why).
- Usage: the total number of times articles in the journal were viewed by users of Taylor & Francis Online in the previous calendar year, rounded to the nearest thousand.
Citation Metrics
- Impact Factor*: the average number of citations received by articles published in the journal within a two-year window. Only journals in the Clarivate Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI) and the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) have an Impact Factor.
- Impact Factor Best Quartile*: the journal’s highest subject category ranking in the Journal Citation Reports. Q1 = 25% of journals with the highest Impact Factors.
- 5 Year Impact Factor*: the average number of citations received by articles in the journal within a five-year window.
- CiteScore (Scopus)†: the average number of citations received by articles in the journal over a four-year period.
- CiteScore Best Quartile†: the journal’s highest CiteScore ranking in a Scopus subject category. Q1 = 25% of journals with the highest CiteScores.
- SNIP (Source Normalized Impact per Paper): the number of citations per paper in the journal, divided by citation potential in the field.
- SJR (Scimago Journal Rank): Average number of (weighted) citations in one year, divided by the number of articles published in the journal in the previous three years.
Speed/acceptance
- From submission to first decision: the average (median) number of days for a manuscript submitted to the journal to receive a first decision. Based on manuscripts receiving a first decision in the last six months.
- From submission to first post-review decision: the average (median) number of days for a manuscript submitted to the journal to receive a first decision if it is sent out for peer review. Based on manuscripts receiving a post-review first decision in the last six months.
- From acceptance to online publication: the average (median) number of days from acceptance of a manuscript to online publication of the Version of Record. Based on articles published in the last six months.
- Acceptance rate: articles accepted for publication by the journal in the previous calendar year as percentage of all papers receiving a final decision.
For more details on the data above, please read the Author Services guide to understanding journal metrics.
*Copyright: Journal Citation Reports®, Clarivate Analytics
†Copyright: CiteScore™, Scopus
Editorial board
Editor
Mark Winterbottom, University of Cambridge, UK
Royal Society of Biology Staff
Managing Editor
Charlotte Cross
Associate Editors & Editorial Board
Karen Angus-Cole, University of Bath, UK
Armagan Ateskan, Bilkent University, Turkey
Nagamani Bora, University of Nottingham, UK
Maurice Cheng, University of Waikato, New Zealand
Edith Dempster, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Georgios Efthimiou, University of Hull, UK
Charbel El-Hani, Federal University of Bahia, Brazil
Rob Francis, King's College London, UK
Marcus Grace, University of Southampton, UK
Lara Grollo, University of Melbourne, Australia
Ute Harms, Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education, Germany
Rhola Khishfe, American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Yew Jin Lee, National Institute of Education, Singapore
Emma Newall, UCL Institute of Education, UK
Ros Roberts, Durham University, UK
Konrad J. Schönborn, Linköping University, Sweden
Graham Scott, University of Hull, UK
David F. Treagust, Curtin University of Technology, Australia
Chris Willmott, University of Leicester, UK
Anat Yarden, Weizmann Institute, Israel
Abstracting and indexing
Journal of Biological Education is covered by:
Academic Search Complete; Biological Abstracts; BIOSIS Previews; British Education Index; Current Abstracts; Current Contents; Education Index; Education Source; Educational Research Abstracts Online (ERA); Education Resources Information Center (ERIC); European Reference Index for the Humanities (ERIH); International Bibliography of Periodical Literature (IBZ); PubMed; SCOPUS®; Studies on Women and Gender Abstracts; Science Citation Index®; Web of Science; Zoological Record Online.
Open access
Journal of Biological Education is a hybrid open access journal that is part of our Open Select publishing program, giving you the option to publish open access. Publishing open access means that your article will be free to access online immediately on publication, increasing the visibility, readership, and impact of your research.
Why choose open access?
- Increase the discoverability and readership of your article
- Make an impact and reach new readers, not just those with easy access to a research library
- Freely share your work with anyone, anywhere
- Comply with funding mandates and meet the requirements of your institution, employer or funder
- Rigorous peer review for every open access article
Article Publishing Charges (APC)
If you choose to publish open access in this journal you may be asked to pay an Article Publishing Charge (APC). You may be able to publish your article at no cost to yourself or with a reduced APC if your institution or research funder has an open access agreement or membership with Taylor & Francis.
Use our APC finder to calculate your article publishing charge
5 issues per year
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