Aims and Scope
JBSS is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal advancing research across biological and sustainability sciences, including biomedical, clinical, pharmaceutical, microbiological, computational, agricultural, environmental and One Health research.
Aim
The Journal of Biological and Sustainability Sciences (JBSS) aims to publish rigorous, reproducible and ethically conducted research that advances understanding of living systems and translates biological knowledge into improvements in human and animal health, disease prevention and diagnosis, therapeutics, public health, biotechnology, food and agriculture, environmental protection and sustainable development.
JBSS provides an international platform for original research and high-quality evidence synthesis spanning fundamental, translational, clinical, dental, pharmaceutical, computational, agricultural, environmental and interdisciplinary sciences. The journal particularly welcomes work that connects robust biological evidence with clinically, socially, environmentally or technologically meaningful outcomes.
Publishing modelPeer reviewed · Open access · International
Aim versus Scope: the paragraphs above state the journal’s Aim. The eight numbered sections below are the journal’s Scope domains; they describe the subject areas in which JBSS considers manuscripts.
Scope
JBSS considers manuscripts within the following eight interconnected domains. A submission may span more than one domain when the research question and methods are coherent and the manuscript makes a substantive contribution to the journal’s biological, biomedical, health or sustainability mission.
01Molecular, Cellular, Genetic and Omics SciencesFundamental, translational and applied investigation of biological and disease-related mechanisms from molecules and genes to cells, tissues, organisms and integrated omics systems.
- Molecular and cell biology, biochemistry, structural biology, cell signalling, metabolism and molecular mechanisms of disease
- Genetics, human and microbial genomics, functional genomics, epigenetics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics
- Multi-omics integration, systems biology, developmental and reproductive biology and molecular physiology
- Molecular evolution, comparative genomics, genome editing, CRISPR and gene- or cell-based experimental research
02Applied and Industrial Microbiology, Biotechnology and BioprocessingMicrobial discovery and biological engineering translated into fermentation, industrial biotechnology, biocatalysis, diagnostics and sustainable biomanufacturing.
- Applied, industrial, food, agricultural and environmental microbiology; microbial diversity, physiology and ecology
- Bacterial, fungal and yeast biotechnology; microbial enzymes, metabolites, probiotics, biofilms and quorum sensing
- Fermentation technology, strain improvement, recombinant expression, synthetic biology and metabolic engineering
- Bioprocess design, optimization, scale-up, downstream processing, enzyme technology and biocatalysis
- Biosensors, biomaterials, microbial products, biomanufacturing and bioresource or agro-waste valorization
03Biomedical, Medical, Dental, Clinical, Public Health and One Health SciencesOriginal and evidence-synthesis research across medicine, dentistry, disease biology, diagnostics, clinical and laboratory sciences, population health and One Health.
- Basic and translational medical sciences including anatomy, physiology, pathology, biochemistry, molecular medicine, genetics, immunology and hematology
- Clinical medicine and allied specialties including internal medicine, pediatrics, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, dermatology, ophthalmology, otorhinolaryngology, anesthesiology, radiology, emergency and family medicine
- Dental and oral-health sciences including oral biology and pathology, periodontology, restorative dentistry, prosthodontics, orthodontics, oral and maxillofacial sciences and dental public health
- Medical and clinical microbiology, bacteriology, virology, mycology, parasitology, infectious diseases, host-pathogen interactions, antimicrobial resistance and infection prevention
- Clinical biochemistry, laboratory medicine, biomarkers, molecular diagnostics, imaging, precision medicine and diagnostic-test evaluation
- Epidemiology, biostatistics, community and preventive medicine, nutrition, public health, health systems, population health and disease surveillance
- Cancer, cardiovascular, metabolic, neurological, genetic, inflammatory, immune, infectious and degenerative diseases and their prevention, diagnosis and management
- Zoonoses, veterinary microbiology, environmental health, occupational health, planetary health and integrated One Health surveillance
Quality requirement: For human, clinical and dental research, authors must provide appropriate ethics/IRB approval and informed consent where applicable. Clinical trials should be prospectively registered when required. Authors should use study-design-appropriate reporting guidance such as CONSORT, STROBE, PRISMA, STARD, CARE, TRIPOD or other relevant EQUATOR guidance, with transparent methods and statistics and conclusions proportionate to the evidence. JBSS welcomes original research, systematic reviews and meta-analyses within this domain when they meet the journal's scientific, ethical and reporting standards.
04Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pharmacology, Toxicology and Drug DiscoveryResearch spanning medicines discovery, formulation, delivery, analysis, biological activity, safety and evidence-based therapeutic development.
- Pharmaceutics, dosage forms, formulation, stability, controlled and targeted drug delivery, nanomedicine and biomaterials
- Pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, drug metabolism, bioavailability, pharmacogenomics and experimental therapeutics
- Toxicology, safety pharmacology, organ toxicity, adverse effects, therapeutic drug monitoring and preclinical evaluation
- Drug-target identification, medicinal chemistry, chemical biology, lead discovery, optimization and structure-activity relationships
- Pharmaceutical analysis, chromatography, spectroscopy, method validation, quality control, impurity profiling and stability-indicating methods
- Pharmacognosy, phytochemistry, ethnopharmacology, medicinal plants, herbal medicines and bioactivity-guided natural-product discovery
- Biopharmaceuticals, biosimilars, vaccines, pharmaceutical biotechnology, manufacturing, quality by design and green pharmacy
05Food Biotechnology, Agricultural, Plant and Veterinary BiosciencesBiological innovation supporting safe and nutritious food, resilient crops, productive soils, animal health and sustainable agricultural systems.
- Food biotechnology, food microbiology, fermentation, starter cultures, food enzymes and bioprocessed ingredients
- Functional foods, nutraceuticals, probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, postbiotics, food bioactives and nutrition-related health research
- Food safety, food-borne pathogens, biopreservation, quality, shelf life, nutrition, nutrigenomics and sustainable processing
- Plant molecular biology, crop genetics and improvement, physiology, stress biology, plant pathology and diagnostics
- Soil and rhizosphere microbiology, plant-microbe interactions, biofertilizers, biopesticides and nutrient management
- Animal biotechnology, livestock and poultry sciences, veterinary diagnostics, vaccines, nutrition and aquaculture
- Agricultural and food-waste valorization, climate-resilient production and food-security research
06Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Health Informatics and Artificial IntelligenceReproducible computational research producing biologically or clinically meaningful insight with appropriate internal, external or experimental validation.
- Bioinformatics, computational biology, biological and clinical data science, artificial intelligence and machine learning
- Genomics, metagenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics and integrative multi-omics
- Systems and network biology, structural bioinformatics, protein modelling, phylogenetics and metabolic modelling
- Computer-aided drug discovery, cheminformatics, pharmacoinformatics, computational pharmacology and toxicology
- Clinical decision support, digital health, health informatics, biomarker and disease prediction, precision-health informatics and epidemiological modelling
- Biostatistics, databases, reproducible software, model calibration, discrimination, benchmarking and independent validation
Quality requirement: Routine docking, unvalidated prediction or software-output-only studies are normally unsuitable unless they address a meaningful scientific question and include rigorous benchmarking, biological or clinical interpretation and appropriate independent or experimental validation.
07Environmental Biotechnology, Environmental Health, Bioenergy and Circular BioeconomyBiological technologies and health-relevant environmental research addressing pollution, exposure, resource recovery, renewable energy and conversion of waste into valuable products.
- Environmental microbiology, bioremediation, phytoremediation, biodegradation and ecological restoration
- Water, soil and air quality, wastewater treatment, contaminants, environmental toxicology, exposure science and environmental-health interfaces
- Biogas, biomethane, biohydrogen, bioethanol, biodiesel, anaerobic digestion and dark fermentation
- Algal and microbial biofuels, microbial electrochemistry, lignocellulose and lignin valorization
- Biorefineries, waste-to-resource systems, resource recovery, renewable biomaterials and circular biomanufacturing
08Sustainability Sciences and Sustainable DevelopmentInterdisciplinary research linking biological, health and technological knowledge with resilient, equitable and resource-efficient development.
- Biological sustainability, biodiversity, ecosystem resilience, ecosystem services and nature-based solutions
- Circular economy, resource efficiency, life-cycle assessment and environmental-footprint analysis
- Climate-change mitigation and adaptation, renewable systems, environmental health and resilient communities
- Sustainable agriculture, food systems, industry and the water-energy-food-health nexus
- Sustainability governance, responsible innovation, evidence-based policy and the Sustainable Development Goals
Article types
- Original Research Articles, including laboratory, clinical, dental, epidemiological, field, computational and translational studies
- Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses
- Scholarly Review Articles and evidence-based state-of-the-art reviews
- Methods, Protocol and Validation Articles
- Short Communications and other concise research reports permitted by journal policy
Research quality, ethics and reporting expectations
- Human, clinical and dental research must state ethics/IRB approval and informed consent where applicable; animal studies require appropriate ethics approval.
- Clinical trials should be prospectively registered in a recognized public trial registry when registration is applicable, and the registration identifier should be reported.
- Authors should use recognized study-design reporting guidance such as CONSORT, STROBE, PRISMA, STARD, CARE, TRIPOD or other relevant EQUATOR-network guidance.
- Study design, sample-size justification, statistical methods, missing-data handling, effect estimates and uncertainty should be reported transparently and appropriately.
- Multicentre studies should document the relevant institutional permissions and site-specific ethical or administrative approvals where required.
- Data, figures, images, laboratory results and computational outputs must be authentic, traceable and reported without inappropriate manipulation.
- Conclusions must follow from the presented evidence; overstated clinical, causal or policy claims are not acceptable.
Normally outside the scope
- Manuscripts that do not make a substantive contribution to biological, biomedical, medical, dental, pharmaceutical, agricultural, environmental or sustainability knowledge
- Purely descriptive surveys with weak design, inadequate analysis or no meaningful scientific, clinical or policy contribution
- Unvalidated computational predictions, routine molecular docking or software-output-only studies without rigorous interpretation and validation
- Clinical or diagnostic claims unsupported by appropriate ethical oversight, methodology, statistics or evidence
- Work that falls primarily within engineering, chemistry, economics or social science without a clear biological, health, environmental or sustainability connection
Readership
JBSS serves researchers, physicians, dentists, pharmacists, microbiologists, biotechnologists, public-health professionals, epidemiologists, bioinformaticians, agricultural and veterinary scientists, environmental scientists, sustainability researchers, academic institutions, research organizations and evidence-informed policy communities.
Authors should review the Instructions for Authors, publication-ethics requirements and peer-review policy before submission.