About the journal
About Journal of Zoological Research
A general zoological journal: a venue for research on animals that is edited, reviewed and read on zoological terms, wherever in the discipline the work sits.
- ISSN 2694-2275
- DOI prefix 10.14302
- CC BY 4.0
- Published since 2018
Purpose
Why the journal exists
Zoology is held together by its subject rather than by a single technique or a single scale, and its literature is spread across journals organized by method, by taxon or by application.
That spread serves specialists well and serves the discipline less well. A study of thermal physiology, a species description, a feeding trial and a survey of a population are all answers to the same underlying question — what animals are, and how they work — and they are read most usefully together. Journal of Zoological Research exists to keep that range in one place, and to assess each contribution against what its own design can support rather than against the conventions of a neighboring field.
The journal publishes original research, and its editorial position is that the subject decides eligibility. Work is evaluated on scope, quality of method, ethical compliance and clarity of reporting, and on nothing else.
Disciplinary role
Where the journal sits
It is a general journal of animal biology rather than a journal of one taxon, one method or one application.
- Breadth of subject
- Vertebrates and invertebrates on the same terms, across physiology and development, morphology and systematics, behavior and ecology, animal genetics, health and parasitology, nutrition, and the methods zoological work depends on.
- Breadth of scale
- From molecule and gene through cell, tissue, whole organism and population to community and ecosystem. No level is preferred over another.
- Breadth of setting
- Wild populations, captive and zoological collections, domestic and production animals, laboratory and established model organisms, museum and preserved material, and the reanalysis of existing data.
- Fundamental and applied
- Both, on equal terms. A descriptive or methodological contribution is judged on the strength of its description or its method, as a mechanistic study is judged on the strength of its mechanism.
The scope statement itself, with the fit test and the boundary, is on aims and scope.
Readership
Who the journal is for
The intended reader is anyone whose work depends on knowing how animals are built and how they behave.
That includes zoologists and comparative biologists; physiologists, developmental and molecular biologists working in animal systems; systematists, curators and collection staff; behavioral and population ecologists; parasitologists and animal-health researchers; animal nutritionists and production scientists; and conservation practitioners who need the underlying biology rather than a summary of it. Postgraduate students entering any of those fields are part of the intended readership, and the journal prefers reporting complete enough for a reader outside the immediate specialty to follow the method.
Every article is open access from the day it appears, under CC BY 4.0, so a reader has the same access wherever they work.
Editorial responsibility
Who is accountable for what appears
An editorial board of subject specialists holds responsibility for what the journal publishes, and its decisions are its own.
All submissions undergo initial editorial screening. Manuscripts that meet the journal's scope and minimum requirements proceed to independent peer review. Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request. Manuscripts that proceed to external peer review are normally evaluated by at least two independent subject-matter experts.
Editorial decisions are based on scope, scientific quality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, reporting quality, and relevance to the journal.
Editorial decisions are independent of article processing charges, membership, editorial or reviewer roles, and any paid service. Editors recuse themselves from decisions on their own submissions, which are handled independently.
The members, their affiliations, countries and research focus are listed on the editorial board page. The rules the board works to are set out in the editorial policies.
How the journal publishes
The terms an author is agreeing to
- Access
- Open access, immediately and permanently, at no cost to the reader.
- License
- CC BY 4.0. Authors retain copyright.
- Article processing charge
- USD 1,200, invoiced only after acceptance.
- Identifiers
- Each article is issued a DOI under the publisher prefix 10.14302.
The complete charge terms, including the withdrawal policy, are on article processing charges. Registration, discovery and preservation are described on indexing.
Where to go next
Reading further
The pages below carry the detail this one summarizes.
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What belongs in the journal, and how fit is judged.
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The members, their affiliations and research focus.
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Every issue and every record the journal has published.
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Preparation and submission guidance.