Overview and Instructions for Authors: Online Journal of Bioinformatics

OJBTM

Online Journal of Bioinformatics_©

_{ISSN 1443-2250}

OVERVIEW
Updated August 2019, 2015

The Online Journal of Bioinformatics (OJB) abbreviated as Online J Bioinform founded in 1996, currently has 36 editorial members qualified in computational biology, genetics, biology, informatics and/or computer science. The purpose of this journal is to provide original high quality peer-reviewed bioinformatics in a timely manner. Submissions are reviewed by 2 editors or persons commissioned from another institution. If an outcome is uncertain, a third reviewer's decision will be final. The main site consists of a contents page with links to abstracts and a full-text subscribers page which may be accessed only with a username and password. Research funded by the NIH published in the Online J Bioinforms may appear 12 months after on the PubMed site. Published articles are permanently available, archived and occasionally updated. OJB articles are posted with relevant meta tags. The journal publishes mainly original research work in bioinformatics, but reviews of recent relevant findings may be considered. Submissions that do not meet the basic requirements (see below), will not be reviewed. Authors should note that the Publication/submission rate from January 1 to February 1, 2012 was 13.4%. Submissions will be subjected to an automatic plagiarism and author (only if relevant), check before review. Please note that any author(s) attempting to re-submit papers that were not considered suitable will not be considered for any subsequent new submissions. As of the 16th August, 2007 published articles will be linked to the reviewers reports. As of February 2008, all accepted review reports will be posted without author's names or institution. Submissions must be of high significance to be considered for review. A list of specific areas for publication is shown below:

   Functional interfaces for genome and gene analysis.
   Genomic visualization methods.
   Development of software for high speed analysis of the genome.
   Implementing and interfacing genomic and gene database mining and analysis.
   Systems and algorithms for gene scanning, sequencing and analysis.
   Proteomics
   Bioinformatic formatting (for example XML).
   Methods to improve and facilitate statistical analysis of gene and genomic data
   Interfacing protein structure analysis and prediction.
   Molecular modelling and management of DNA libraries or models (ie:Scalable data).
   Systems to improve functionality to current DNA and protein databases.
   Bioinformatics curriculae, courses and teaching methodology.
   Medical/Health Informatics.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS
Updated August 2018.

New submission requirement: This journal now requires that any submission with data analysis must be accompanied by an original raw data file including date, column and row headings for independent statistical analysis by our assessors. Submissions which generate output files will require input data and software program files to be provided. There will be no exceptions and submissions without the files will be returned to authors. The submitted files will remain the property of authors.

Update July 2012: New review policy: The internet has allowed unbiased professional comment and review of published work which in the Boards view, can only improve the quality and results of research published in this journal. In addition to the original review by Scientific Board Members, the Board has decide to test for a limited time, an opportunity for outside professionals to comment and/or review work published in the Online Journal of Bioinformatics. Persons qualified in the field are encouraged to comment and/or review selected papers online. Only review or comments from professionals not linked (conflict of interest) to authors or institutions involved with the reviewed work will be considered.

Update May 2013: Plagiarism is a very serious offence. Any author(s) or co-authors associated with any plagiarized work of other(s) presently or in the past (up to 40 years ago) by passing off the findings of others work as their own will have all their publications removed/retracted from this journal whether these have been plagiarized or not and reported to Retraction Watch. Please note that ALL authors from a plagiarized article will be retracted/removed and reported. Clients, subscribers authors are encouraged to report any sign of plagiarized work in this journal here.

Update June 2013: Authors and Institutional names CANNOT be changed/added etc., after initial submission of an article for evaluation, with the exception of additional data or work requested by this journal associated with a new author.

Submission: The Online J Bioinformatics (OJB) is an electronic journal. (Basic requirements):Submissions must be emailed here and when received will be acknowledged by OJB by return email. Authors submitting on behalf of an institution must provide evidence (email or otherwise) of acceptance of submission by the institution. Authors must identify or nominate the organization where the work was done, acknowledge collaboration, and nominate their qualifications. Any submission that is published in good faith but is subsequently found to not have fulfilled these requirements accurately, may be withdrawn at any time even if published (page numbers etc., for other articles remain unchanged). The institutional origin and authorship of submissions may at times be validated through web check and if there are any doubts concerning this, the submission will not be considered. The OJB will not publish any previously published submissions and articles and authors submitting must state any previous public distribution of their work in printed and electronic forms. Prior publication is defined as the “distribution of research in any form that constitutes public distribution, for example, any scientific journals, books, serials issued by a commercial publishing company, unclassified government documents, and so on, that are accessible in print and/or electronically”. “Specifically, any document that is accessible to a library user, who does not have special access or privileges, directly or indirectly by interlibrary loan, scanning and delivery by fax, email or other electronic means is considered published, except as noted below. Electronic posting of preprints to services that provide or purport to provide archiving with citation protocols and public retrieval capabilities also constitutes publication.” To avoid confusion, file names should be distinctive and include date of submission. For example "Influenza virus: biochemical perspectives, mutational variants and bird flu" should be named "birdfluMay3rd08.doc", "influenzaMay3rd08.doc" or mutationalMay3rd08.pdf" ect.

Review and publication: Submissions are reviewed by two or more editors, or persons commissioned from another institution. The criteria for publication are outlined in the Referee Form. If accepted with or without modifications, reports are usually emailed to authors within 60 working days. Authors must provide raw data for an independent evaluation of findings and will be presented or stored as supplementary data. After author notification by email, submissions not published by OJB are erased and copyright is returned to authors. If the work is deemed to not be an original contribution and requires major changes, the manuscript will not be considered for publication. From February 2008, review reports for submissions will be posted before or after publication. Reports are not provided to authors for submissions found to be not suitable for publication in OJB and no further correspondence concerning the submission will be entered into. Once authors have signed and returned the copyright form, and have been notified by the OJB that a submission has been accepted, the board may at its own discretion not allow the work to be withdrawn from publication. Emails or attachments with viruses are not read and are deleted. Upon acceptance of a submission, the TITLE and KEYWORDS will be posted on the internet and usually, published within 48 days. Submissions remain posted indefinitely and archived. Correspondence should only deal with questions concerning the authors submission: non-related issues such as questions regarding circulation numbers etc…, or letters for employers etc.., are not considered and there will be no reply.

Copyright and conflict of interest: The OJB is unable to process accepted submissions further until the OJB Copyright Form is received (Basic requirement). The form must be sent here by email. Receipt of the completed form constitutes transfer of copyright (please read the form for further information). OJB encourages the dissemination of scientific work and supports the SPARC initiative which allows authors to disseminate their work without financial gain. Authors are encouraged to complete the SPARC form here when submitting work to the OJB. OJB subscribes to the conflict of interest charter as described by the Council of Science Editors and authors must complete this form

Formatting (Basic requirements): Submissions should be submitted in text, MSWORD, Latex, PDF other suitable word processing programs or formatted HTML or XML. Additional formatting, if required, will be done by the OJB. Submissions must be written in a high standard of English. Authors should be acquainted with browser programs for re-editing. Graphs and movies may be attached in any format. Please note that large images may have to be linked to another page. As a guide, authors should view a recent OJB article (full-text PDF) or full-text WORD. Submissions must start with the respective TITLE and AUTHOR(S) NAMES names with qualifications (PhD), affiliations, address for correspondence and email address. The ABSTRACT must be a concise compilation of the work done (avoid lengthy descriptions of current knowledge), results and conclusions. The abstract must have KEY-WORDS. The INTRODUCTION, MATERIALS and METHODS, RESULTS, DISCUSSION and REFERENCES follow the ABSTRACT and must contain information directly related to the work. Results must be supported by valid statistical and/or programming tests. Statements should be made in the third person. For example "I/we found that.. is not acceptable", whereas "it was found that using the proposed method", is acceptable.

References in text may be set out as Jones GH (1996) or Jones and Smith JK (2000) or for more than two, Jones et al (2001). REFERENCES should be listed as author names (Jones GH), title, journal name in full, volume and pages. References may also be listed in order of appearance and represented by a number [1] in text. A full text article should not exceed 5000 words with a maximum of 50 references. Authors are encouraged to emulate the format mainly used in the OJB. Upon acceptance of a submission, the TITLE and KEYWORDS will be posted on the internet, and published within 90 days. Submissions remain posted indefinitely and archived. If images are too large (eg >2 MG), only relevant sections of the image may appear in the article. The full image may be linked to a separate page.

Short communications: Contributors may report significant new research results. The work should be presented in the form of a short abstract with supporting condensed data. Short reports should not exceed 1000 words and 25 references.

Review articles: Authors may submit a compendium of their own research work or a review of the current and future status of areas of interest (see list above). Solicited or unsolicited articles will be reviewed by the Editorial Board. Reviews should include an abstract, an introduction and brief headings. The article should not exceed 3000 words and 60 references.

Materials and Data Availability :Authors must allow other qualified researchers to replicate and improve on submissions to OJB and must allow access to data and programs. Submissions requiring data statistical analysis (for example mean + SD or correlations), must be accompanied by all original raw data for independent statistical review. There will be no exceptions, and submissions without this requirement will not be viewed or considered for review under any circumstances. Raw data should be submitted in an appropriate separate data file such as excel or CV format. The submitted data files will remain property of author(s) after review. However, authors may inform the OJB upon submission of any restrictions on the availability of data. Authors must make cloned DNAs, antibodies, bacterial, animal, or plant cells; viruses; and computer programs promptly available on request by qualified researchers for their own use. Failure to comply will preclude future publication in the journal. Authors may request a modest sum to cover costs.

Reprints: Upon request, authors will be emailed a copy of the full-text published online article for printing. Parts may have to be reformatted (eg: large images).

Publication/submission rate: March 2012 to December, 2012 (23.2%)

© 1996-2019 All Rights Reserved. No part of this page may be reproduced, stored or transmitted without the permission of the publisher, Online Journal of Bioinformatics Disclaimer :No responsibility is assumed by the Publisher for any damage and/or injury to any persons, animals or property due to any of the products, ideas, methods or instructions published in Online Journal of Bioinformatics (OJB). Inclusion of any of the products in material published in OJB does not constitute an endorsement or guarantee of the quality of such products.

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