The International Journal of Developmental Biology

Journal information and policies

The International Journal of Developmental Biology

Abrev: Int. J. Dev. Biol.


ISSN Print Edition: 0214-6282

ISSN Online Edition: 1696-3547

The International Journal of Developmental Biology is an independent, Open Access and non-profit academic journal published by scientists for scientists through a university press (UPV/EHU Press). The journal has a long tradition (since 1952) and is indexed by the most relevant bibliographic databases.

We aim to publish selected and relevant information in a specialized journal that is widely distributed among researchers in the field of developmental biology, all of this by producing a quality edition with publication options that are suitable for any researcher.

Journal information

Scope

The journal publishes works that shed light on our understanding of the mechanism of animal and plant development in health and disease and, in particular, researchs that elucidate the developmental principles underlying the properties of stem cells and cancer. Technical, historical or theoretical approaches also fall within the journal’s scope.

Publisher

UPV/EHU Press
Editorial Service of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU)

Barrio Sarriena s/n, E-48940 Leioa, Bizkaia, SPAIN

E-mail: ijdb@ehu.eus

Editorial Board

Editor-in-Chief
Juan Arechaga
juan.arechaga@ehu.eus
Associate Editors for THE AMERICAS
Richard Behringer
rrb@mdanderson.org
Edward M. De Robertis
ederobertis@mednet.ucla.edu
Associate Editors for THE PACIFIC/ASIA
Makoto Asashima
asashi@bio.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Sally Dunwoodie
s.dunwoodie@victorchang.edu.au
Associate Editors for EUROPE
Massimo De Felici
defelici@uniroma2.it
Brigitte Galliot
brigitte.galliot@unige.ch
Roberto Mayor
r.mayor@ucl.ac.uk
Members of the Editorial Advisory Board
  • Peter Andrews, Sheffield (UK)
  • José A. Belo, Lisbon (Portugal)
  • Michele Boiani, Münster (Germany)
  • Ewa Borsuk, Warsaw (Poland)
  • Nigel A. Brown, London (UK)
  • Fernando Casares, Sevilla (Spain)
  • Jose Cibelli, East Lansing, MI (USA)
  • Philippe Collas, Oslo (Norway)
  • Juan Pablo Couso, Sevilla (Spain)
  • Ivan Damjanov, Kansas City, KS (USA)
  • Igor B. Dawid, Bethesda, MD (USA)
  • Eugenia Del Pino, Quito (Ecuador)
  • José de Celis, Madrid (Spain)
  • Denis Duboule, Geneva (Switzerland)
  • Ricardo Escalante, Madrid (Spain)
  • Diego Franco, Jaén (Spain)
  • Dale Frank, Haifa (Israel)
  • Stephen Gaunt, Cambridge (UK)
  • Scott F. Gilbert, Swarthmore, PA (USA)
  • John B. Gurdon, Cambridge (UK)
  • Alicia Hidalgo, Birmingham (UK)
  • Marie C. Hofmann, Houston, TX (USA)
  • Nick Hopwood, Cambridge (UK)
  • Juan C. Izpisua-Belmonte, La Jolla, CA (USA)
  • Thierry Jaffredo, Paris (France)
  • Zbynek Kozmik, Prague (Czech Republic)
  • Jazek Z. Kubiak, Rennes (France)
  • Marek Maleszewski, Warsaw (Poland)
  • Moisés Mallo, Oeiras (Portugal)
  • Marc Mareel, Gent (Belgium)
  • Artur Mayerhofer, Munich (Germany)
  • José Luis Micol, Alicante (Spain)
  • Sally A. Moody, Washington DC (USA)
  • Marc Moreau, Toulouse (France)
  • Ramón Muñoz Chápuli, Málaga (Spain)
  • Stefan Nonchev, Grenoble (France)
  • Roger A. Pedersen, Cambridge (UK)
  • Günter Plickert, Köln (Germany)
  • Carlo A. Redi, Pavia (Italy)
  • Wolf Reik, Cambridge (UK)
  • Domenico Ribatti, Bari (Italy)
  • M. Angeles Ros, Santander (Spain)
  • Emili Saló, Barcelona (Spain)
  • Lucas Sánchez, Madrid (Spain)
  • Paul Sharpe, London (UK)
  • Antonio Simeone, Naples (Italy)
  • Michael J. Soares, Kansas City, KS (USA)
  • Claudio Stern, London (UK)
  • Colin Stewart, Singapore
  • Miguel Torres, Madrid (Spain)
  • Maurizio Zuccotti, Parma (Italy)

Impact and Indexing

The journal is indexed in the most important articles and journals databases. Here are some of the most relevant ones:

Impact:
JCR (Clarivate Analytics): 2021 IF 2.148; 2021 Cites 4,517
Scimago (Scopus): 2021 H Index 107
Google Scholar Metrics (Google): 2021 h5-index 17

Indexes:
PubMed (National Library of Medicine), MEDLINE (National Library of Medicine), Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics), Science Citation Index (Clarivate Analytics), Scopus (Elsevier), Google Scholar (Google), BIOSIS (Clarivate Analytics), Embase (Elsevier), WorldCat (OCLC)…

Journal policies

Open Access and Copyright policies

Starting from Volume 68 (2024), IJDB is a fully Open Access journal. This includes all articles accepted from December 2023 onwards. Consequently, all articles are published openly, and the authors retain the copyright under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

Furthermore, the Author Accepted Manuscripts ("AAM") are also licensed under same CC BY license and can be freely disseminated through repositories of authors' choice, typically institutional repositories, funding agency's repositories, PubMed Central, Europe PMC, and others.

Funders’ compliance

IJDB is a fully Open Access journal that adheres to the mandates of funding agencies, including those aligning with the guidelines of Plan S by cOAlition S and other relevant standards. Please feel free to reach out to us if you have any doubts or require assistance of any kind.

Plan S from cOAlition S

We fully comply with the open access requirements of cOAlition S, UKRI, Wellcome, and NIHR. Authors retain the right to distribute their final papers and Author Accepted Manuscripts (AAM) through avenues such as institutional and/or subject repositories (e.g., EuropePMC) under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license, without any embargo.

NIH Public Access Policy and PubMed Central (PMC) / Europe Pubmed Central (Europe PMC) partners

The journal adheres to the NIH Public Access Policy and PMC partners. Authors utilizing these public or institutional funds are required to deposit either the final version of the manuscript or the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) to PubMed Central upon acceptance.

Preprints

The journal permits the submission of manuscripts that have been posted to preprint servers. Upon publication, the DOI of the final version of the article should be indicated on the preprint.

Peer Review

Once a manuscript is submitted, it undergoes a prompt evaluation by the Editor-in-Chief and/or the editorial board of the journal. If the manuscript is deemed unsuitable due to reasons such as misalignment with the journal's scope, a swift response will be provided. For manuscripts passing this initial assessment, they proceed to the peer-review process, where reviewers conduct their evaluations.

All manuscripts, including Original Articles, Reviews, Technical Articles, Developmental Expression Patterns, Essays, etc., mentioning research results, theories, or conclusions, undergo peer review. Manuscripts on different topics, such as editorials, some interviews, meeting reports, introductory articles of special issues, are not peer-reviewed. However, they undergo evaluation by the Editor-in-Chief and/or editorial board members.

The journal employs a "Single-blind peer review" process, the most common type. Reviewers remain anonymous while having the option to know the identity of the authors of the paper.

Publication fees

Since 1952, IJDB has been a journal produced by a non-profit university press. This translates into significantly lower Article Processing Charges (APCs), or even no charges at all. We also offer extensive waivers for authors who require them. Our aim is to publish quality science, irrespective of its origin and the resources of the researcher, in a fair and sustainable manner.

The publication fees are as follows:

  • Article Processing Charges (APCs): 500 EUR / FREE (waiver)
  • Printed copy of the issue (optional): 50 EUR


Waivers can be requested by authors either before or after the acceptance of the article. This ensures that the availability of funds will not influence the evaluation of their work. The journal will not request any payment or information about whether authors will apply for a waiver until the article is accepted. However, if authors prefer to request it during the submission process, before manuscript processing, or after pre-evaluation, they can do so, and we will respond promptly. We guarantee that the individuals responsible for deciding on the manuscript will not have access to this information.

Additionally, authors from institutions with an Open Access Agreement can publish directly at no cost. Please consult with your institution or the Editorial Office to determine if you can benefit from this agreement.

Timely publication

Once the manuscript has been submitted, it will receive a quick evaluation by the Editor-in-Chief and/or the editorial board of the journal. In the event that it is not considered suitable because it does not fit the scope of the journal or some similar aspect, a rapid response will be given. The maximum time that this first evaluation can take is usually one week.

In the case of being sent for review, it will depend on the ease of finding reviewers suitable for the content of the manuscript and their availability. The process usually takes about 3 or 4 weeks.

If no major revisions by the author are necessary, the "Accepted Article" would be published online within a month of submission, on average.

In the case of special issues, these times may vary. You can consult us personally in each case at ijdb@ehu.eus .

Ethics policies

Conflict of Interest Statement

Authors must declare any potential conflict of interest in the manuscript. This statement must reflect any aspect (financial or otherwise) that could influence the results or conclusions of the work.

If no conflict occurs, it must also be explicitly specified. Typically, a phrase such as: “The Authors declare that they have no conflict of interest” is included.

Authors’ contributions

It is recommended that the contribution of each author in the preparation of the work be clarified.

Plagiarism and Image Manipulation

Authors must ensure that all written material, images or any other previously published format are correctly cited in the text and reference section. Unless expressly justified, it is not allowed to include verbatim or parts of text from other publications. The journal will reject the manuscript, and we will take the appropriate measures in case of detecting this type of practice with the technological tools at its disposal.

Authors must obtain the necessary permissions to reuse or adapt parts of other publications (usually images) and to attribute their authorship properly.

Of course, fraudulent manipulation of images, tables or any other type of material with the aim of altering the results or conclusions of the manuscript is not permitted. If this type of manipulation is detected, the journal will reject the work without prejudice to taking other kinds of measures.

Experimentation with humans and animals

All works that carry out experimentation with humans or animals must comply with the ethical standards of the relevant national and international institutions and this must be stated in the work.

In the case of studies involving human participants, the ethics committee that approved the study must be stated that the informed consent of the participants was obtained in the circumstances in which it is applicable.

Manuscript preparation and submission

We want the manuscript submission process to be simple. The submission system is fast, with no long forms to fill out, and no special formatting of the manuscript or references is required to be evaluated. For more information see our guide for authors.