''Biology Letters'' is a peer-reviewed, biological, scientific journal published by the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

. It focuses on the rapid publication of short high quality research articles, reviews and opinion pieces across the biological sciences. ''Biology Letters'' has an average

turnaround time Turnaround time (TAT) is the amount of time taken to complete a process or fulfill a request. The concept thus overlaps with lead time and can be contrasted with cycle time. Meaning in computing In computing, turnaround time is the total time t ...

of twenty four days from submission to a first decision. The

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

is Professor

David Beerling David John Beerling (born 21 June 1965) is the Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Climate change mitigation and Sorby Professor of Natural Sciences in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences (APS) at the University of Sheffield, UK. He ...

FRS (University of Sheffield) who is supported by an international Editorial Board of practising scientists.

Contents and themes

As well as the conventional, short research articles, ''Biology Letters'' has recently published Special Features and Mini Series. While Special Features are a collection of up to 20 articles on a specific theme and published across multiple issues, Mini Series include up to six articles that are published in one issue. Examples of topics in these formats include

ocean acidification Ocean acidification is the reduction in the pH value of the Earth’s ocean. Between 1751 and 2021, the average pH value of the ocean surface has decreased from approximately 8.25 to 8.14. The root cause of ocean acidification is carbon dioxid ...

, fossils, extinction, enhanced rock weathering and the evolutionary ecology of species ranges. Content in the journal is regularly covered in the mainstream and social media. At the time of writing, a paper on Goffin’s cockatoos making tools to reach food was featured in, The Guardian, New Scientist and The New York Times. Research describing the missing-link among dinosaurs was reported by

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

and

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

. A 2010 study of

bumblebee A bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus ''Bombus'', part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct related genera ...

behaviour by pupils from

Blackawton Blackawton is a village and civil parish in the South Hams district of Devon, England. According to the 2001 census, it had a population of 647. ''Blackawton'' is a major part of the West Dart electoral ward. The ward's population at the 2 ...

Primary School is the journal's most downloaded paper.

History

The journal was split off as a separate journal from the '' Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences'' in 2005 after having been published as a supplement. Originally it was published quarterly, then bimonthly, and since 2013 it has been published monthly. The journal publishes short articles from across

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

online (printing each issue ceased at the start of 2020).

Indexing

As of 2022 (2021 JCR index), ''Biology Letters'' has an

impact factor The impact factor (IF) or journal impact factor (JIF) of an academic journal is a scientometric index calculated by Clarivate that reflects the yearly mean number of citations of articles published in the last two years in a given journal, as ...

of 3.812 and is ranked 30th in the Biology category. The journal is indexed in Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science.

External links

*
Royal Society Publishing

The Royal Society

References

{{Reflist Biology journals Publications established in 2005 Bimonthly journals English-language journals Royal Society academic journals 2005 establishments in the United Kingdom