The ''Journal of Biological Chemistry'' (''JBC'') is a weekly

peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work ( peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

scientific journal In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication designed to further the progress of science by disseminating new research findings to the scientific community. These journals serve as a platform for researchers, schola ...

that was established in 1905., jbc.org Since 1925, it is published by the

American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) is a learned society that was founded on December 26, 1906, at a meeting organized by John Jacob Abel (Johns Hopkins University). The roots of the society were in the American Ph ...

. It covers research in areas of

biochemistry Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, a ...

and

molecular biology Molecular biology is a branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecule, molecular basis of biological activity in and between Cell (biology), cells, including biomolecule, biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactio ...

. The editor is Alex Toker. the journal is fully open access. In press articles are available free on its website immediately after acceptance.

Editors

The following individuals have served as editors of the journal: * 1906–1909:

John Jacob Abel John Jacob Abel (19 May 1857 – 26 May 1938) was an American biochemist and pharmacologist. He established the pharmacology department at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1893, and then became America's first full-time professor o ...

and Christian Archibald Herter * 1909–1910: Christian Archibald Herter * 1910–1914: Alfred Newton Richards * 1914–1925: Donald D. Van Slyke * 1925–1936: Stanley R. Benedict. After Benedict died, John T. Edsall served as temporary editor until the next editor was appointed. * 1937–1958: Rudolph J. Anderson * 1958–1967: John T. Edsall * 1968–1971:

William Howard Stein William Howard Stein (June 25, 1911 – February 2, 1980) was an American biochemist who collaborated in the determination of the ribonuclease sequence, as well as how its structure relates to catalytic activity, earning a Nobel Prize in Ch ...

* 1971–2011:

Herbert Tabor Herbert Tabor (November 28, 1918 – August 20, 2020) was an American biochemist and physician-scientist who specialized in the function of polyamines and their role in human health and disease. Tabor was a principal investigator at the National ...

* 2011–2015: Martha Fedor * 2016–2021: Lila Gierasch * 2021–Present: Alex Toker

Ranking and criticism of impact factor

The editors of the ''Journal of Biological Chemistry'' have criticized the modern reliance upon the

impact factor The impact factor (IF) or journal impact factor (JIF) of an academic journal is a type of journal ranking. Journals with higher impact factor values are considered more prestigious or important within their field. The Impact Factor of a journa ...

for ranking journals, noting that

review article A review article is an article (publishing), article that summarizes the current Status quaestionis, state of understanding on a topic within a certain discipline. A review article is generally considered a secondary source since it may analyze ...

s, commentaries, and retractions are included in the calculation. Further, the denominator of total articles published encourages journals to be overly selective in what they publish, and preferentially publish articles which will receive more attention and citations. Due to these factors, the journal's practice of publishing a broad cross-section of biochemistry articles has led it to suffer in impact factor, in 2006 ranking 260 of 6,164, while remaining a highly cited journal. When science journals were evaluated with a

PageRank PageRank (PR) is an algorithm used by Google Search to rank web pages in their search engine results. It is named after both the term "web page" and co-founder Larry Page. PageRank is a way of measuring the importance of website pages. Accordin ...

-based algorithm, however, the ''Journal of Biological Chemistry'' ranked first. Using the

Eigenfactor The Eigenfactor score, developed by Jevin West and Carl Bergstrom at the University of Washington, is a rating of the total importance of a scientific journal. Journals are rated according to the number of incoming citations, with citations from ...

metric, the ''Journal of Biological Chemistry'' ranked 5th among all ISI-indexed journals in 2010. The impact factor of the journal in 2021 was 5.486.

History and classic papers

The journal was established in 1905 by

and Christian Archibald Herter, who also served as the first editors; the first issue appeared in October 1905. The location of the journal's editorial offices has included

Cornell Medical College Weill Cornell Medicine (; officially Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University), originally Cornell University Medical College, is the medical school of Cornell University, located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in Ne ...

(until 1937),

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

(1937–1958),

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

(1958–1967), and

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

(from 1967). the journal is published by the

. The most cited paper of all time was published in the journal by Oliver H. Lowry on ''Protein measurement with the Folin phenol reagent'' and describes the

Lowry protein assay The Lowry protein assay is a biochemical assay for determining the total level of protein in a solution. The total protein concentration is exhibited by a color change of the sample solution in proportion to protein concentration, which can then be ...

, and has been cited well-over 300,000 times. In 1990, librarian

Eugene Garfield Eugene Eli Garfield (September 16, 1925 – February 26, 2017) was an American linguistics, linguist and businessman, one of the founders of bibliometrics and scientometrics. He helped to create ''Current Contents'', ''Science Citation Index'' ( ...

wrote that the "Journal of Biological Chemistry lead the list of journals ranked by the number of '' SCI'' Top papers published", with 17 of the top 100 most cited papers published. The next journals on the list were ''

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America'' (often abbreviated ''PNAS'' or ''PNAS USA'') is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal. It is the official journal of the National Academy of Scie ...

'', with 6, then ''

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

'', with 5.

Social media

The journal is very active on

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

. In March, the journal hosts "Methods Madness," a

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...

styled after

March Madness The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as March Madness, or The Big Dance, is a single-elimination tournament played in the United States to determine the men's college basketball national champion of the NCAA Division I, Di ...

. The event takes place on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

and lets users vote for their favorite biochemistry or molecular biology methods.

References

{{Portal bar, Chemistry, Biology Open access journals Academic journals established in 1905 Biochemistry journals Weekly journals English-language journals Academic journals published by learned and professional societies 1905 establishments in the United States