General policies

These General Policies set out the core principles that govern submission, review, publication, and use of content in World J Exp Biosci. They should be read alongside the journal's other policy pages, linked throughout, which provide full detail on specific topics.

1. Journal Philosophy and Scope

World J Exp Biosci is committed to promoting rigorous, transparent, and accessible scientific research to advance global knowledge. The journal operates a double-blind peer review system in which the identities of authors and reviewers are concealed from one another throughout the review process, to ensure impartiality and fairness.

The journal publishes editorials, original research articles, review papers, and thematic special issues spanning Medicine, Medical Microbiology, Microbiology, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Genetics, Biophysics, Immunology, Ecology, Veterinary Sciences, and related disciplines. Full scope details are available on the Aims & Scope page.

The journal has been published continuously since 2013 and currently publishes two issues per year. Editorial decisions are based on scientific quality, originality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, and relevance to the journal scope.

2. Who Can Submit

Researchers may submit original articles for consideration if they are the copyright holders of the work or have obtained authorization from the copyright owner(s) to publish it. Authors retain copyright of their work.

All submissions must:

  • Be original and not previously published, in whole or substantial part, in print or electronic form.
  • Not be under simultaneous consideration by another journal.
  • Accurately represent the work of all listed authors, in line with recognized authorship criteria.

Authors are responsible for ensuring copyright compliance for any third-party material (e.g., figures, tables, or data). Authors must ensure that all listed authors have made significant contributions to the work and have approved the submitted version of the manuscript.

Questions regarding submission eligibility should be directed to the editorial office or via Contact us.

3. General Submission Rules

  • Submitted articles must not have been previously published in print or electronic form, and must not be submitted simultaneously to another journal.
  • There are no submission fees, article processing charges (APCs). Full detail is available on the Article Processing Charges (APCs) and Other Fees page.
  • Manuscripts are evaluated through the journal's double-blind peer review workflow; see the Peer Review Guidelines, Peer Review Process, and Review Policies pages for details on reviewer selection, evaluation criteria, and timelines.
  • Manuscripts involving human participants or animal subjects must comply with the journal's Research ethics requirements, including relevant ethical approvals and consent documentation.
  • Acceptance in World J Exp Biosci grants the journal a non-exclusive license to publish and distribute the article under the CC BY 4.0 license. Authors remain free to share and reuse their work in accordance with CC BY 4.0 terms.
  • Questions regarding submission requirements should be directed to the editorial office (Contact us).

4. Formatting Requirements

  • There are no strict formatting requirements for initial submissions.
  • Final, accepted submissions must follow the journal's formatting requirements, described in full in the Guidelines for Authors.
  • Authors are responsible for providing high-quality electronic files in Microsoft Word format, preferably DOCX. Supplementary data should be provided in standard formats (PDF, Excel, CSV, and images in TIFF, PNG, or JPEG) where applicable.
  • Authors are responsible for submitting manuscripts in clear, grammatically correct English. 

5. Authorship and Use of AI Tools

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made a significant intellectual contribution to the study and who take public responsibility for its content. Generative AI tools cannot be listed as authors or co-authors, as they cannot take accountability for a manuscript's accuracy and integrity.

Any use of generative AI in the research or writing process must be disclosed at submission, in accordance with the journal's dedicated AI Policy, which sets out acceptable and unacceptable uses, disclosure requirements, and the consequences of undisclosed or inappropriate use.

6. Research and Publication Ethics

World J Exp Biosci adheres to internationally recognized standards of publication ethics, including those of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). This covers, among other things, expectations around data integrity, conflicts of interest, informed consent, and ethical approval for research involving human or animal subjects.

7. Open Access and User Rights

World J Exp Biosci is a fully Diamond Open Access journal, adhering to the principles of the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI). There are no charges to authors or readers at any stage of the publication process no submission, processing, peer-review, page, colour-figure, or subscription fees (see APCs and Other Fees).

All published articles are freely accessible for reading, downloading, copying, distribution, printing, and text/data mining, without requiring prior permission from the publisher or authors, provided the terms of the journal's license are followed.

8. Copyright, Licensing, and Author Rights

Authors retain full copyright of their published work. Upon acceptance, authors grant World J Exp Biosci a non-exclusive license to publish and distribute the article.

All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits anyone to share, copy, distribute, and adapt the work for any purpose including commercial use provided that proper credit is given to the original author(s) and the journal, a link to the license is included, and any changes made are clearly indicated.

Authors retain:

  • Patent, trademark, and other intellectual property rights related to their work.
  • The right to reuse, reproduce, or post their own work on personal or institutional websites, repositories, or scholarly platforms, provided proper attribution is given and a link to the journal's version of record is included.

Full detail, including the copyright agreement submission process, is available on the Copyright, and open access policies page, and self-archiving rights are further detailed in the Repository and Self-Archiving Policy.

If a manuscript includes material copyrighted by others (e.g., figures or tables), it is the authors' responsibility to obtain permission from the rights holder and to acknowledge the source appropriately.

Attribution and Personal-Use Exceptions

Reproduction, posting, or distribution of articles requires proper credit to the authors and to World J Exp Biosci as the original publisher, consistent with CC BY 4.0. The following personal-use activities do not require additional permission:

  • Storage and backup on personal devices.
  • Posting on personal, non-commercial websites or non-commercial institutional repositories.
  • Posting on non-commercial course websites for teaching purposes.

For exceptions or questions about usage beyond these, contact the editorial office.

9. Preservation and Permanent Access

Published articles remain permanently accessible through the journal website and their assigned DOI. This is supported by the journal's participation in the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN), periodic archiving through the Internet Archive, and a daily backup system with encrypted offline storage, as detailed in the Archiving and Digital Preservation Policy.

10. Editorial Process and Timelines

Manuscripts are handled through a structured editorial workflow from initial screening through peer review, decision, and production described in full on the Publication process of the journal page. Typical indicative timelines are: submission to first decision (~12 days), submission to decision after review (~40 days), submission to acceptance (~55 days), and acceptance to online publication (~15 days). These are indicative averages and may vary by manuscript.

Author and institutional rights and responsibilities across this process are further detailed in Author and Institution rights.

11. General Terms and Conditions

  • Users agree not to misuse the journal's website, software, or content in a manner inconsistent with the CC BY 4.0 license or applicable law.
  • Failure by the journal to enforce any right under these policies does not constitute a waiver of that right.
  • If any provision of these policies is deemed invalid or unenforceable, all remaining provisions continue in full effect.
  • These General Policies, together with the Submission Agreement and the journal's other policy pages referenced herein, constitute the complete agreement between authors and the journal regarding submission and publication.
  • These policies are reviewed periodically and may be updated to reflect evolving international publishing standards; the version published on the journal website is the version in effect.

12. Integrity of the Published Record

The World Journal of Experimental Biosciences is committed to maintaining the accuracy, reliability, and integrity of the scholarly record. When necessary, the Journal publishes corrections, corrigenda, expressions of concern, or retractions in accordance with its Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement and internationally recognized publication ethics principles. Such notices are linked to the original article to ensure transparency and preserve the integrity of the published record.

13. Questions and Complaints

For questions about any policy on this page, or to raise a concern about a published article (including corrections, retractions, or research/publication ethics complaints), please see the Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement or contact the editorial office directly.

Disclaimer/Publisher's Note: The statements, opinions, and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s), and not of Unicorn Scientific Publishing LLC and/or the editor(s). The publisher and editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions, or products referred to in the content.