About the Journal

Focus and Scope

JBC Purpose

The Journal of Biocommunication (JBC) is a scholarly publication intended to provide objective and useful information to the biocommunication community. This includes the written exchange of formal studies, analyses of experience, evaluation of materials, creative examples of the best in biocommunications, and ideas or opinions contributing to the effective utilization of communications media to improve health-care through education, clinical practice and research.

JBC Goals

  • Serve as an exemplary showcase of biocommunication techniques.
  • Describe reliable current approaches with proven effectiveness as well as innovative and experimental procedures in medical art and illustration, print, film, television, computer, multi-media systems, and digital imaging.
  • Develop communication modalities as applied in the health sciences, along with instructional design and evaluation and storage-retrieval developments related to these applications.
  • Encourage widespread sharing and utilization of validated biocommunication materials.
  • Promote the concept of biocommunication as a profession, carried out by media specialists, librarians, instructional designers and researchers in concert with practicing professionals and health educators.
  • Foster rapport and increased cooperation among biocommunicators at all levels of the profession.
  • Achieve scholarly and scientific acceptance as evidenced by the influence that articles and information have on the course of biocommunication and by contributors receiving professional recognition.

Types of articles:

 Features:  The JBC Features section provides a window into an author's rich biocommunication experiences. Included here are insightful peer-reviewed articles containing current biomedical communication research. While most articles for this section will relate to biomedical visualization, consideration will also be given to manuscripts relating to educational design, academic research, biomedical historical reviews, rich media design, instructional media, and educational technology.

Columns: "Our Columns section provides recurring dialogs, articles, and other short pieces all designed to inform the Journal of Biocommunication reader of relevant news, reviews, updates, and insight. Our Columns are usually written by the same authors and will appear in successive issues."

Gallery:  Our JBC Gallery features award-winning imagery from our Association's most recent annual meetings. Featured are images, photographs, animations, and three-dimensional models from BCA's BIOIMAGES, AMI's Salon, and other selected professional exhibitions. This section showcases the extraordinary medical photography and medical illustration from professional members and students worldwide depicting surgical procedures, molecular structure, anatomy, medical research, genetics, bio-science, animation, human interest, and interactive media.

Showcase:  The JBC Showcase section is reserved for the creative imagery of selected individuals and/or groups that have made significant contributions to the field of biocommunication. Past Showcases have included the featured imagery of BCA's Louis Schmidt Award recipients, AMI's Lifetime Achievement Award recipients, and other individuals selected by the Journal Management Board.

Proceedings:  Our professional annual meetings (and those of our affiliated association and groups) contain a wealth of content designed for our professional growth and continuing education. The Proceedings category will serve as a diverse forum for this cutting edge content. The Vesalius Trust Research Posters, VIZBI Conference posters, Masters research theses, student exhibitions, and a broad range of other biocommunication content will be included in this section.

Peer Review Process

The JBC welcomes unsolicited materials for consideration. All articles are peer reviewed by selected referees for the Features, Columns, Gallery, and the Cover. Editorial board members will select two reviewers to submit written evaluations. The Managing Editor or JBC board member will assess the peer reviews and determine whether the submission will be accepted as is, accepted with suggested revisions, temporarily rejected with suggestions for improvements before resubmission, or rejected with reasons explaining this decision. The corresponding author can usually expect an initial response within four to six weeks.

At the time of submission, authors may suggest the names and email addresses of qualified reviewers. These proposed referees should NOT be directly affiliated with the author. A good place to locate knowledgeable reviewers is from authors of the key papers in your references.

Through submission of manuscripts, authors warrant that articles have not been published previously and that they will assign a license to publish to the JBC. Additionally, authors are asked not to submit articles concurrently to the JBC and to another journal or publication. Authors must also include a statement describing any potential fiscal conflicts of interest.

 

Peer-review process is broken down into the following steps:

 

1. The author submits a manuscript.

2. An editor is assigned to the manuscript.

3. The editor decides whether to send the manuscript out to review.

4. The editor assigns potential reviewers to the manuscript.

5. Reviewers agree to review the manuscript.

6. Reviewers submit their reports to the editor using an online link.

7. In the event that the reviewers are at very strong opposition with respect to accepting the article, a   
    third reviewer may be requested to evaluate the manuscript.

8. The editor makes the final decision.

9. The editor contacts the author with the decision.

 

Publication Frequency

The JBC is published two times annually.

Open Access Policy

  • Exclusive License to Publish: Articles are freely available to the public to read through JBC online platforms, but this traditional license does not grant the public any reuse or derivatives. Permissions must be obtained from the author for any third party use.
     
  • Creative Commons / Open Access License: Articles are freely available to the public to read AND also to reuse without permission or fees as defined by a Creative Commons license.

    The JBC offers two types of Creative Commons license agreements, either a CC BY agreement (for research manuscripts supported by NIH, NSF, or other funding sources), or a more restrictive CC BY-NC-ND agreement.

Aim and Scope of the Journal

The Journal of Biocommunication (JBC) is a multidisciplinary forum for the scholarly publication of visual communication techniques in the life sciences. This quarterly journal seeks articles describing proven and experimental procedures in medical and scientific art, illustration, photography, data visualization, animation, game design, instructional design, information retrieval, digital imaging, and other communication modalities applied in the life sciences. The JBC promotes excellence and the sharing of articles and information that may influence the course of the profession, and encourages recognition for high quality contributions.

The Journal of Biocommunication began publication in 1974. In 2000, the JBC incorporated the Journal of Biological Photography that began publication in 1931 as the Journal of the Biological Photographic Association. To increase readership and showcase motion media and animation, the JBC transitioned to an online format in 2003.

The Journal welcomes written exchange of formal studies, analyses of experience, evaluation of materials or software, creative examples of the best in biocommunication, and ideas or opinions contributing to the effective utilization of communications media to improve healthcare and science through education, clinical practice, and research.

Currently the Journal of Biocommunication has no required author fees for publication

Sponsors

Association of Medical Illustrators
201 E. Main Street, Suite 1405
Lexington, KY 40507
www.ami.org 


BioCommunications Association
389 Newport Avenue
Attleboro, MA 02703-5617
www.bca.org 

Journal History

The Journal of Biocommunication has a robust history of publishing relevant content in the visual communication of science and medicine. 

The BioCommunications Association (BCA) first published the Journal of the Biological Photographic Association (JPBA) in September of 1932. This publication contined under that name through October 1979. In January of 1980, the JPBA changed its name to the Journal of Biological Photography (JBP), and continued to publish under that name through 1999.

The Journal of Biocommunication (JBC) was first published in 1974, combining the publishing interests of the Association of Medical Illustrators (AMI), the Health and Science Communications Association (HeSCA), and the Association of Biocommunication Directors (ABCD).

The JBP was incorporated into the JBC in 2000, combining the publishing interests of the AMI, BCA, ABCD, and HeSCA. The final traditionaly printed JBC occured in December 2004 with the publication of the JBC compendium for that year (JBC Volume 30, Numbers 1-4, 2004).

The Australian Institute of Medical and Biological Illustration (AIMBI) joined the JBC publishing consortium in 2006 with JBC issue 32-2. The AIMBI particiapted in the JBC through 2008 (JBC issue 34-2).

The Journal Management Board would like to thank those early JBC Board members, advisors, editors, authors, and our loyal associations, who so steadfastly supported the JBC (and JBPA/JBP) during those early years. This has been a rewarding endeavor and labor of love for all those associated with the Journal. We look forward to many more years of academic, visual, biomedical, and scientific publication.