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The scope of the British Journal of Nutrition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 September 2012

Philip C. Calder
Philip C. Calder*
Affiliation:
Human Development and Health Academic Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK, email pcc@soton.ac.uk
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Information

Type
Editorial
Information
British Journal of Nutrition , Volume 108 , Issue 9 , 14 November 2012 , pp. 1531
Copyright
Copyright © The Author 2012

The British Journal of Nutrition (BJN) is firmly established as one of the premier journals in nutritional science(Reference Calder1, Reference Calder2). It is receiving more manuscripts for consideration than ever before and is now published twice monthly(Reference Calder3); an online, fully open access sister journal (Journal of Nutritional Science) was launched in January 2012(Reference Calder4, Reference Calder5). The goal of the BJN is the publication of high-quality papers based on original nutrition research in human subjects and other animal species. Contents include peer-reviewed research papers covering all aspects of nutritional science; reviews, mini-reviews, systematic reviews and meta-analyses; commentaries on controversial or emerging issues or on published papers; and supplements providing a broad discussion of topics of interest. The Editorial Board of the BJN is international with members from nineteen countries; authorship is even broader than this(Reference Calder6). In previous editorials I have described the definition of authorship(Reference Calder7), the process by which submitted manuscripts are handled before reaching a decision(Reference Calder8), and the importance of declaring conflicts of interest(Reference Calder9). The BJN publishes papers in molecular, cellular, whole body, human, clinical, public health, experimental animal and wild, captive and domesticated animal nutrition. Reports of research in the following areas of nutritional science are published in the BJN:

  1. (1) Dietary surveys and nutritional epidemiology

  2. (2) Behaviour, appetite and obesity

  3. (3) Human and clinical nutrition

  4. (4) Metabolism and metabolic studies

  5. (5) Molecular nutrition

  6. (6) Developmental biology

  7. (7) Microbiology

  8. (8) Nutritional immunology

  9. (9) Nutritional endocrinology

  10. (10) Nutritional toxicology

  11. (11) Innovative techniques

A requirement for acceptance of a paper for publication in the BJN is that it contributes to understanding or extending nutritional principles. All studies submitted for publication should be hypothesis testing and appropriately designed and analysed(Reference Drummond, Paterson and McLoughlin10). Animal and human studies should be conducted according to the highest ethical standards. The BJN does not publish the following:

  1. (1) Case studies

  2. (2) Studies that are confirmatory of well-established nutritional principles

  3. (3) Studies reporting outcomes that do not include nutrition as a part of the study design

  4. (4) Studies primarily about the composition of foods, about food processing or about crop breeding; these manuscripts are better suited for food science, food technology, dietetic or agricultural journals

  5. (5) Studies using uncharacterised or undefined diets, mixtures or extracts

  6. (6) Studies of nutritional substances at levels considered pharmacological

It is advisable that authors consider the scope of the journal when weighing up where to submit their manuscript. Papers outside of the scope will be rejected.

References

1Calder, PC (2011) More citations, but a fall in impact factor. Br J Nutr 106, 789–792.Google Scholar
2Calder, PC (2012) Record citations in 2011 contribute to maintenance of the impact factor of BJN. Br J Nutr 108, 759–761.Google Scholar
3Calder, PC (2009) BJN to publish more issues and more papers in 2009. Br J Nutr 101, 1.Google Scholar
4Calder, PC (2012) BJN gets a new sister! Br J Nutr 107, 1561.Google Scholar
5Calder, PC (2012) The Nutrition Society fully engages with the open access model of publishing: Journal of Nutritional Science. J Nutr Sci 1, e1.Google Scholar
6Calder, PC (2010) Is the demographic of British Journal of Nutrition authors changing? Br J Nutr 103, 1389–1390.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
7Calder, PC (2009) Who should be an author? Br J Nutr 101, 775.Google Scholar
8Calder, PC (2009) Participating in peer review is both a privilege and a professional duty. Br J Nutr 102, 1–2.Google Scholar
9Calder, PC (2008) Increasing transparency in the British Journal of Nutrition. Br J Nutr 99, 217–218.Google Scholar
10Drummond, GB, Paterson, DJ, McLoughlin, P, et al. (2011) Statistics: all together now, one step at a time. Br J Nutr 105, 1285–1286.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed