Journal of Theoretical Biology

Journal of Theoretical Biology is Elsevier's English-language journal for theoretical biology, founded in 1961 under the Academic Press imprint and published from Amsterdam since the title passed into the Elsevier group. It prints modelling, simulation and statistical work whose point is a biological claim rather than a mathematical one, and its 2025 Journal Impact Factor is 1.9, Q2 in Biology at rank 52 of 106.《理论生物学杂志》是 Elsevier 旗下的英文理论生物学期刊，1961 年在 Academic Press 名下创刊，转入 Elsevier 集团后由阿姆斯特丹出版。刊物接纳建模、模拟与统计类研究，看重生物学结论而非数学技巧，2025 年影响因子为 1.9，在生物学类目列 Q2，排名 52/106。

Two features separate it from the general run of biology journals. Authors must show that the biology is what matters, and the annual output, 168 papers in the 2025 count against 20,066 citations to the whole run, is small enough that a cited half-life of 18.5 years still describes a coherent literature.该刊与一般生物学期刊有两处不同。作者须证明要紧的是生物学本身；2025 年统计的年发文量为 168 篇，全刊累计被引 20066 次，体量不大，18.5 年的引用半衰期因此仍对应一份连贯的文献。

Scope

• The stated aim is a forum for theoretical perspectives that give insight into biological processes, addressed to biologists across many fields rather than to mathematicians alone.宗旨写明要办成理论视角的论坛，让洞见落到生物学过程上，读者是各领域的生物学家，而不只是数学家。
• Brain and neuroscience form one strand, carried by neural coding, the dynamics of cortical and subcortical networks, synaptic plasticity and the models that tie circuit structure to computation.脑与神经科学自成一脉，神经编码、皮层与皮层下网络的动力学、突触可塑性，以及把回路结构与计算联系起来的模型，都在这一脉里。
• Cancer growth and treatment are handled as dynamical problems, with tumour growth laws, the evolution of resistance under therapy, angiogenesis and the spatial spread of malignant clones.肿瘤的生长与治疗按动力学问题处理，肿瘤生长律、治疗压力下的耐药演化、血管生成与恶性克隆的空间扩散，各自成题。
• Cell biology enters through the cell cycle, signalling cascades, cytoskeletal mechanics, cell polarity and the quantitative rules behind division, migration and death.细胞生物学经由细胞周期、信号级联、细胞骨架力学、细胞极性，以及支配分裂、迁移与死亡的定量规则进入版面。
• Developmental biology supplies pattern formation, morphogen gradients, gene regulatory networks and the mechanics of tissue folding, a line that reaches back to the journal's earliest volumes.发育生物学提供模式形成、形态发生素梯度、基因调控网络与组织折叠的力学，这条线索可以追到创刊初期的卷次。
• Ecology covers population dynamics, species interactions, community assembly, spatial spread and the statistical models that fit such processes to field data.生态学覆盖种群动态、种间相互作用、群落组建、空间扩散，以及把这些过程拟合到野外数据上的统计模型。
• Evolution appears as population genetics, adaptive dynamics, phylogenetic method and the theory of cooperation, with fitness landscapes and lineage models recurring across the volumes.演化以群体遗传学、适应性动力学、系统发生方法与合作理论的面目出现，适应度地形与世系模型在各卷里反复露面。
• Immunology is modelled at the level of clonal selection, repertoire diversity, affinity maturation and the competition between pathogen and immune response inside one host.免疫学在克隆选择、库多样性、亲和成熟，以及病原与免疫应答在宿主体内的竞争这一层面上建模。
• Infectious and non-infectious disease both fall inside the remit, so epidemic models, vaccination strategy, within-host infection and chronic progression sit side by side.传染性与非传染性疾病同在范围之内，流行病模型、疫苗接种策略、宿主体内感染与慢性病进程因此并列出现。
• Mathematical, computational, biophysical and statistical modelling is named as a subject in its own right, which is why work on inference, parameter estimation and model selection belongs here.数学、计算、生物物理与统计建模被单列为方向，推断、参数估计与模型选择一类的工作因此在这里有位置。
• Microbiology, molecular biology and biochemistry bring enzyme kinetics, metabolic network analysis, sequence evolution and the biophysics of macromolecules.微生物学、分子生物学与生物化学带来酶动力学、代谢网络分析、序列演化与大分子生物物理的题目。
• Networks and complex systems are a standing category, covering gene regulation, food webs, signalling graphs and the collective behaviour that emerges from local rules.网络与复杂系统是常设类别，基因调控、食物网、信号图，以及由局部规则涌现的集体行为都在其中。
• Physiology and pharmacodynamics get the same modelling discipline, from organ-level transport to dose-response relations and the kinetics of drug action.生理学与药效学按同一套建模规矩处理，从器官层面的输运，到剂量反应关系与药物作用动力学。
• Animal behaviour and game theory close the list, with evolutionary games, social learning, foraging decisions and the strategic accounts of cooperation and conflict.动物行为与博弈论收束这份清单，演化博弈、社会学习、觅食决策，以及合作与冲突的策略解释都在此处。
• The test for acceptance is stated plainly. A paper must matter for the biology under discussion, and the mathematics is a means rather than an end.录用标准写得直白，论文须对所讨论的生物学本身有分量，数学只是手段。
• Data and experiment are not excluded. Comparative studies, statistical analyses, proofs, simulations, laboratory work, field observation and even philosophical argument all count as ways of supporting or rejecting a theory.数据与实验并不排斥在外，比较研究、统计分析、数学证明、计算机模拟、实验、野外观察，乃至哲学论证，都算支持或否定一种理论的途径。

History

• The first volume is dated 1961 and carries four issues, the journal having begun as a quarterly under the Academic Press imprint in London and New York.第 1 卷标为 1961 年，含四期，刊物最初以季刊面貌在伦敦与纽约的 Academic Press 名下问世。
• Frequency climbed quickly. Volumes 2 to 9, the years 1962 to 1965, hold three issues each and give six a year, and from 1966 four volumes of three issues took the title to monthly publication.刊期很快加密，第 2 卷至第 9 卷覆盖 1962 年至 1965 年，每卷三期，全年六期；1966 年起改为每年四卷、每卷三期，刊物进入月刊状态。
• The 1970s brought a second expansion. In 1975 the record shows volumes 49 to 55 with two issues apiece, fourteen issues in the year, and by 1980 the arrangement had settled at six volumes of four issues, twenty-four a year.1970 年代出现第二轮扩张，1975 年的记录是第 49 卷至第 55 卷、每卷两期，全年十四期；到 1980 年排法定型为每年六卷、每卷四期，全年二十四期。
• That semimonthly rhythm lasted four decades. Volumes 142 to 147 in 1990, 202 to 207 in 2000 and 262 to 267 in 2010 all keep the same six-by-four shape.半月刊的节奏持续了四十年，1990 年的第 142 至 147 卷、2000 年的第 202 至 207 卷、2010 年的第 262 至 267 卷，都沿用六卷乘四期的排法。
• Issue numbers disappeared from 2015, when volumes 364 to 387 each came out as a single issue, twenty-four volumes in the year with no internal numbering left to cite.2015 年起卷内期号取消，第 364 至 387 卷每卷即为一期，全年二十四卷，引用时不再有期号可标。
• The count has since been cut to twenty volumes a year. Volumes 576 to 595 fill 2024, 596 to 615 fill 2025, and 616 to 635 are being filled during 2026.此后卷数减至每年二十卷，第 576 至 595 卷构成 2024 年，第 596 至 615 卷构成 2025 年，第 616 至 635 卷在 2026 年陆续编定。
• Volume 600 therefore falls in 2025, sixty-four years after volume 1, and the numbering has never restarted or missed a year.第 600 卷因此落在 2025 年，距第 1 卷六十四年，卷号既未重起，也没有哪一年空过。
• The imprint history is legible in the addresses. Early records place Academic Press at 24-28 Oval Road, London, and the national library keeps London as the original place of publication while recording Amsterdam as the current one.刊记的沿革可以从地址读出，早期记录把 Academic Press 记在伦敦 Oval Road 24 至 28 号，国家医学图书馆至今仍列伦敦为最初的出版地，现行出版地记作阿姆斯特丹。
• Ownership changed twice without touching the title. Academic Press had belonged to Harcourt since the 1969 merger that formed Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, and Reed Elsevier took over that scientific publishing business in 2001.归属两次易手，刊名始终未动，Academic Press 自 1969 年合并组成 Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 后归 Harcourt 所有，Reed Elsevier 于 2001 年接手这批科学出版资产。
• Indexing followed the same path. MEDLINE and PubMed have covered the journal from volume 6, number 1, January 1964, while OLDMEDLINE and Index Medicus hold the earlier years.索引路径与此平行，MEDLINE 与 PubMed 自 1964 年 1 月第 6 卷第 1 期起收录，更早的年份留在 OLDMEDLINE 与《Index Medicus》里。
• The 2025 metrics put the title at a Journal Impact Factor of 1.9, a five-year figure of 1.9 and a Journal Citation Indicator of 0.54. Biology ranks it Q2 at 52 of 106, mathematical and computational biology Q3 at 45 of 67.2025 年的指标显示，影响因子 1.9，五年影响因子同为 1.9，期刊引文指标 0.54。生物学类目列 Q2，排名 52/106；数学与计算生物学类目列 Q3，排名 45/67。
• The impact factor has drifted from 2.691 in 2021 and 2.405 in 2022 to 1.9 in 2023, 2 in 2024 and 1.9 in 2025, a plateau rather than a collapse.影响因子从 2021 年的 2.691、2022 年的 2.405 走到 2023 年的 1.9，2024 年为 2，2025 年为 1.9，是一条平台线。
• Scale is modest and durable. The 2025 count records 168 articles and 20,066 citations to the whole run, with a cited half-life of 18.5 years, so papers from the 2000s still earn citations.体量不大却耐久，2025 年统计为 168 篇论文，全刊累计被引 20066 次，引用半衰期 18.5 年，2000 年代的论文至今仍在被引。
• Open access arrived as an option on top of subscription, and the 2025 gold share of 43.52 per cent is high for a title that has never converted to full open access.开放获取以订阅之外的可选项形式加入，2025 年金色开放获取占比 43.52%，一份从未转为完全开放获取的刊物能到这个比例并不常见。
• National library records still describe the frequency as semimonthly, a label that fits the twenty-four issue years before 2023 but not the twenty volumes issued now.国家医学图书馆的频率栏仍写作半月刊，这个标注合于 2023 年以前每年二十四期的旧制，与如今的每年二十卷已经对不上。

Editors

• Three co-chief editors run the journal, and the publisher's own page names them as Mark Chaplain of the University of St Andrews, Akira Sasaki of the Graduate University for Advanced Studies at Miura-gun in Japan, and Joshua Weitz of the University of Maryland.刊物由三位共同总编辑主持，出版方页面所列依次为圣安德鲁斯大学的（Mark Chaplain）、日本三浦郡综合研究大学院大学的（Akira Sasaki）与马里兰大学的（Joshua Weitz）。
• The founding editor was James F. Danielli, an English biologist who held the post until his death in 1984 and set the tone of the early volumes.创刊主编是英国生物学家（James F. Danielli），他执掌该职到 1984 年去世，早期卷次的调子由他定下。
• Lewis Wolpert, who died in 2021, served the journal as an editor for more than fifty years, a span that carried it from the Academic Press years into the Elsevier era.（Lewis Wolpert）于 2021 年去世，在编辑部任职五十余年，这段任期把刊物从 Academic Press 时期带进 Elsevier 时代。
• The board is wide in geography and in subject. Members are listed in Tempe, Oxford, Stockholm, Salt Lake City, London, Toulouse, Marseille, Utrecht, Paris, West Lafayette, Ann Arbor, San Francisco, Montréal, Montpellier, Vancouver, Chapel Hill, Leeds, Manchester, Seattle, Miura-gun, Egham, Cambridge and Newcastle.编委在地域与学科上都铺得很开，名册上的地点包括坦佩、牛津、斯德哥尔摩、盐湖城、伦敦、图卢兹、马赛、乌得勒支、巴黎、西拉法叶、安娜堡、旧金山、蒙特利尔、蒙彼利埃、温哥华、查珀尔希尔、利兹、曼彻斯特、西雅图、三浦郡、埃格姆、剑桥与纽卡斯尔。
• Individual members show how the coverage is staffed. Athel Cornish-Bowden in Marseille works on enzyme kinetics, Rob de Boer in Utrecht on immunology, Tom Kirkwood in Newcastle on ageing and Christoph Hauert in Vancouver on evolutionary games.个别成员可以看出这套覆盖如何铺人，马赛的（Athel Cornish-Bowden）研究酶动力学，乌得勒支的（Rob de Boer）研究免疫学，纽卡斯尔的（Tom Kirkwood）研究衰老，温哥华的（Christoph Hauert）研究演化博弈。
• Papers arrive through Editorial Manager, the submission system named in the author guidelines, and the three co-chief editors divide the incoming work by subject before referees are approached.稿件经 Editorial Manager 送达编辑部，这是作者指南里指明的投稿系统，三位首席编辑按学科分工，再决定邀请评审人。
• Referees come from the board and from outside it, and the subject mix on the board is what allows a modeller to be paired with a biologist when a paper straddles the two.评审人取自编委，也取自编委之外，编委的学科搭配使一篇横跨两域的稿件能把建模者与生物学家配到一起。
• The biology-first rule is applied early. Work whose interest lies in the mathematics rather than the biology sits badly with the stated criterion, which asks for importance to the biology under discussion.生物学优先的规矩在初审阶段就用上，兴趣落在数学而不落在生物学上的稿件，与宗旨里那条要看生物学本身分量的标准相抵触。
• Readability is part of the brief. The guidelines ask authors for a concerted effort to make the argument accessible to biologists in the field concerned, and a paper on signalling must still satisfy a signalling biologist.可读性也写进了要求，指南要作者合力把论证写到相关领域读得懂的程度，一篇讲信号传导的论文仍须过得了信号传导专家这一关。
• Where a paper rests on data, the data may come from comparative work, statistical analysis, simulation, laboratory experiment or field observation, and each of these counts as evidence about a theory rather than as an end in itself.论文若以数据为凭，数据可以来自比较研究、统计分析、模拟、实验或野外观察，这些都被当作对理论的检验，而不当作目的本身。
• Continuity comes from the board. Several members have served through changes of publisher and of volume scheme, which helps explain why the editorial line has held steady across sixty-five years.延续性由编委承担，几位成员经历过出版方更替与卷制改动，六十余年里编辑方针保持稳定，原因多半在此。