Molecular Cell

Molecular Cell (commonly abbreviated as Mol. Cell.) is a peer-reviewed molecular biology journal published by Cell Press, an imprint of Elsevier, issued twice monthly. Founded in 1997, it takes mechanistically deep molecular biology as its core orientation and sits between Cell and Cell Reports in the Cell Press family hierarchy.《分子细胞》（Molecular Cell，常用缩写为 Mol. Cell.）是一份由 Cell Press（爱思唯尔旗下品牌）出版的分子生物学同行评审学术期刊，半月刊。该刊创刊于 1997 年，以发表机制深入的分子生物学研究为核心取向，是 Cell Press 家族中介于《细胞》与《细胞报告》之间的分子生物学刊物。

Scope

The journal's editorial stance sets mechanistic depth as the threshold, requiring that a paper reveal how a molecular process works and that its evidence be deep enough to convince structural and biochemical reviewers, rather than merely reporting the importance of a phenotype. The journal plainly prefers work combining mechanistic insight with biological significance, and studies whose primary advance is a cellular or physiological phenotype supported by molecular biology are usually redirected to other titles in the family. Its principal subject areas include:本刊的取稿立场是「以机制深度为门槛」，即要求论文须揭示分子过程如何运作，并具备足以说服结构与生化评审的证据深度，而非仅报告某一表型的重要性。刊物明确偏好机制洞察与生物学意义兼备的研究，凡主要进展为细胞或生理表型、以分子生物学作为佐证者，通常被转投家族内其他刊物。收文覆盖的主要方向包括：

• The central dogma: molecular mechanisms of information transmission between DNA, RNA and protein.中心法则： DNA、RNA 与蛋白之间信息传递的分子机制。
• Cellular homeostasis: turnover of proteins and organelles, mechanisms of cell death, cell fate decisions, signal transduction, innate immunity, metabolism and infection.细胞稳态： 蛋白与细胞器周转、细胞死亡机制、细胞命运决定、信号转导、先天免疫、代谢与感染。
• Research tools: omics, genome editing, structural biology, microscopy, and computational approaches including artificial intelligence and machine learning.研究工具： 组学、基因组编辑、结构生物学、显微技术，以及人工智能与机器学习等计算方法。
• Molecular basis of disease: the rewiring or derangement of molecular mechanisms in cancer, metabolic disease, neurodegeneration and ageing, and the corresponding processes in plants and microbes.疾病的分子基础： 癌症、代谢病、神经退行性疾病与衰老中分子机制的失调，以及植物与微生物中的相应过程。
• Article formats: research articles, short articles, resources, technology and commentary, with short articles for concise yet fully validated findings and resources for datasets of value to the community.体裁设置： 研究论文、短论文、资源、技术与评论，其中短论文用于篇幅精简而论证完整的发现，资源用于对共同体有价值的公开数据集。

The journal is a hybrid title. The subscription route charges authors nothing, while open access carries an article processing charge of about US$10,400. The publisher publishes no acceptance rate, and third-party estimates of about 13 per cent have not been confirmed by the publisher. The journal is indexed in the Science Citation Index Expanded and carries a 2025 impact factor of 16.0.该刊属混合出版模式：订阅路线不向作者收费，选择开放获取需支付文章处理费，现行金额约一万零四百美元。出版方不公布录用比例，第三方估算约一成三，未获出版方确认。该刊被科学引文索引扩展版收录，2025 年影响因子 16.0。

History

• Founding (1997): the journal was founded in 1997 and published by Cell Press, sitting between Cell and Cell Reports in the family hierarchy as its molecular biology title. The founding title is the current one, with no predecessor.创刊（1997年）： 本刊创刊于 1997 年，由 Cell Press 出版，是 Cell Press 家族中介于《细胞》与《细胞报告》之间的分子生物学刊物；创刊刊名即为现名，无前身刊。^[1]
• Position in the family: within Cell Press, the journal's impact factor of about 16.0 sits between Cell's 45.1 and Cell Reports' 7.7, giving it a position of greater mechanistic depth than the general reports and narrower conceptual scope than the flagship.刊物定位： 在 Cell Press 家族中，该刊与《细胞》的影响因子分别约为 16.0 与 45.1，与《细胞报告》的 7.7 之间，形成「机制深度高于综合报告、概念广度低于旗舰刊」的定位。^[1]
• Publisher relationship: the journal is published by Cell Press, an imprint of Elsevier, with the editorial office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, sharing editorial platforms with the other Cell Press titles.出版方关系： 本刊由 Cell Press 出版，该品牌为爱思唯尔旗下子品牌；编辑部设于美国马萨诸塞州剑桥市，与 Cell Press 其他刊物共用编辑平台。^[1]
• Publication format: the journal is issued twice monthly, twenty-four issues a year, numbered by half-month within the volume, and the library's record of the frequency agrees with the publisher's issue pages.出版形态： 本刊为半月刊，每年二十四期，卷内按半月编号；库内所记刊期与出版方卷期页一致。^[1]
• Metric trend: the 2025 impact factor of 16.0, together with a five-year figure of 17.6 and a CiteScore of 24.4, places the journal in the biology class 1 zone of the Chinese Academy of Sciences ranking, with both biochemistry and molecular biology and cell biology at zone 1.指标走势： 影响因子自 2025 年的 16.0 与五年影响因子 17.6、引用分数 24.4 共同刻画该刊位置；中科院分区中列于生物学大类一区，生化与分子生物学、细胞生物学小类均为一区。^[1]
• Open access arrangements: the journal is hybrid, with an open access article processing charge of about US$10,400. The family operates a multi-journal submission arrangement under which one manuscript can be considered by several titles at once.开放获取安排： 该刊属混合出版，开放获取文章处理费约一万零四百美元；家族内设多刊联合投送机制，一篇稿件可同时由系列内多个刊物考虑。^[1]

Editors

The journal operates under a single editor-in-chief appointed by Cell Press, with a number of scientific editors, the office based in Cambridge, and manuscripts submitted through the Editorial Manager system and able to enter the family's multi-journal submission arrangement.本刊实行主编负责制，主编由 Cell Press 任命并主持编辑部，另设科学编辑若干名，编辑部设于剑桥；稿件经 Editorial Manager 系统投递，并可参与家族的多刊联合投送机制。

• Lara Szewczak (current editor-in-chief): a professional editor at Cell Press, long responsible for handling manuscripts in molecular biology, whose editorship is recorded on the official ScienceDirect editorial board page.劳拉·谢瓦克（现任主编）： Cell Press 专职编辑，长期负责分子生物学方向的稿件处理；其主编身份在 ScienceDirect 官方编委页载明。^[2]
• Scientific editors: the current scientific editors are Heather Bisbee, Krista Bledsoe, Bryan Harada, Demis Menolfi, Sara Miller and Wei Wu, covering structural biology, cell signalling and RNA biology among other directions.科学编辑团队： 现行科学编辑包括希瑟·比斯比、克里斯塔·布莱索、布赖恩·哈拉达、德米斯·梅诺尔菲、萨拉·米勒与吴炜，分别覆盖结构生物学、细胞信号与 RNA 生物学等方向。^[2]
• Former editor: Brian Plosky previously served as an editor of the journal, having worked at Cell Press from 2006 with most of his time devoted to this title. Production and copy editors handle the later stages of the workflow.前任编辑： 布赖恩·普洛斯基（Brian Plosky）曾任本刊编辑，其自 2006 年起在 Cell Press 工作，大部分时间投入本刊；编辑部另设生产与制作编辑负责后期流程。^[2]
• Selection threshold: at triage the editorial office asks principally whether the study reveals how a molecular process works, whether the mechanistic evidence is deep enough for structural and biochemical reviewers, and whether molecular biology is the paper's primary advance. This threshold is what distinguishes the journal from its siblings.取稿门槛： 编辑部在分诊时主要追问三项：研究是否揭示分子过程如何运作、机制证据是否足以说服结构与生化评审、分子生物学是否为论文的主要进展；这一门槛是该刊区别于家族内其他刊物的核心。^[1]
• Standing in the field: the journal is regarded as one of the flagship titles in molecular biology, its mechanistic papers routinely serving as base citations for later structural and functional studies, with a cited half-life longer than that of comparable titles.学科地位： 该刊被视为分子生物学方向的旗舰刊物之一，其机制论文常成为后续结构与功能研究的基础引用来源，引用半衰期长于学科内同类刊物。^[1]