Molecular Systems Biology

Molecular Systems Biology (commonly abbreviated as ''Mol. Syst. Biol.') is a peer-reviewed, fully open-access journal published by EMBO Press on behalf of the European Molecular Biology Organization. Launched in 2005, it publishes systems biology research at the molecular level, and its officially corrected 2025 impact factor stands at 7.0.Molecular Systems Biology（常用缩写 Mol. Syst. Biol.）是欧洲分子生物学组织（EMBO）名下由 EMBO Press 出版的同行评审开放获取期刊，2005 年创刊，刊发分子层面的系统生物学研究，2025 年经官方更正的影响因子为 7.0。^[1]

Scope

• Disciplinary standing: launched in 2005 as one of the first open-access journals, the title played a pioneering role in establishing and shaping the field of systems biology and is recognised for robust, interdisciplinary research.学科定位： 自创刊起即为最早的一批开放获取期刊之一，在系统生物学这一学科的建立与塑造中起了开创作用，以刊发扎实、跨学科的研究著称。
• Range of scales: the scope follows the advancing frontier of the field, spanning molecules, cells and tissues all the way up to populations.尺度跨度： 期刊定位随领域前沿推进，范围由分子、细胞、组织一直延伸到群体层级。
• Subject areas: coverage includes genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, microbial systems, the integration of cell signalling and regulatory networks, synthetic biology and systems medicine. Manuscripts describing large-scale datasets are judged in part by the extent to which those datasets are integrated with each other and with computational models.选题方向： 涵盖基因组学、蛋白质组学、代谢组学、微生物系统、细胞信号与调控网络的整合、合成生物学与系统医学，描述大规模数据集的稿件还须按数据集之间以及与计算模型之间的整合程度来评判。
• Article types and open science: reviews appear as tutorials that showcase diverse methods and offer practical guidelines. The journal introduced "structured methods" to improve the reproducibility of published data, and also carries methods, news and views, comments, correspondences and editorials.体裁与开放科学： 综述以教程形式刊发，用于展示多样化方法并给出可操作的实践指南；期刊还推行「结构化方法」以提高已发表数据的可重复性，另设方法、新闻与观点、评论、通讯与社论等体裁。
• Open access and review: the journal is fully open access and authors pay nothing. It offers scooping protection from preprints, transparent and consultative peer review with author discussion before decision and at revision, data-integrity and curation services, and a median submission-to-first-decision time of three days.开放获取与评审： 全刊开放获取，作者无须付费；期刊对预印本提供抢发保护，评审透明并允许作者在决定前与修订阶段参与讨论，另提供数据完整性与数据整编服务，投稿至首次决定的中位时间为 3 天。

History

• 2005: founded by the European Molecular Biology Organization and published at first by the Nature Publishing Group on the organization's behalf, the journal was fully open access from the outset and belonged to the earliest wave of open-access titles.2005年： 期刊由欧洲分子生物学组织创办，初由 Nature 出版集团代表该组织出版，创刊起便采用完全开放获取模式，是当时最早的一批开放获取刊物。
• December 2013: publishing moved from the Nature Publishing Group to EMBO Press, bringing the title under a publisher set up for it specifically.2013年12月： 出版方由 Nature 出版集团转为 EMBO Press，期刊自此交由自身的出版机构直接经营。
• Platform migration: the journal's content moved onto the Springer Nature journal platform, with its main domain shifting from the publisher's own site to the Springer Link system.平台迁移： 期刊内容随后迁至 Springer Nature 的期刊平台发行，主域名由出版商自有站点转向 Springer Link 体系。
• Position on metrics: as a founding signatory of DORA, EMBO Press cautions against using the journal impact factor to assess research. Because the 2025 impact factors were miscalculated, the publisher additionally reported the corrected figure of 7.0.评价立场： 作为旧金山宣言的创始签署方，EMBO Press 提醒不要用期刊影响因子评价研究；由于 2025 年的期刊影响因子计算有误，官方另行公布了更正值 7.0。
• Impact trajectory: the impact factor exceeded 13 in 2021 before falling back to just under 10 in 2022 and declining further, to 7.7 in 2024 and a corrected 7.0 for 2025, with the journal still anchored in interdisciplinary systems biology research.影响力轨迹： 影响因子在 2021 年一度超过 13，2022 年回落至接近 10，此后继续下行，2024 年为 7.7，2025 年的更正值降至 7.0，期刊仍以跨学科的系统生物学研究为核心定位。

Editors

• Chief Editor: the journal is currently led by M. Madan Babu, who also directs a centre of excellence at St Jude's Children's Research Hospital and is known for work in regulatory genomics and systems biology.主编： 现任主编为 M. Madan Babu，他同时是圣裘德儿童研究医院一个卓越中心的负责人，以调控基因组学与系统生物学工作闻名。
• Editorial structure: editorial work is handled by a team of scientific editors based in Heidelberg, with Poonam Bheda as scientific editor, Jingyi Hou as senior scientific editor and Yehu Moran as academic editor, covering computational, laboratory and scholarly-review perspectives respectively.编务分工： 编辑工作由驻海德堡的科学编辑团队分工承担，其中Poonam Bheda 任科学编辑、Jingyi Hou 任资深科学编辑、Yehu Moran 任学术编辑，各自从计算、实验与学术评议的角度把关稿件。
• Editorial background: the editors are working scientists with doctoral training, and the journal offers video calls between scientific editors and authors before submission so that fit with the journal can be assessed.编辑背景： 编辑多为兼具博士训练与研究经历的研究者，期刊在投稿前即安排科学编辑与作者进行视频通话，以判断稿件是否适合本刊。
• Submission and contact: manuscripts are submitted through the EMBO Press online submission system, and the editorial team offers video calls and email contact to both authors and readers.投稿与联系： 稿件通过 EMBO Press 的在线投稿系统提交，编辑部同时向作者与读者开放视频通话与邮件咨询渠道。^[2]