Mission and Review Process

Biomicrofluidics (BMF) is an online-only journal published by AIP Publishing to rapidly disseminate research in the fundamental physicochemical mechanisms associated with microfluidic and nanofluidic phenomena. BMF also publishes research in unique microfluidic and nanofluidic techniques for diagnostic, medical, biological, pharmaceutical, environmental, and chemical applications.

BMF offers quick review and publication, multimedia capability, and wide circulation among academic, national, and industrial laboratories. The editors, and the interdisciplinary and international editorial board, are responsible for the content and other editorial matters related to BMF.

Manuscripts that are appropriate for publication in BMF are sent to an expert referee for evaluation. Some manuscripts are sent to an additional referee for a second review. To avoid multiple revision cycles, we typically decide whether to accept or reject a manuscript after no more than two rounds of review.

Authors may appeal an editor's decision to reject a manuscript by requesting that the editor reconsider. If the editor maintains the decision to reject the manuscript, the publisher of AIP Publishing will review subsequent appeals, if any, by the author. The publisher does not decide whether a manuscript should be accepted but rather assesses whether editors followed the proper procedures for reviewing the manuscript. If editors did not follow the proper procedures, we will review the manuscript again and decide whether to publish.

Criteria for Publication

The mission of BMF is to offer prompt multimedia and electronic publication of microfluidic research with biological, medical, or chemical applications. We encourage you to send video clips demonstrating the basic concept or the performance of new microfluidic techniques. AIP Publishing will archive all publications, including multimedia contents.

To be accepted for publication in BMF, manuscripts must meet the following criteria:

Content:  The manuscript should be original and interesting to the general microfluidics community or to the medical, life-science, or environmental communities that have an interest in microfluidic applications.

Novelty: The manuscript should contain new techniques or experimental results that have not been submitted elsewhere. Manuscripts that do not meet this standard, in the reviewers' or the editor's opinion, will be rejected.

Language standard: It is the authors’ responsibility to ensure that manuscripts are written clearly. A manuscript can be rejected if the scientific meaning is unclear due to poor English. Manuscripts that do not meet Biomicrofluidics’  language standard will be returned to the authors for rewrite before peer review, during the review process and/or if provisionally accepted pending language editing.

Because good science has no value unless it is clearly communicated, AIP Publishing recommends that authors use AIPP Author Services to improve the quality of your paper’s written English. AIPP Author Services was developed in line with our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion for all authors. Using this service ensures that your paper will be free of language deficiencies, so editors and reviewers will be able to fully understand your research during the review process. A native English-speaking subject matter expert of AIP Author Services will correct spelling, grammar and punctuation and verify the use and consistency of technical terms and content in your paper. Note that this is not a requirement or a guarantee of acceptance for review or publication.

Length: Articles for the Brief Communications section should not exceed 2000 words (approximately 3 published pages, with allowances for equations, tables, and figures; an average one-column figure with its caption will displace about 220 words of text). The editors may not know that an article for this section exceeds the length limit until later in the publication process. If articles are too long, publication could be delayed at additional expense. Authors, please do not divide your article into smaller parts to circumvent the length limitation.

Articles for the section Perspectives and Review should not exceed 50 published pages (approximately 35,000 words of text, including allowances for equations, tables, and figures).

Standard articles should not exceed 15 published pages (approximately 10,000 words of text, including allowances for equations, tables, and figures).

Manuscripts that exceed the length limits or that require excessive time for reviews will be rejected.

Format: For more information please view our Resources for Researchers page.

Bylines: The person who submits the paper is responsible for ensuring that all authors approve of the inclusion of their names in the byline. After the submission date, whenever a coauthor is removed from or added to a byline, we must have a signed agreement from that coauthor before we publish the manuscript.

Copyright: Authors publishing in the journal retain the copyright and must complete an exclusive License to Publish Agreement. When authors submit their manuscript to the journal, they imply that the work has neither been previously copyrighted nor accepted for publication elsewhere. Since authors must complete the License to Publish Agreement before the journal publishes their manuscript, we encourage you to sign the agreement electronically when you submit your manuscript. This will prevent unnecessary delays. We also require authors to inform the editors if a manuscript has been previously submitted to another journal, regardless whether the manuscript is active with that journal.

Authors who submit manuscripts that contain patentable ideas do so at their own risk. Neither BMF nor the AIP Publishing assumes any responsibility in this regard.

Ethical Guidelines for Studies Involving Human or Animal Subjects

Research articles involving the use of human or animal subjects are required to include a statement indicating that the authors obtained prior approval from an ethics committee or Internal Review Board (IRB). This statement should be included in the Author Declarations section and must include the name of the ethics committee or IRB as well as an approval ID number. Additionally, studies involving human subjects must include a statement indicating that participants provided informed consent prior to the study. Manuscripts which fail to provide this information may be rejected.

Article Types

Fast Track:

Fast Track articles replace Brief Communications to report on the most novel, high impact, cutting edge, and technically significant developments in the field. Because of the urgency and scientific importance of the work, Fast Track articles are quickly reviewed. Fast Track articles will also receive priority consideration for BMF’s Editor’s Picks and AIP Publishing press releases.

Within 14 days, editors will first screen manuscripts for novelty and quality then send them, if appropriate, to the Editorial Advisory Board for review. Fast Track authors must respond to reviews within 10 days.

Fast Track articles should not exceed 2000 words (approximately three printed journal pages), excluding the abstract, title, author list, references, and acknowledgments. However, figures, tables, and equations are included in the word count. You must account for them by calculating a word count equivalent to the space they occupy. The abstract should not exceed 100 words.

Perspectives:

Perspectives examine the anticipated future direction of a particular topic of importance or growth within the field. Typically, manuscripts are solicited from leading researchers in the subject area, although BMF editors welcome proposals from authors. Although there are no strict length limitations for Perspectives, they should not exceed 50 published pages (approximately 35,000 words of text, with allowances for equations, tables, and figures; an average one-column figure with its caption will displace about 220 words of text). Manuscripts that are too long or that require excessive time for reviews will be rejected.

Review Articles:

Reviews provide an in-depth overview of a particular topic of importance or growth within the field. Typically, manuscripts are solicited from leading researchers in the subject area, although BMF editors welcome proposals from authors. Although there are no strict length limitations for Reviews, they should not exceed 50 published pages (approximately 35,000 words of text, with allowances for equations, tables, and figures; an average one-column figure with its caption will displace about 220 words of text). Manuscripts that are too long or that require excessive time for reviews will be rejected.

Regular Articles:

Regular articles are original contributions that include new research findings that constitute a substantial advance in understanding in a subject within the scope of the journal. Although there are no strict length limitations for Regular articles, manuscripts should not exceed 15 published pages (approximately 10,000 words of text, with allowances for equations, tables, and figures; an average one-column figure with its caption will displace about 220 words of text). Manuscripts that are too long or that require excessive time for reviews, will be rejected.

Comment/Response:

The purpose of a Comment is to correct significant errors in articles published in the journal, to rebut conclusions reached, or to provide additional insight or corroboration. Comments must address scientific issues only and be concise, substantive, and contain no harsh criticism. We discourage Comments on questions of priority or calling attention to an oversight in a reference list. An anonymous referee reviews both the Comment and its Response. If the Comment is rejected, neither the Comment nor the Response will be published. If the Response alone is rejected, the Comment will be published without the Response. The editors will not consider any further exchange beyond this point for publication. If both are accepted, the Comment and the Response will appear in the same issue. We cannot guarantee as rapid a publication schedule as that for which we maintain regular submissions. As a first step, we encourage authors who are interested in submitting a comment to contact the author of the original article for a direct response. If the original authors cannot address the concern via direct correspondence or with an Erratum, then a Comment/Response will be considered by the Editor.

Retraction and Correction Policies

AIP Publishing’s policy is based on best practices in academic publishing. We take seriously our responsibility to maintain the integrity and completeness of the scholarly record of our content. We place great importance on the authority of articles after we publish them. Changes to articles after they have been published online may be made only under the circumstances outlined in AIP Publishing's Retraction and Correction Policies.

Transfers

If the editor rejects a manuscript, authors may transfer the rejected manuscript to another AIP Publishing journal for consideration. We offer this service as a convenience to authors so that they do not have to resubmit a manuscript to another AIP Publishing journal. Authors may request a transfer by sending an email to the journal that rejected the article (exclusively for an AIP Publishing journal on the list). If you transfer a manuscript, it does not guarantee that the receiving journal will publish it.

(Revised February 2019)