About Development
- About us
- Why choose Development?
- Supporting the community
- Development online
- Focus on biodiversity: The Forest of Biologists
- Journal metrics
About us
Development is a leading primary research journal in the field of developmental biology. It is published by The Company of Biologists, a not for profit publishing organisation dedicated to supporting and inspiring the biological community. From its initial launch in 1953 as the Journal of Embryology and Experimental Morphology to the present day, Development continues to publish cutting-edge research articles across the spectrum of plant and animal development, covering topics ranging from stem cells and nuclear reprogramming to evolutionary developmental and systems biology, from neurobiology to regional specification, morphogenesis and organogenesis, and from epigenetics to the aetiology of disease.
Development is edited by expert researchers in the field, and all articles are subject to rigorous peer review. In addition to primary research articles, Development also publishes a range of commissioned review-based articles aimed at synthesising the latest advances in the field, putting forward new hypotheses to provoke debate and inspire new research directions, and educating newcomers to the field. For more information on publishing in Development, please visit our submission, article types and journal policies pages.
Development offers advance online posting of accepted articles on its Accepted manuscripts site, which is updated daily. Publication of the final version of record is by a continuous publication model; as soon as an article is ready to be published, it is immediately released online rather than waiting for other articles in the issue to be completed, resulting in faster access to the final version of the article.
Development [ISSN 1477-9129 (online); ISSN 0950-1991 (print)] is a continuation of Journal of Embryology and Experimental Morphology (ISSN 0022-0752)
Why choose Development?
- Submissions handled by expert academic Editors
- Competitive decision speeds
- Format-free submission
- Strong commitment at first decision: ~ 95% of invited revisions accepted
- Rapid publication, including advance posting of accepted articles
- Scoop protection policy
- Publishing peer review reports
- Free to publish – no page charges, no colour charges, no hidden fees
- Open Access option available – compliant with funder mandates
- All articles free to access after 12 months – complete archive online
- Review-type articles from leaders in the field highlighting key research topics
- Wide international readership
- Active promotion of published papers
- Altmetrics and usage statistics for all articles
- Copyediting by experienced scientific editors
- Strong ethical approach to publishing best-practice
- Simple solutions for data sharing and access
- Manuscripts deposited on preprint servers welcome
- Transfer from bioRxiv to Development
- Integration with the reviewer recognition service hosted by Web of Science (previously Publons)
- Easy one-click transfer option to Biology Open
- A tree planted for each published Research and Review article – ancient woodland protected for each completed peer review
- Not-for-profit publisher
- Read & Publish agreements for institutions and library consortia
Supporting the community
Development is a community journal that strives to support the members and the research of the developmental biology community. For example, Development supports younger researchers in the community through its Travelling Fellowship programme through which it offers up to £3,000 to graduate students and post-docs, who wish to make collaborative visits to other laboratories. The Company of Biologists, the publisher of Development, is also a generous financial supporter of the British Society of Developmental Biology and, through its Meetings Grants programme, sponsors numerous meetings and workshops in the field, including Keystone Symposia, Gordon Conferences, EMBO workshops and the annual embryology course at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole. Development itself also sponsors speakers to attend international meetings. Through the Node, Development's community blog, the journal connects the developmental biology community to important information in their field.
Publishing in Development is free of any charges, and authors are provided with free electronic reprints of their papers. All of Development's content is also freely available to community members in lower income countries through the HINARI initiative.
The Company of Biologists is committed to improving equity, diversity and inclusion in all our activities. We believe that diversity – in areas including but not limited to geography, ethnicity, gender and career stage – is essential for a community to thrive. As such, we aim to engage a broad and diverse group of authors, reviewers, editors, staff, readers, grant awardees and meeting participants. Find out more about our EDI activities to date, and our plans moving forward, on our EDI page.
Development online
All Development's content – including the entire archive dating back to 1953 – is available online, and is fully browsable and searchable. All Development papers are freely available online 12 months after publication, and authors may choose to make their articles Open Access by paying a subsidized fee. In addition, Development deposits manuscripts in PubMed Central for those authors whose funding providers mandate deposition.
Development is also a participant of the LOCKSS/CLOCKSS projects, an international community initiative through which libraries and publishers work together to preserve their digital content for the long-term.
Focus on biodiversity: The Forest of Biologists
The Forest of Biologists is a living and growing forest that has been created as part of a biodiversity initiative that celebrates author and reviewer contributions to the journals of The Company of Biologists. For every Research Article and Review-type article published in Development a real tree is planted in new forest and a representation of that tree appears in a virtual forest. In addition to planting new trees, we are also funding the restoration and preservation of ancient woodland and dedicating these trees to our peer reviewers, who help us preserve the integrity of the scientific record. The Forest of Biologists, launched in 2023, is a symbol of the work of the biologists whose research and expertise fills our journal.
The Company of Biologists has chosen to work with the Woodland Trust, the UK’s largest woodland conservation charity, focusing on the role that trees and woods play in tackling the threats of climate change and nature loss.
Read the Editorial to find out more about The Forest of Biologists.
Journal metrics
Development is a signatory of the DORA declaration, which makes a number of recommendations for improving the way in which the quality of research output is evaluated (a useful guide on the responsible use of quantitative indicators in research assessment is available). In accordance with the recommendations, Development uses a number of metrics that together provide a rich view of the journal's performance. In addition, Altmetric data and usage statistics are available for individual articles.
- 2023 Impact Factor: 3.7
- Five-year Impact Factor: 5.0
- Two-year citation median: 2
- Eigenfactor Score: 0.03587
- Article Influence Score: 2.218
- Cited half-life: 12.8
- Immediacy index: 0.8
- h-index: 359
- Scopus CiteScore: 6.7
- SJR indicator: 1.852
- SNIP: 0.981
In 2009, Development was designated one of the 100 most influential journals of the past 100 years.
Development is abstracted and/or indexed (amongst others) by: BIOBASE, CAB abstracts, Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, Current Contents, EMBASE, ISI Web of Science, Medline and SCOPUS.
Development [ISSN 0950-1991 (print), ISSN 1477-9129 (online)] is a continuation of Journal of Embryology and Experimental Morphology (ISSN 0022-0752).
As a Transformative Journal, Development will provide more transparency around pricing and publishing metrics in line with the Plan S Price and Transparency Framework developed by Information Power. More details can be found on our transparent metrics page.
Last updated: 30 December 2024