Special Issue – The Integrative Biology of Exercise

With Guest Editors Erika Eliason, Christopher Guglielmo, Natalie Holt and Monica Daley

Journal of Experimental Biology is pleased to welcome submissions for our upcoming special issue: The Integrative Biology of Exercise.

This special issue will consider all aspects of exercise, across all animal groups and across disciplines. We are calling for novel, forward-looking papers that address topics related to training and exercise physiology/biomechanics in a comparative framework. We are particularly interested in papers that take an integrative approach from molecular to organismal physiology, with a focus on the elucidation of mechanism. Although the aim is to have a broadly comparative focus, we are also keen to consider how the biomedical field can inform comparative physiology and vice versa.

Potential topics include but are not limited to muscle training effects, fuel use during exercise, the physiology of migration, the interaction of exercise with other functions, epigenetic effects of exercise, biomechanics of exercise, neurobiology of motivation to exercise and the physiological adaptations to increased exercise over generations. We also encourage Review articles that incorporate meta-analyses in these fields.

In order to be considered, papers must contribute to furthering our understanding of exercise physiology, biomechanics or its interaction with other functions. For feedback on potential suitability of an article, please submit a pre-submission enquiry to [email protected]. We particularly encourage submissions from early-career researchers.

Papers should be in the form of a Review, Commentary or research paper (Research Article, Short Communication, Methods & Techniques, Theory & Modelling). Please refer to our author guidelines on article types and manuscript preparation for information on preparing your manuscript for JEB, and submit your manuscript through our online submission system. Please highlight that your submission is to be considered for this special issue in your cover letter.

The special issue will be published in spring 2026 (although note that, in our continuous publication model, we will aim to publish articles as soon as they are accepted*). The issue will be widely promoted online and at key global conferences, guaranteeing maximum exposure for your work.

The deadline for submitting articles is 27 June 2025.

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View previous special issues from JEB.

* Please note that, according to timing and volume of submissions, not all articles accepted for publication will be included in the special issue; they may instead be published in earlier or later issues of the journal.

Last updated: 19 February 2025