About Particle and Fibre Toxicology

What is Particle and Fibre Toxicology?

Particle and Fibre Toxicology is an open access, peer-reviewed, online journal for new scientific data, hypotheses and reviews on the toxicological effects of particles and fibres; it functions as a forum for scientific debate and communication between toxicology and disciplines that develop (nano)particles for future applications. These include material sciences, and applications in nanomedicine, such as drug delivery and imaging.

Toxicology of particles and fibres is a thriving and important global research enterprise. Particles and fibres are toxicologically important in many scenarios, including exposure:

• during the manufacture or use of classical industrial products such as pigments and (vitreous) fibres
• to particles from disturbing the earth's crust during mining and quarrying
• from general anthropogenic sources in the environment such as PM10, cigarette smoke and diesel
• to nanomaterials that have been specifically engineered for special purposes, such as drug delivery and imaging.

Particle and Fibre Toxicology is a multi-disciplinary effort because of the need to understand the physico-chemistry of the particles, measure the exposure, determine the biological outcomes in terms of human exposure and regulate exposure in the workplace and general environment. In addition, there are diverse scenarios where particles may pose a toxicological threat due to new applications of old materials or introduction of new materials. For these reasons the literature has historically been scattered across numerous journals. Particle and Fibre Toxicology has proven to be a single, identifiable outlet for output of all of these disciplines and its reviews and original research papers have received tremendous attention.

Content overview

Particle and Fibre Toxicology considers the following types of articles:

• Research - reports of data from original research.
• Commentaries - short, focused and opinionated articles on any subject within the scope of the journal. These articles are usually related to a contemporary issue, such as recent research findings, and are often written by opinion leaders invited by the Editorial Board.
• Letters to the Editor - they can take three forms: a substantial re-analysis of a previously published article, or a substantial response to such a re-analysis from the authors of the original publication, or an article that may not cover 'standard research' but that may be relevant to readers.
• Reviews - comprehensive, authoritative descriptions of any subject within the scope of the journal. These articles are usually written by opinion leaders that have been invited by a member of the Editorial Board.
• Short reports - brief reports of data from original research.

Peer review policies

Publication of research articles in the broad area of particle toxicology by Particle and Fibre Toxicology is dependent on: a) relevance to the aims of the journal, b) scientific validity and quality, and c) coherence with the research area as a whole, as judged by two independent reviewers. Peer review is anonymous. A recommendation of acceptance or rejection is at the discretion of the Editors based on the reviewers' recommendations and will be agreed in consultation with the reviewers. Subject to reviewers' recommendations, all scientifically valid contributions will be published without restrictions on length.

Edited by Paul Borm, Particle and Fibre Toxicology is supported by an expert Editorial Board.

Publishing in Particle and Fibre Toxicology

All articles will be listed in PubMed immediately upon acceptance (after peer review), and will be covered by PubMed Central, Thomson Reuters (ISI), CAS, Biosis and Scopus.

Articles in Particle and Fibre Toxicology should be cited in the same way as articles in a traditional journal. However, because articles in this journal are not printed, they do not have page numbers. Instead, they have a unique article number.

The following citation:

Part Fibre Toxicol 2004, 2:1

refers to article 1 from volume 2 of the journal.

As an online journal, Particle and Fibre Toxicology does not have issue numbers. Each volume corresponds to a calendar year.

To keep up to date with the latest articles from Particle and Fibre Toxicology, why not register to receive alerts? Registration also enables you to customise your subject areas of interest, store your searches, and submit your manuscripts.

Submission of manuscripts

Manuscripts should be submitted electronically to Particle and Fibre Toxicology using the online submission system. Full details of how to submit a manuscript are given in the instructions for authors.

General journal policies

Particle and Fibre Toxicology is published  by BioMed Central, an independent publisher committed to ensuring peer-reviewed biomedical research is Open Access. That means it is freely and universally accessible online, it is archived in at least one internationally recognised free access repository, and its authors retain copyright, allowing anyone to reproduce or disseminate articles, according to the BioMed Central copyright and licence agreement. Particle and Fibre Toxicology however, has taken this further by making all its content Open Access.

Particle and Fibre Toxicology's articles are archived in PubMed Central, the US National Library of Medicine's full-text repository of life science literature, and also at INIST in France and in e-Depot, the National Library of the Netherlands' digital archive of all electronic publications. The journal is also participating in the British Library's e-journals pilot project, and plans to deposit copies of all articles with the British Library.

BioMed Central is working closely with the Thomson Reuters (ISI) to ensure that citation analysis of articles published in Particle and Fibre Toxicology will be available.

Particle and Fibre Toxicology is able to deliver summaries of frequently updated content via Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds. These are accessible via the orange "XML" button at the top of the list of recent articles or the list of most accessed articles. For more information about RSS feeds see our publisher's website.

For further information about general policies please see the instructions for authors.