1 Peer review. All manuscripts sent for publication in Biotechnology Bulletin are strictly and thoroughly peer-reviewed, and the peer review process is double-anonymous. Our editorial office first reviews the submitted manuscript whether it conforms to the publication scope of Biotechnology Bulletin. The manuscript that has passed the preliminary review will be submitted to the managing editor in editorial office, who will review again whether the manuscript conforms to the publication scope and whether the content is innovative and valuable. Then, the managing editor will send the manuscripts that have passed the review to two reviewers for peer review. The managing editor will track the review progress of the manuscript, collect at least two review comments, and submit them to the deputy chief editor, who will review whether the manuscript is accepted or not. Before submitting to the deputy chief editor for approval, the author is required to make sufficient modifications (peer review again if necessary). The deputy chief editor shall check and decide whether the manuscript is accepted according to the review comments, and then submit the manuscript to the chief editor for final review. Regardless of whether a paper is accepted or rejected, the editorial office will inform the author of the evaluation results.
2 Originality. By submitting your manuscript to Biotechnology Bulletin, it is understood that this is an original manuscript and is unpublished work and is not under consideration elsewhere. Plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the author’s own work, in whole or in part without proper citation is not tolerated by the journal. Manuscripts submitted to Biotechnology Bulletin may be checked for originality using anti-plagiarism software (CNKI- Academic Misconduct Document Detection System for Science and Technology Journals (AMLC)).
3 Open Access. All articles published by Biotechnology Bulletin are available online for free under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND copyright agreement. The journal is supported by Article Processing Charge (APC). The specific standard is as follows: 460 yuan/page. Details about CC BY-NC-ND can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
4 Copyright and Licensing. Authors are required to sign the Copyright Transfer Agreement to transfer the copyright of their article to the Editorial Office of Biotechnology Bulletin. Upon publication of the article, the copyright will belong to the Editorial Office of Biotechnology Bulletin.
Authors have the right to use their published article under the following circumstances:
(1) Reproducing, disseminating, and using the article freely in accordance with the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License, such as non-commercial academic seminars, communication, academic reports, and lectures.
(2) Using the article in other activities permitted and authorized by the journal.
If the article is not published by the journal at the end, the Copyright Transfer Agreement shall be invalid automatically.
5 Open Access Policy. Biotechnology Bulletin was established in 1985, and flipped to an open access journal since January 1, 2023. All articles will be immediately and permanently free on the official website (https://biotech.aiijournal.com/), allowing anyone to read and download as long as published.
Permitted third party reuse is defined by the following user license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND). The full details of the license are available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Articles from 1985 to 2022 are published using a non-open access model, and are therefore not open access works, and their copyrights are held by the Editorial Office of Biotechnology Bulletin. Most of the articles are archived on the journal's official website, and are available for free full-text download. The remaining past issues are not yet archived on our website, but readers may access them through databases like China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) at https://www.cnki.net/.
In addition to archiving on the official website, the journal also encourages and supports the author or the author’s institute to store the author’s published articles in this journal, immediately after publication, in the institutional repository or the author's personal website to implement self-storage. The stored version is the final published one after peer review in a way of CC-BY-NC-ND. However, the standard journal publication information should be indicated in the institutional repository metadata and used as a recommended reference method.
6 AI Policy Statement. As Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC), represented by ChatGPT, is transforming traditional academic research and paper writing, Biotechnology Bulletin hereby makes the following declaration to maintain academic integrity and research transparency:
(1) In principle, the journal does not accept paper submissions that include AI tools as co-authors, nor should the references include papers listing AI as an author. Authors must be natural persons who can be responsible for the authenticity, completeness, and scientific nature of the paper's content. If the main content of a paper is generated using AI tools, once discovered, it will be treated as academic misconduct.
(2) If AI tools and AI-generated content are used in paper writing, including using AI tools for data collection and analysis, creating images or graphical elements in the paper, generating program algorithms, text, or text polishing, etc., it must be clearly stated in the paper's data sources, method design, or conclusion section. This should detail what AI tools were used, the process of use, and their role and contribution, to allow reviewers and the editorial department to assess the originality of the paper. Papers judged to be suspected of academic misconduct will be directly rejected or retracted.
(3) Scientific research must adhere to the requirements of scientific nature, rigor, standardization, originality, and innovation, and comply with research integrity, academic ethics, and publishing ethics. Paper writing is an important training and reflection of scientific research capabilities; there are no shortcuts, and opportunism should be avoided. We hope that the majority of researchers will adhere to academic standards, maintain academic ethics, and use information tools rationally, standardized, and appropriately for academic research work.
7 Conflicts of interest. Biotechnology Bulletin’s policy requires that each author reveals any financial interests or connections, direct or indirect, or other situations that might raise the question of bias in the work reported or the conclusions, implications, or opinions stated including pertinent commercial or other sources of funding for the individual author(s) or for the associated department(s) or organization(s), personal relationships, or direct academic competition. In addition, financial competing interests, such as awards, pending patents, and ownership of stock shares/options, along with non-financial competing interests, such as advisory board members, related consulting services, and personal relationships, are also required to be disclosed by authors.
8 Disclaimer. The opinions expressed in Biotechnology Bulletin are those of the authors and contributors, and do not necessarily reflect those of the editors, the editorial board, or the organization to which the authors are affiliated.
9 Advertising Statement. The journal does not publish any commercial advertisements. All articles and the official website are free of advertising content. Editorial decisions on manuscript review or acceptance are not influenced by any commercial factors.
