Cell Reports (journal)

Cell Reports (journal)
Title	Cell Reports
Abbreviation	Cell Rep.
Discipline	Biomedical sciences
Editor	Alberto R. Kornblihtt
Publisher	Cell Press
History	2012–present
Frequency	Weekly
Openaccess	Hybrid
Issn	2211-1247

Cell Reports (journal) is a peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing original research across the biomedical and life sciences. Launched by Cell Press in 2012, it serves as a multidisciplinary venue alongside titles such as Cell and Neuron, aiming to accelerate communication among researchers in fields from molecular biology to systems biology. The journal interfaces with major research communities including those associated with institutions like Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of Cambridge, and Max Planck Society.

History and Development

Founded amid changes in scholarly publishing, the journal began publication in 2012 under the aegis of Cell Press, part of Elsevier. Early development built on precedents set by established venues such as Nature, Science, PNAS, and specialized titles like Developmental Cell. Editorial strategy responded to discussions at organizations including COPE and initiatives by funders such as the Wellcome Trust and the National Institutes of Health. Over its history the journal evolved editorial processes comparable to those at The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine for translational pieces, and adopted publishing models that paralleled shifts seen at eLife and PLoS Biology.

Scope and Editorial Policies

The journal's scope encompasses experimental and computational research in domains represented by laboratories at Broad Institute, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, and clinical centers like Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins Hospital. Editorial policy emphasizes original data reporting similar to standards upheld by Journal of Biological Chemistry and EMBO Journal. Peer review practices draw from guidelines advocated by COPE, ORCID, and community norms endorsed at meetings such as the Gordon Research Conferences and symposia at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Policies on authorship and data availability reference principles championed by organizations including International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and funders like the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Publication and Format

Published on a weekly schedule, the journal issues research articles, short reports, methods papers, and resource articles comparable in format to contributions in Nature Communications and Science Advances. Formats accommodate data types common in groups led by investigators at Institute Pasteur, Karolinska Institutet, and Riken, including high-throughput sequencing, cryo-electron microscopy, and single-cell transcriptomics used widely at facilities like European Synchrotron Radiation Facility and EMBL Heidelberg. The journal offers hybrid open-access options, reflecting models employed by Springer Nature and Wiley-Blackwell, and integrates tools for preprint posting akin to workflows with bioRxiv and medRxiv.

Abstracting and Indexing

Abstracting services include listings in major databases that index biomedical literature alongside entries for journals such as Cell, Nature Medicine, and Journal of Clinical Investigation. Indexing partners align with infrastructures like PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and aggregators used by libraries at Library of Congress and university consortia including Association of American Universities. Metadata practices follow standards promoted by CrossRef and the National Information Standards Organization, enabling discoverability consistent with repositories such as Europe PMC.

Impact and Reception

The journal has been cited in work from research groups at University of California, San Francisco, University of Oxford, Princeton University, Yale University, and ETH Zurich. Its impact factor and citation metrics have been compared in bibliometric analyses alongside journals such as Cell Reports Medicine, Nature Biotechnology, and Genome Research. Reception among investigators has paralleled debates seen in the community around open access and editorial selectivity involving stakeholders like the Wellcome Trust, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and national funding agencies including the European Research Council.

Notable Articles and Special Issues

The journal has published influential articles that have been widely cited by groups at Broad Institute, Salk Institute, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and clinical consortia including NIH Clinical Center collaborations. Special collections and themed issues have addressed topics of broad interest such as single-cell genomics, CRISPR–Cas9 technology, and SARS‑CoV‑2 research, aligning with parallel special issues in journals like Cell, Nature, and Science. These collections have included contributions from researchers affiliated with Harvard Medical School, MIT Koch Institute, National Institutes of Health, and international consortia such as the Human Cell Atlas.

Category:Academic journals