Focus and Scope

The journal Global Biosecurity is an annual peer-reviewed, open access electronic journal for cross-disciplinary research in all aspects of human or animal epidemics, pandemics, biosecurity and bioterrorism including prevention, governance, detection, mitigation and response. We publish work on risk analysis, outbreak investigation, epidemiology, modelling, bioinformatics, phylogenetics, surveillance, intelligence, strategic foresight, forecasting, ‘One Health’, policy, governance, law, law enforcement, defense, ethics and first responder preparedness.

We encourage submissions of original research which is high quality, applied and strategic in all areas of biosecurity listed above. Original research articles undergo blinded peer review and will be published within 6 months of submission if accepted. We also publish editorials, perspectives from the field, CBRNE news and have two options for rapid publication. We are committed to providing rapid publication of global epidemics of concern, and encourage field epidemiologists, first responders, trainees in Field Epidemiology Training Programs, and public health officers to submit rapid reports or watching briefs to disseminate critical epidemic information rapidly. Rapid reports may be written as traditional analytical outbreak investigations, whereas watching briefs provide a descriptive overview of outbreaks, structured within a standard template. Rapid reports and watching briefs in most cases will be published within four weeks.

The journal is researcher-led, not-for-profit, published by UNSW Sydney, a leading global university, and hosted by Ubiquity Press, a researcher-led publishing company founded by researchers at University College London. The intended readership is any first responder, policy maker, researcher or stakeholder involved in preparedness or response for epidemics, pandemics, biosecurity or bioterrorism. The expertise of our editorial team reflects the cross-disciplinary scope of the journal. The journal will publish continously, with full issues archived retrospectively. The journal is open access, online only, with no fees for readers or authors, reflecting our policy of equity of access for readers and researchers alike.

Format

Open access, online only.

Sections

Editorials
Original research
Rapid reports (including outbreaks)
Perspectives from the field
Watching briefs (outbreaks of concern)
CBRN news

Publication Frequency

The journal is published online as a continuous volume and issue throughout the year, and articles are made available as soon as they are ready to ensure that there are no unnecessary delays in getting content publicly available. Articles will be retrospectively grouped into one issue annually.

Special collections of articles are welcomed and will be published as part of the normal issue, but also within a separate collection page.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Authors of articles published remain the copyright holders and grant third parties the right to use, reproduce, and share the article according to the Creative Commons license agreement.

Journal Archiving

The journal focuses on making content discoverable and accessible through indexing services. Content is also archived around the world to ensure long-term availability.

Journals are indexed by the following services:

CrossRef, JISC KB+, SHERPA RoMEO, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and Google Scholar. In addition, all journals are available for harvesting via OAI-PMH.

To ensure permanency of all publications, this journal also utilises CLOCKSS archiving systems to create permanent archives for the purposes of preservation and restoration.

Sources of Support

UNSW Sydney

Biosecurity Program, The Kirby Institute

UNSW Sydney

Journal History

The journal was launched on February 18th 2019.