About Molecular Autism

What is Molecular Autism?

Molecular Autism is an online open access journal that gives special emphasis to basic, translational, and clinical research into the molecular basis of autism and related neurodevelopmental conditions.

Molecular Autism publishes research that relates causal and risk factors with these conditions, including research leading to model systems and novel therapeutics. This includes studies into genetics, molecular neurobiology, neuropathology, imaging and biomarkers, with a focus on potential applications for intervention.

Although the primary focus is on conditions in the autism spectrum (including Asperger syndrome), the scope encompasses molecular research into related neurodevelopmental conditions such as specific language impairment, dyspraxia, and specific or general developmental delays; and into related medical syndromes such as fragile X syndrome, tuberous sclerosis, and Rett syndrome.

Content overview

Molecular Autism considers the following types of articles:

• Research: reports of data from original research. These articles will form the major content of the journal.
• Reviews: summaries of recent insights in specific research areas within the scope of Molecular Autism. These articles are often written by opinion leaders invited by the Editorial Board but can also be submitted following editorial acceptance of an author's proposal.
• Commentaries: short, focused and opinionated articles on any subject within the journal's scope. 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.
• Short reports: brief reports of data from original research.
• Viewpoints: short opinion pieces focusing on the latest high-impact research.

Molecular Autism does not generally consider case reports.

Peer review policies

Manuscripts are reviewed by internationally recognized experts in the field, selected in part from our Editorial Board. Reviews are rapid and the suitability of a paper for publication will be assessed solely on criteria of scientific excellence. Final decisions will be made by the Editors-in-Chief.

Edited by Joseph D Buxbaum and Simon Baron-Cohen, Molecular Autism is supported by an expert Editorial Board.

Publishing in Molecular Autism

All articles are listed in PubMed immediately upon acceptance (after peer review), and are covered by PubMed Central and CAS.

Articles in Molecular Autism 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:

Mol Autism 2004, 2:1

refers to article 1 from volume 2 of the journal.

As an online journal, Molecular Autism does not have issue numbers. Each volume corresponds to a calendar year.

To keep up to date with the latest articles from Molecular Autism, 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 Molecular Autism using the online submission system. Full details of how to submit a manuscript are given in the instructions for authors.

General journal policies

Molecular Autism is published by BioMed Central, part of Springer Science+Business Media. BioMed Central is 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. Molecular Autism however, has taken this further by making all its content open access.

Molecular Autism'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.

Molecular Autism 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.