About Lipids in Health and Disease

What is Lipids in Health and Disease?

Lipids in Health and Disease is an Open Access, peer-reviewed, online journal that publishes articles on all aspects of lipids: their biochemistry, pharmacology, toxicology, role in health and disease, and the synthesis of new lipid compounds.

Lipids in Health and Disease is aimed at all scientists, health professionals and physicians interested in the area of lipids. Lipids are defined here in their broadest sense, to include: cholesterol, essential fatty acids, saturated fatty acids, phospholipids, inositol lipids, second messenger lipids, enzymes and synthetic machinery that is involved in the metabolism of various lipids in the cells and tissues, and also various aspects of lipid transport, etc. In addition, the journal also publishes research that investigates and defines the role of lipids in various physiological processes, pathology and disease. In particular, the journal aims to bridge the gap between the bench and the clinic by publishing articles that are particularly relevant to human diseases and the role of lipids in the management of various diseases.

The emerging field of Lipids is expected to have a significant impact in the future of health care. Lipids form an important constituent of all cell membranes, and cellular constituents, and as such they have a profound influence on the interaction of the cell with its immediate environment and the way the messages are received and processed by cells in the body. By regulating cell membrane structure and function, lipids are known to influence the actions of various hormones, peptides and drugs. At present, there is no single forum that publishes all the aspects of research on lipids. Lipids in Health and Disease tries to fill this vacuum. Further, by emphasizing the clinical relevance of the work on Lipids, the journal aims to bridge the gap between the lab and the clinic.

Content overview

Lipids in Health and Disease considers the following types of articles:

• Research - reports of original work that lead to firm, new conclusions.
• Commentaries - short, narrowly focused articles of contemporary interest, usually commissioned by the journal; these are not minireviews. A Commentary generally takes one of two forms:
  • a discussion of an article or trial that was recently published or that is soon to be published, and that is interesting enough to warrant further comment or explanation.
  • more editorial in nature, this article will cover an aspect of an issue that is relevant to the journal's scope; for example a discussion of the impact of new technology on research and treatment, or a discussion of changes in peer review or grant application procedures and their effect on research.
• Hypotheses - articles presenting an untested original hypothesis backed up solely by a survey of previously published results rather than any new evidence. Hypothesis articles should not be reviews and should not contain new data. They should ideally be short articles (maximum 1500 words) outlining significant progress in thinking that would also be testable, though not so easily testable that readers will wonder why the testing has not already been done.
• Reviews - summaries of recent insights in specific research areas within the scope of Lipids in Health and Disease; they can be submitted either upon specific invitation or editorial acceptance of an author's proposal. To submit a proposal, authors should send a tentative title and abstract to the Editorial Office justifying their expertise in the target area, and the scientific relevance and the lack of recent reviews on the topic.
• Short papers - brief reports of data from original research.

Peer review policies

• Peer review in Lipids in Health and Disease is designed to ensure that the research published is 'good science'.
• Lipids in Health and Disease considers manuscripts spanning a wide range of scientific interests, as long as the results and conclusions are scientifically justified and not misleading.
• We recognize the importance of highlighting articles that contain the most interesting, important or significant research. Peer reviewers are asked to indicate articles they consider to be especially interesting or significant. These articles will be given greater prominence within Lipids in Health and Disease and greater external publicity.
• Two external experts will generally review submitted manuscripts. Peer reviewers will have four possible options, for each article:
  • accept without revision
  • accept after revision without expecting to check those revisions
  • neither accept nor reject until author(s) make revisions and resubmit
  • reject because scientifically unsound

Edited by Undurti N Das, Lipids in Health and Disease is supported by an international Editorial Board.

Publishing in Lipids in Health and Disease

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

Articles in Lipids in Health and Disease 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:

Lipids Health Dis 2004, 2:1

refers to article 1 from volume 2 of the journal.

As an online journal, Lipids in Health and Disease does not have issue numbers. Each volume corresponds to a calendar year.

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

General journal policies

Lipids in Health and Disease 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. Lipids in Health and Disease however, has taken this further by making all its content Open Access.

Lipids in Health and Disease's articles are archived in PubMed Central, the US National Library of Medicine's full-text repository of life science literature, and also in repositories at the University of Potsdam in Germany, 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 Lipids in Health and Disease will be available.

Lipids in Health and Disease 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.