The Journal of Biological Sciences at Rutgers Camden is a scientific report by undergraduate students in the Department of Biology at Rutgers University – Camden. Most of the work reported in this journal comes from original research projects initiated and performed by students during a single semester. As part of the a Principles and Practices of Biological Research course, students complete a cornerstone project and publish the results of that project in JBS. The mission of the journal is to provide undergraduate Biology major students the opportunity to learn critical thinking and academic research skills by establishing a hypothesis, testing that hypothesis, and then reporting the results of their original research. All papers published in JBS are evaluated and published after a peer-review process by student and faculty reviewers. The following are the expectations for the academic merit of a manuscript published at JBS.
1. The research question is original. Students cannot simply repeat a paper that has been published. The question or hypothesis should be specific enough to be addressed in one semester’s worth of experimental approaches.
2. Hypothesis driven. There is a clear hypothesis based on previous research works.
3. One figure with an error bar. The minimum required data is one informative figure with proper statistical tests to make a sound conclusion. Whether the data rejects or supports a hypothesis is not considered as a criterion for publication.
4. Scientific writing. The paper should be formatted properly and readable by both professional scientists and general audience. The paper should provide enough background information and discussion of the results for the general audience.
Journal of Biological Sciences at Rutgers Camden (JBS) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License