Journal profile · Behavioral Sciences
Behavioral and Brain Functions
ISSN 1744-9081 · BioMed Central · ENGLAND · Monthly · Founded 2005
Behavioral and Brain Functions: CAS Zone 2 · Psychology (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 2.92; fully open access; APC about USD 3,190; median 155 days to acceptance (96 articles, last 24 months); community-reported acceptance: fairly easy; 49 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Behavioral and Brain Functions is published by BioMed Central and is in Zone 2 of Psychology in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies, Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, together about 34.5% of its articles. Its main subfields are Cognitive Neuroscience. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
A well-established journal in the field of behavioral and cognitive neuroscience, Behavioral and Brain Functions welcomes manuscripts which provide insight into the neurobiological mechanisms underlying behavior and brain function, or dysfunction. The journal gives priority to manuscripts that combine both neurobiology and behavior in a non-clinical manner.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Behavioral Sciences
Editor-in-chief Wim CrusioPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 2 in mainland China (about 4%); most named United States 16, United Kingdom 7, Italy 4, Canada 4, Norway 3 (53 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Neural and Behavioral Psychology StudiesNeuroscience12.2%
- Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on BehaviorNeuroscience12.2%
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity DisorderMedicine10.1%
- Stress Responses and CortisolNeuroscience6.6%
- Functional Brain Connectivity StudiesNeuroscience5.5%
- Memory and Neural MechanismsNeuroscience5.3%
- Neuroscience and Music PerceptionNeuroscience4.1%
- Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology ResearchNeuroscience3.9%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Psychology Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Psychology | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Behavioral Sciences | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Neurosciences | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Psychology Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Psychology | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Behavioral Sciences | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Neurosciences | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Psychology Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Psychology | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Behavioral Sciences | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Neurosciences | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SCIEScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
MEDLINEEmbasePsycINFOCASPublisher website
Other: Google Scholar, ProQuest, Dimensions, CNKI, Baidu, Naver, OCLC, Portico, CLOCKSS
As the journal's website lists them, not checked against each database; for Web of Science editions the records above apply.
Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- Impact factor
- 2.92LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 2.9Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 4Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 4.6LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.98LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 0.96LetPub ·
- h-index
- 51LetPub ·
- h-index
- 96OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 610OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 3.16OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 3.4%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 48LetPub ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 694,900Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 847 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 51 | 51 | 8 |
| 2025 | 49 | 49 | 208 |
| 2024 | 37 | 37 | 217 |
| 2023 | 24 | 24 | 277 |
| 2022 | 16 | 16 | 328 |
| 2021 | 11 | 11 | 475 |
Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.
Review & acceptance
Review time and acceptance
Review time from article dates manuscript dates registered with Crossref · to
155 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 111 days – 199 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 17 days (96 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 177 days
- Sample
- 96 articles with submission and acceptance dates (113 in the window); the latest was accepted on
Only articles that were accepted and published are counted, not the time spent on rejected manuscripts, so this usually runs longer than a publisher's "time to first decision".
Other sources
- Average review time (community reports)
- 6–12 weeksLetPub ·
- Average acceptance (community reports)
- Fairly easyLetPub ·
- Submission to first decision
- 7 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 18 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Single anonymous peer reviewDOAJ
Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Fully open accessDOAJ
Every article is open access; authors usually pay an article processing charge (APC).
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | EUR 2,690 / USD 3,190 / GBP 2,290 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC-ND | |
| OpenAlex | USD 3,190 / EUR 2,690 / GBP 2,290 | — | — | |
| LetPub | GBP 2,190 / USD 3,090 / EUR 2,590 | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | GBP 2,290 / USD 319 / USD 3,190 / EUR 2,690 | — | — |
The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
Open calls for papers1, by deadline
Publisher websiteWhat to prepare2 items from the author guidelines
- Templates
- LaTeX
- Suggested reviewers
- Optional
Article types accepted6
- brief reportFormatting guidelines for specific article types can be found below. Research Review Comment Hypothesis Methodology Brief reportLength not stated
- commentFormatting guidelines for specific article types can be found below. Research Review Comment Hypothesis Methodology Brief reportLength not stated
- hypothesisFormatting guidelines for specific article types can be found below. Research Review Comment Hypothesis Methodology Brief reportLength not stated
- methodologyFormatting guidelines for specific article types can be found below. Research Review Comment Hypothesis Methodology Brief reportLength not stated
- researchFormatting guidelines for specific article types can be found below. Research Review Comment Hypothesis Methodology Brief reportLength not stated
- reviewFormatting guidelines for specific article types can be found below. Research Review Comment Hypothesis Methodology Brief reportLength not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteData availability, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review
- Data availability Formatting the 'Availability of data and materials' section of your manuscript
Data sharing strongly encouraged or required; deposit in public repositories where appropriate; 'Availability of data and materials' section required. Model summary
The following format for the 'Availability of data and materials section of your manuscript should be used:
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Licensing and copyright
Open access under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 or CC BY 4.0; authors retain copyright. Model summary
Creative Commons licences Open access articles in Springer Nature journals are published under Creative Commons licences. These provide an industry-standard framework to support easy re-use of open access material. Under Creative Commons licences, authors retain copyright of their articles. Behavioral and Brain Functions articles are published open access under a CC BY-NC-ND (Creative Commons Attr…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Benefits of open access
Publishing open access (OA) offers a number of benefits, including greater reach and readership for your work: Cited more 1.6x more citations of OA articles than non-OA articles across all subjects Downloaded more 4x more downloads of OA articles than non-OA articles Greater impact 2.5x more Altmetric attention. OA articles attracted 1.9x more news mentions and 1.2x more policy mentions Open acces…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review policy
Peer review is the process used to evaluate the quality of a manuscript before publication. Independent researchers in the relevant field assess submitted manuscripts to check their validity and robustness. Their feedback guides editors in making publication decisions. Typically, two or more experts evaluate each manuscript based on three main criteria: scientific robustness: is the research metho…
Source ↗Publisher website ·
Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- BioMed Central
- Country or region
- ENGLAND
- Language
- English
- Frequency
- Monthly
- Founded
- 2005
- ISSN
- 1744-9081
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗DOAJ
- Submission system ↗LetPub
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Fee waivers ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
- Plagiarism policy ↗DOAJ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Behavioral and Brain Functions
What CAS zone is Behavioral and Brain Functions in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Behavioral and Brain Functions is in Zone 2 of Psychology, and in Zone 2 of the minor category Behavioral Sciences / Neurosciences. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 3 of Psychology. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Behavioral and Brain Functions?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 2.92; CiteScore 4.6, h-index 96.
How long does peer review take at Behavioral and Brain Functions?
Based on the dates recorded on 96 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 155 days (interquartile range 111–199 days); authors report an average review time of 6–12 weeks; the community-reported acceptance is “Fairly easy”. Article statistics cover accepted papers only, publisher figures follow the journal's own definitions, and community reports come from authors' own submissions; none is a promise from the journal.
What are the manuscript requirements of Behavioral and Brain Functions?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Templates: LaTeX; Suggested reviewers: Optional. A model extracted these from the author guidelines and each was checked against the text; check the latest version on the journal's website before submitting.
Where are the editorial board members of Behavioral and Brain Functions based?
Of the 53 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 2 (about 4%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United States (16), United Kingdom (7) and Italy (4). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Behavioral and Brain Functions?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Behavioral and Brain Functions is indexed in SCIE, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO and CAS; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Behavioral and Brain Functions open access, and what is the APC?
Behavioral and Brain Functions is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 3,190.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, OpenAlex, DOAJ, Publisher website; every figure is tagged with its source and the date it was observed, and conflicting values are kept per source. LetPub source page: view ↗ (archived 2026-08-26). Last updated: .