Why Bioinformatics Researchers Choose JMID

The Journal of Medical Informatics and Decision Making specializes in computational approaches to healthcare challenges. We understand the unique requirements of bioinformatics research-from algorithm validation to database development, from sequence analysis to machine learning applications in clinical contexts.

Two Convenient Submission Methods

Choose the submission method that best fits your workflow. Both options provide the same rigorous peer review and publication standards.

Bioinformatics Article Types We Publish

JMID welcomes diverse computational and algorithmic contributions to medical informatics. Each article type undergoes rigorous peer review by experts in computational biology and healthcare data science.

Pre-Submission Checklist

Ensure your bioinformatics manuscript is ready for submission by verifying these essential components:

Peer Review Timeline

Our transparent review process ensures timely, constructive feedback from bioinformatics experts. Track your manuscript through every stage:

Total Timeline: Approximately 60 days from submission to publication for accepted manuscripts

Quality Assurance & Trust Signals

JMID maintains the highest standards of scientific integrity and publication ethics, ensuring your bioinformatics research receives credible, rigorous evaluation.

Submission Requirements Specific to Bioinformatics

To ensure reproducibility and scientific rigor, bioinformatics manuscripts submitted to JMID must meet these discipline-specific requirements:

Code and Software Availability

All computational methods must be reproducible. Authors must provide:

• Source code deposited in public repository (GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab) with permanent DOI (Zenodo, figshare)
• Clear documentation including installation instructions, dependencies, and usage examples
• Software version numbers for all tools and libraries used
• Operating system and hardware requirements specified
• Open-source licensing information (MIT, GPL, Apache, etc.)

Data Availability

Transparency in data usage is essential. Manuscripts must include:

• Public datasets cited with accession numbers (GenBank, ArrayExpress, GEO, dbGaP)
• Proprietary data described with access procedures and ethical approval documentation
• Simulated data generation procedures fully documented
• Preprocessing steps and filtering criteria explicitly stated
• Training/validation/test set splits clearly defined for machine learning studies

Algorithm Description Standards

Computational methods must be described with sufficient detail for reimplementation:

• Pseudocode or mathematical formulation provided
• Computational complexity analysis (time and space)
• Parameter settings and hyperparameter tuning procedures
• Convergence criteria and stopping conditions
• Random seed values for reproducible stochastic methods

Validation and Benchmarking

Rigorous evaluation is required to demonstrate method effectiveness:

• Comparison with at least two existing state-of-the-art methods
• Multiple benchmark datasets from different sources
• Appropriate performance metrics for the task (accuracy, precision, recall, F1, AUC, etc.)
• Statistical significance testing (t-tests, Wilcoxon, ANOVA as appropriate)
• Cross-validation or independent test set evaluation
• Runtime and scalability analysis

Figures and Visualizations

Bioinformatics research requires clear visual communication:

• Algorithm flowcharts showing computational pipeline
• Performance comparison plots (ROC curves, precision-recall curves, box plots)
• Heatmaps, network diagrams, or sequence alignments as appropriate
• All figures in high resolution (300 DPI minimum) with readable labels
• Color schemes accessible to colorblind readers

Frequently Asked Questions

What types of bioinformatics research does JMID prioritize?

We prioritize computational methods with clear healthcare applications: clinical decision support algorithms, disease prediction models, drug discovery tools, genomic analysis pipelines, electronic health record data mining, medical image analysis, and clinical natural language processing. Pure theoretical computer science without biomedical application is outside our scope.

Do you accept papers describing incremental improvements to existing algorithms?

Yes, if the improvement is substantial and well-validated. Manuscripts must demonstrate significant performance gains, novel applications, or important methodological insights. Minor parameter tweaks or marginal improvements are generally not sufficient for publication.

Is code submission mandatory?

Yes. Reproducibility is a core principle of computational research. Source code must be made available through public repositories or as supplementary material. Proprietary code can be reviewed confidentially by editors and reviewers, but a functional version must be accessible to readers upon publication.

What if my research uses proprietary clinical data?

Proprietary data is acceptable if you provide: (1) detailed description of data characteristics, (2) ethical approval documentation, (3) clear access procedures for qualified researchers, and (4) validation on at least one public benchmark dataset to demonstrate generalizability.

Do you accept machine learning papers without biological interpretation?

No. While we welcome advanced machine learning methods, manuscripts must include biological or clinical interpretation of results. Black-box models must be accompanied by feature importance analysis, biological pathway enrichment, or clinical relevance discussion.

How do you handle software tool papers?

Software tools must be: (1) publicly available with open-source license, (2) well-documented with tutorials, (3) compared against existing tools, (4) demonstrated on real biological/clinical data, and (5) actively maintained with version control. Web servers should have guaranteed uptime and long-term hosting plans.

What is your policy on preprints?

We encourage preprint deposition (bioRxiv, arXiv, medRxiv) and do not consider it prior publication. Preprints can accelerate community feedback and establish priority. Please disclose preprint DOI in your cover letter.

Can I suggest reviewers?

Yes. You may suggest up to three potential reviewers with relevant expertise. Please provide their names, affiliations, email addresses, and brief justification of their expertise. You may also request exclusion of specific reviewers due to competing interests.