Aims and Scope
The questions this journal is for
Journal of Evolutionary Science publishes research, synthesis, methods and theory on evolutionary process and pattern — how lineages change, why they change in the ways they do, and how such claims are tested. Its subject is the evolutionary question itself, whether the evidence for it is a genome, a population, a fossil series, a comparative dataset or a formal model.
- ISSN2689-4602
- DOI registrationCrossref, prefix 10.14302
- RightsCC BY 4.0, authors retain copyright
One test of fit
Scientific fit rests on a substantive contribution to understanding evolutionary processes, patterns or concepts, or to the methods, resources and applications used to study them. This remit spans organisms, populations and comparative contexts, across fundamental and applied research.
A sequence alignment, a wild population, a museum series, a simulation and a conceptual analysis offer different ways to investigate evolution. Observational and experimental studies, replication and confirmation, and reviews and evidence syntheses can each contribute. Scientific fit depends on the work's evolutionary substance; evidence quality is assessed in relation to its methods and claims.
Manuscripts should engage relevant evolutionary research and explain the grounds for their conclusions. Work that confirms, refines or challenges an established explanation is assessed against the same editorial criteria.
The test
Identify the manuscript's substantive evolutionary contribution and show how its questions, analyses, resources or applications support it. A study may also contribute to another field. An incidental reference to evolution is insufficient to establish scientific fit.
Fields of work
The areas below illustrate the journal's scientific remit. Related evolutionary questions and contributions are also considered within the scope described above.
Evolutionary process and mechanism
The forces that change allele and trait frequencies, and the inferences that connect them to the pattern actually observed.
Work of this kindSelection, drift, mutation and recombination · epistasis, pleiotropy and constraint · fitness landscapes · experimental evolution · inferring process from pattern.
Populations, species and speciation
How populations diverge, where reproductive barriers come from, and what separates one lineage from another.
Work of this kindPopulation structure and gene flow · demographic history · reproductive isolation · hybridization and introgression · species delimitation · conservation and management genetics.
Molecular and genome evolution
Evolution read in sequence, structure and genome architecture, from a single protein domain to a whole genome.
Work of this kindGene and gene-family evolution · protein-domain conservation · duplication and horizontal transfer · regulatory and non-coding evolution · transposable elements · codon usage and mutation bias · microbial and viral evolution.
Phylogeny, comparative biology and deep time
Reconstructed history, and what can properly be inferred from a reconstruction.
Work of this kindPhylogenetic inference · divergence dating and clock models · ancestral state reconstruction · comparative methods · biogeography · paleobiology and ancient DNA · diversification and extinction.
Development, form and behavior
How evolutionary change is expressed in the building, the shape and the conduct of organisms.
Work of this kindEvolutionary developmental biology · morphology, allometry and functional form · life-history evolution · behavior and sexual selection · coevolution and ecological interaction · phenotypic plasticity.
Evolution applied
Evolutionary concepts, evidence or methods applied substantively to a practical problem, with their role in the analysis and interpretation made clear.
Work of this kindConservation and restoration genetics · pathogen, vector and antimicrobial-resistance evolution · domestication, breeding and crop and livestock lineages · evolutionary perspectives on health and disease · invasion and biosecurity.
Methods, models and research resources
Contributions that make evolutionary questions answerable, assessed on what they make possible for other researchers.
Work of this kindInference methods and statistical models · simulation frameworks · software and analytical pipelines · curated sequence, phenotype and phylogenetic resources · benchmarking and reproducibility.
Theory, concepts and the history of the field
Evolutionary process treated formally, and the analysis of what evolutionary claims assert.
Work of this kindFormal models of evolutionary process · measures of complexity and organization · analysis of evolutionary concepts and terms · the history and philosophy of evolutionary science.
Questions authors ask
The following questions explain scientific fit and the assessment of different contributions.
01
My contribution is theoretical. Is there a place for it?
There is. Models of evolutionary process, formal treatments of organization and complexity, and analyses of what evolutionary claims assert are read here as primary work, alongside empirical study. A theoretical manuscript should explain its assumptions, reasoning or derivation, and relevance to evolutionary science. Empirical implications and tests should be discussed where applicable to its claims.
02
My result runs against an established position.
That is a question about evidence rather than about scope. This journal publishes work that argues, and holds a claim that unsettles a consensus to the same standard as one that confirms it: state the claim plainly, set out the grounds it rests on, and engage the strongest version of the position being revised. An argument put that way can be answered, which is what makes it useful to the field.
03
The contribution is a method or a resource, not a finding.
A method, a model, a pipeline or a curated dataset can contribute by supporting evolutionary research. Explain its purpose, relevant comparisons or validation, and how researchers can use it. Provide supporting data, simulations, derivations or resource documentation as appropriate to the contribution and its claims.
04
My study sits between evolutionary science and another field.
Work at a boundary — with ecology, development, genomics, epidemiology, paleontology, statistics or the history of science — is in scope when it makes a substantive contribution to evolutionary science. Explain how the fields connect in the research question, approach or interpretation.
05
How much evidence is enough?
The strength of the evidence should match the claims made. Descriptive and observational work can address evolutionary questions on its own terms; causal claims require evidence suited to causal inference. Scope eligibility and the quality of the evidence are assessed separately, alongside the editorial criteria below.
What a manuscript makes clear
These scientific expectations apply as relevant to the contribution. Consult the journal's preparation guidance in the instructions for authors.
- The claim
- State early what the manuscript asserts and how far it reaches. A reader should be able to say what would have to be true for the claim to hold.
- The route to it
- Report the analysis so that it can be repeated: data sources, software and versions, model choices, priors and parameters wherever these determine the result.
- The evidence behind it
- Make the data, alignments, trees, code or simulations available on the terms set out in the journal's editorial policies, so the analysis can be checked and built on.
- The reporting the methods call for
- Specialist reporting requirements — calibration points and clock models, effective population size and its uncertainty, specimen and locality provenance, statistical diagnostics — apply to the methods a study actually uses.
How fit is decided
All submissions undergo initial editorial screening. Manuscripts that meet the journal's scope and minimum requirements proceed to independent peer review.
Manuscripts that proceed to external peer review are normally evaluated by at least two independent subject-matter experts. Reviewers are asked to assess whether the evidence supports the claim, whether the methods were applied and reported so the analysis can be repeated, and whether the manuscript engages the relevant literature.
Editorial decisions are based on scope, scientific quality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, reporting quality, and relevance to the journal. Those decisions are independent of fees, services, memberships, and editorial roles. An editor or reviewer who submits work here has it handled independently of them.
- Full title
- Journal of Evolutionary Science
- ISSN
- 2689-4602
- DOI registration
- Crossref, prefix 10.14302
- Peer review
- Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request.
- Rights
- CC BY 4.0; authors retain copyright
Bringing work to this journal
A manuscript that meets the test above is welcome throughout the year. Three routes are open, and each reaches the same editorial office.
- Primary route
- ManuscriptZone
- Alternative route
- The manuscript submission form, which opens with Journal of Evolutionary Science already selected.
- Assisted route
- The editorial office, at [email protected].
Authors must use only one submission route for the same manuscript.