About the Journal

Research Data Policy

The Serbian Biological Society strongly encourages authors to share the research data that support their published findings. Making data openly available enhances the credibility and impact of a manuscript and aligns with our commitment to the principle: “as open as possible, as closed as necessary”.

We accept a wide range of supporting materials, including high-resolution images, background datasets, large appendices, data tables, and other relevant materials that cannot be included in the main article.

Data Deposition and FAIR Principles

Authors should deposit relevant datasets in a FAIR-compliant repository—whether institutional, disciplinary, or general-purpose. If you need help finding a suitable repository, you can search FAIRsharing Databases Registry. To ensure reproducibility, validation, and reuse, authors must provide any necessary details related to their data, including descriptions of software, instruments, and other tools used in their study. Whenever possible, these tools should also be made available.

Exceptions to Open Data Requirements

We acknowledge that openly sharing data may not always be feasible. Exceptions to data openness include: Sensitive data; Confidentiality obligations; Security concerns; Protection of personal data; Other legitimate constraints.

If full open access cannot be granted, authors must provide restricted access to the data to the extent that their legal and ethical obligations allow.

If access to data is restricted due to ethical or security concerns, when data cannot be effectively anonimized without explicit written consent of participants, the manuscript must include: a description of the data restrictions; an explanation of data protection concerns; statements from the Institutional Ethics Committee regarding data sharing; information on how readers or reviewers can apply for access and under what conditions it will be granted.

Data Accessibility and Licensing

When submitting a manuscript, authors must include a Data Availability Statement linking to the deposited data. If the data is not openly available, the statement must explain why. Key considerations for data deposition include:

• The repository must be appropriate for the subject area and have a sustainability model.
• Data should be deposited under an open license (e.g., CC0, CC BY). More restrictive licenses should be used only if legally required.
• Files should be provided in open, non-proprietary formats whenever possible.
• Data should be clearly labeled with meaningful descriptions (e.g., column headers, a README file).
• Research involving human subjects must comply with the Declaration of Helsinki and be approved by an Ethics Committee. Participant identities should be anonymized where possible, and informed consent must be obtained.
• The Data Availiability Statement should be placed before the reference list and include a DOI, handle or similar persistant link to the data. If access is restricted, a justification should be provided.

By following these guidelines, we aim to foster a culture of transparency and integrity in scholarly publishing while respecting ethical and legal considerations.

Preprint Policy

This journal accepts for review articles previously available as preprints on non-commercial platforms such as ArXiv, bioRxiv, agriRxiv, ChemRxiv, and similar servers. Authors are required to update any preprint versions with a link to the final published article.

Editorial Process

When a manuscript is submitted to the Archives of Biological Sciences, it undergoes an initial prescreening by the Editor-in-Chief and appropriate members of the Editorial Board to determine whether or not the paper fits the scope of the journal. If the Editorial Board establishes that the manuscript meets the journal’s minimum standards for publication, the paper will then undergo the review process.

After completion of the peer review process, which is described above, the manuscript enters the editing phase and is sent to the layout editor. If any additional corrections are required, the manuscript is returned to the author. After any minor technical corrections that do not require further peer review, the article obtains a DOI and is uploaded to the doiSerbia webpage (http://doiserbia.nb.rs/journal.aspx?issn=0354-4664).

Publishing Ethics

The Archives of Biological Sciences strives to ensure the accurate, timely, fair, and ethical publication of a scientific paper. Therefore, it has adopted clear and strict guidelines for all parties involved in the publication of a scientific paper: the author, the editor, the peer reviewers, and the publisher.

Authors' Responsibilities

Authors must certify that their manuscripts are their original work.
Authors must certify that the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere.
Authors must certify that the manuscript is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere.
Authors are obliged to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes.
All Authors mentioned in the paper must have significantly contributed to the research.
Authors must state that all data in the paper are authentic.
Authors must notify the Editors of any conflicts of interest.
Authors must identify all sources used in the creation of their manuscripts.
Authors must report any errors they discover in their published paper to the Editors.
Each author must disclose if another party had the right to review the paper before its circulation.

Reviewers' Responsibilities

Reviewers should keep all information regarding articles confidential and treat them as privileged information.
Reviews should be conducted objectively, with no personal criticism of the author.
Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors.
Reviewers should also call to the Editor-in-Chief's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.
Reviewers should not review manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the articles.

Editors' Responsibilities

Editors have complete responsibility and authority to reject/accept an article.
Editors are responsible for the contents and overall quality of the publication.
Editors should guarantee the quality of the articles and the integrity of the academic record.
Editors should publish errata pages or make corrections when needed.
Editors should base their decisions solely on the articles' importance, originality, clarity, and relevance to the publication's scope.
Editors should not reverse their decisions nor overturn the ones of previous editors without serious reason.
Editors should preserve the anonymity of reviewers.
Editors should ensure that all research material they publish conforms to internationally accepted ethical guidelines.
Editors should act if they suspect misconduct, whether a paper is published or unpublished, and make all reasonable attempts to persist in obtaining a resolution to the problem.
Editors should not reject articles based on suspicions, they should have proof of misconduct.
Editors should not allow any conflicts of interest between staff, authors, reviewers, and board members.

Publisher’s Responsibilities

All submitted articles are subject to a peer-review process by at least two reviewers that are experts in the area of the particular paper.
The factors that are taken into account in the review are relevance, soundness, significance, originality, readability, and language.
The possible decisions include acceptance, acceptance with revisions, or rejection. If authors are encouraged to revise and resubmit a submission, there is no guarantee that the revised submission will be accepted. Rejected articles will not be re-reviewed.
The paper acceptance is constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism.

Conflict of Interest

When submitting a manuscript, the corresponding author has to disclose any actual or perceived conflicts of interest on the part of any author. A declared conflict of interest does not imply any unethical behavior. A declared conflict informs all parties about relationships that could affect scientific judgment. Potential conflicts of interest include affiliations, financial relationships, personal relationships, or funding sources that could be perceived as influencing an author’s objectivity regarding the content of the manuscript. A conflict of interest disclosure is published at the end of the article.

Procedures for dealing with unethical behavior

The editor is responsible for deciding which articles submitted to the journal will be published. The editor is guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by legal requirements in force regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. Articles that have been published shall remain extant, exact, and unaltered as long as it is possible. However, very occasionally, circumstances may arise where an article is published that must later be retracted. The main reason for withdrawal or retraction is to correct the mistake while preserving the integrity of science; it is not to punish the author.

Article Withdrawal

The editor is responsible for deciding which articles submitted to the journal will be published. The editor is guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by legal requirements in force regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. Articles that have been published shall remain extant, exact, and unaltered as long as it is possible. However, very occasionally, circumstances may arise where an article is published that must later be retracted. The main reason for withdrawal or retraction is to correct the mistake while preserving the integrity of science.
Article withdrawal is only used for OnLine First articles which are early versions of articles and sometimes contain errors. Occasionally but less frequently, the articles may represent infringements of professional ethical codes, such as multiple submissions, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, and fraudulent use of data.

Retraction policy

Legal limitations of the publisher, copyright holder, or author(s), infringements of professional ethical codes, scientific misconduct such as multiple submissions, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data, or the like require retraction of an article. Occasionally a retraction can be used to correct errors in submission or publication. Several libraries and scholarly bodies have developed standards for dealing with retractions, and this practice has been adopted for article retraction by the Archives of Biological Sciences.
In the electronic version of the retraction note, a link is made to the original article. In the electronic version of the original article, a link is made to the retraction note where it is clearly stated that the article has been retracted. The original article is retained unchanged, save for a watermark on the PDF indicating on each page that it is “retracted.”
Standards for dealing with retractions have been developed by several library and scholarly bodies, and this practice has been adopted for article retraction by the Archives of Biological Sciences.

Self-archiving Policy

Authors can deposit Author's Pre-print, Author's Post-print (accepted version), and Publisher's version/PDF in an institutional repository and non-commercial subject-based repositories, such as PubMed Central, Europe PMC or arXiv, or publish it on the author's website and departmental website, at any time after publication. The copyright and source must be acknowledged for deposit of the Author's Post-print or Publisher's version/PDF, and a link must be made to the article's DOI.

OnLine First

After copyediting is completed, manuscripts obtain DOI and are published online as OnLine First on the doiSerbia web page (http://doiserbia.nb.rs/journal.aspx?issn=0354-4664). These articles are pre-print versions of the submission.

Indexing

The National Library of Serbia has had a special agreement with the Serbian Biological Society since 2002, allowing it to act as the publisher on behalf of the Society in CrossRef. This agreement has been supported by the national ministry of the Republic of Serbia to facilitate and promote Open Science. As part of this collaboration, the National Library of Serbia communicates with CrossRef to manage system access and prepare metadata according to established standards for Archives of Biological Sciences (ABS). The landing page for ABS articles is: https://doiserbia.nb.rs/journal.aspx?issn=0354-4664. Online First articles of the ABS appear exclusively on this page. Final versions of the articles are available both on the National Library of Serbia's website and the official ABS page: https://www.serbiosoc.org.rs/arch/index.php/abs.

SCI(JCR)
Biosis Previews
DOAJ
Zoological Record

Journal Impact Factor:

0.700 (2023)

0.800 (2022)

0.856 (2021)

0.956 (2020)

0.719 (2019)

0.554 (2018)

0.648 (2017)

0.352 (2016)

0.367 (2015)

0.718 (2014)

0.607 (2013)

0.791 (2012)

0.360 (2011)

0.356 (2010)

0.238 (2009)

Publication Charges

The Archives of Biological Sciences does not charge any manuscript processing and/or publishing fees.

Cover Design

The cover page has been designed by Ms Milica Simonović. The cover page illustrations are solicited from authors of accepted papers published in the current issue.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in the published works do not express the views of the Editors and Editorial Staff. The authors take legal and moral responsibility for the ideas expressed in the articles. Publisher shall have no liability in the event of issuance of any claims for damages. The Publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any compensation claims.

Ethics Statement

Studies involving animals (live vertebrates) must be performed in strict accordance with internationally-accepted standards and regulations. Authors must obtain prior approval from their Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee or equivalent Institutional Ethics Committee at submission as a separate supplementary file. The Ethics Statement must be declared in the manuscript under the first heading of the Materials and Methods section.

For experiments (biochemical research) involving human subjects, authors must present an Institutional Review Board (IRB) statement. Authors must identify the committee approving the experiments and include with their submission a statement confirming that Informed Consent was obtained from all subjects. This must be declared in the manuscript under the first heading of the Materials and Methods section.

Sponsors

• Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia
• Institute for Biological Research "Siniša Stanković", University of Belgrade
• Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade
• Department of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad
• Institute for the Application of Nuclear Energy (INEP)
• Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, University of Belgrade

Journal History

The Archives of Biological Sciences continues Arhiv bioloških nauka ISSN 0375-8575.

Former Editors of the Journal:

Božidar Ćurčić, Ph.D. (2005-2014)

Maksim Todorović, Ph.D. (1993-2005)