Submissions

This page is designed to help you ensure your submission is ready for and fits the scope of the journal. For additional information, please review our Information for Authors.

Before submitting you should read over the guidelines here, then register an account (or login if you have an existing account)

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About

Meat and Muscle Biology is a fully open access journal that is a publication home for a broad scope of high quality, peer-reviewed manuscripts on all aspects of meat science (including meat derived from domestic mammals, avians, reptiles, aquaculture species, amphibians, wild capture mammals, and synthetic meat analogs), applied muscle biology, and related topics.

Focus and Scope

The American Meat Science Association (AMSA) fosters community and professional development among individuals who create and apply science to efficiently provide safe and high quality meat.

The purpose of the Muscle and Meat Biology (MMB) journal is to provide an appropriate medium for the dissemination of knowledge on all antemortem and postmortem factors that influence the properties of meat that are marketed for human consumption.

MMB is a gold open access online publication, allowing maximum exposure immediately after publication and extending its reach freely across the globe. High quality, pertinent, and timely basic and applied research will be published on meat and muscle biology from domestic mammals, avians, reptiles, aquaculture species, amphibians, wild capture mammals, and synthetic meat analogs. Topics can include any factors affecting meat and its use, including production, quality, composition, processing, safety, and value of edible products including muscle biology and biochemistry, human nutrition, food safety, sensory evaluation, consumer science, new or improved meat related analytical procedures, processing and sensing technologies, and marketing of meat products.

Types of papers considered for publication, with all undergoing peer review:

  • Original research articles
  • Review papers by invitation or unsolicited
  • Short Communications
  • Reciprocal Meat Conference abstracts (as one paper) that are accepted for the AMSA annual meeting
  • Proceedings of the RMC by invitation only

The Editorial Board is committed to minimizing the time to decision for the articles submitted. Editorial policies are established by the Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editors, and Editorial Board in conjunction with the AMSA Board of Directors. The views given in articles published in MMB are the opinions of the author(s) and do not represent the official policy of the author’s institution or company, AMSA, MMB, or the MMB Editorial Board. Authors are responsible for ensuring that the experimental protocols, design, sampling, analyses, collection of data, and interpretation in MMB papers is scientifically valid and is accurately represented.

Submission Checklist

See Information for Authors for complete guidelines for manuscript preparation and submission.

Title Page

  • Running head limited to 45 characters, no abbreviations
  • Listing of all authors’ full names and affiliations in correct order
  • Corresponding author name and email address on title page

Abstract

  • Maximum of 300 words, abbreviations defined at first use
  • Evidence of statistical analysis of data, e.g. P=0.012.
  • 1 or 2 sentences of the important findings or conclusions at end of abstract
  • Key words (6 or less) after the abstract

Text Sections

  • Centering, boldface, capitalized main headings
  • Secondary head flush left, boldface, italic, title case
  • Abbreviations defined at first use except for weights and measurements in SI format
  • Manufacturer/supplier name and location for all chemicals and uncommon equipment and instruments
  • Citations in text are in chronological order; if 2 or more publications in the same year, then alphabetical order; format of Smith and Jones (2008), (Smith and Jones, 2008), (Smith et al., 2008)
  • Commas for numbers greater than 1,000, zeroes before decimal point for numbers less than 1 
  • Equations are part of sentences, with all equation terms defined

Literature Cited

  • Author(s). Year. Title. Source vol.:inclusive pages
  • Citations in alphabetical order by author last name
  • Appropriate journal title abbreviations
  • Only citations used in text appear in this section
  • DOIs should appear in citations where available

Tables and Figures

  • Should be self-contained and self-explanatory, with explanations for all abbreviations
  • Concise figure captions and table titles
  • Tables and figures numbers chronologically in order of appearance in text

Copyright Notice

Authors must agree to this copyright notice for each manuscript when it is submitted through the Iowa State University Digital Press website. Meat and Muscle Biology provides immediate open access to its articles. Author(s) retain copyright in their work and articles are published under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license, which allows readers to copy, share, and adapt the article so long as the original article in Meat and Muscle Biology is cited. Material produced by authors on official duty as U.S. government employees is considered to be in the public domain, which will be indicated on the published paper.

Authors of MMB manuscripts who are including materials, often tables or figures, from other copyrighted sources must obtain permission to use these materials from the copyright holder and submit the evidence that this permission has been obtained from the copyright holder when the manuscript is submitted to MMB. Acknowledgement of the use of this material and credit for the source of the material must be included in the manuscript.

Peer Review

Manuscripts are assigned a manuscript number, reviewed for conformity to the MMB desired format, and assigned to an associate editor. The associate editor invites two or more scientists knowledgeable on the research in the manuscript to provide objective peer reviews of the originality, appropriateness of methods, and validity of the results and conclusions. A manuscript may be rejected before it is sent for review because it does not fall within the scope of MMB, does not conform to acceptable scientific standards, or does not follow MMB style guidelines.

The manuscript number assigned by the submission site must be given in all subsequent communications. Authors will be informed as the manuscript moves through the various steps involved in review, review/acceptance/rejection, and publication. Manuscripts accepted for publication are edited for language, grammar and style and prepared for publication by professional editorial staff for MMB. Manuscript proofs are sent in electronic format to authors with instructions for proofreading. Proofs must be returned to the editorial office within 5 days of receipt. After any necessary corrections are made, the journal article is posted to the MMB website, usually within two weeks after return of the corrections.

All papers are given an anonymous review where the names of reviewers are not revealed to the authors of the papers or to the other reviewers. The contact information of authors is entered when a manuscript is submitted in the online manuscript submission system so that editors and technical staff can contact authors about the status of the paper.

Acceptance Criteria

Manuscripts may be rejected and not published for several reasons. MMB has high scientific standards and does not accept works that are incomplete, poorly described, poorly designed, lack adequate statistical procedures, lack evidence to support conclusions, lack contributions to science or meat and muscle biology knowledge, or do not advance information in the field of meat and muscle biology science. Papers that are not deemed to fit the journal scope will also be rejected and alternative scientific publication venues will be recommended. Manuscripts that do not follow the guidelines in Policy, Style Guide, and Instructions for Authors; are not written in clear, concise, organized, and coherent manners; or that have excessive grammar and language difficulties may be rejected before or after being subjected to peer review. Authors are responsible for the contents of manuscripts. Authors who are not proficient in English language and/or scientific writing are urged to have an editing service review the manuscript before it is submitted.

Licences

Meat and Muscle Biology allows the following licences for submission:

  • CC BY 4.0
    Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Publication Fees

Meat and Muscle Biology charges the following article processing charges:

  • For Research and Review articles:
    • $850 for AMSA members
    • $1000 for non-members
  • For Short Communications:
    • $300 for AMSA members
    • $450 for non-members

After your manuscript has been accepted the American Meat Science Association (AMSA) will generate an invoice for your manuscript submission charge and email it to the author directly. Manuscripts will not be posted online until the invoice has been paid. For more information please contact AMSA.

MMB is actively seeking international submissions and has a flexible pricing structure for corresponding authors from countries that may need assistance with the cost of publication.

Location
Member Rate
Non-Member Rate
High Income
$850
$1000
Upper Middle Income
$400
$550
Lower Income and Lower Middle Income
$0
$150
Short Communications
$300

$450

Countries in these categories are based on World Bank classifications.

Publication Cycle

The journal is published continuously, with articles released when they are accepted and are ready for publication. This publishing model ensures that research is made available as soon as possible.

Sections

Section or article type

Public Submissions

Peer Reviewed

Indexed

Special Topic

Research Article

Review Article

Short Communication

Reciprocal Meat Conference Invited Reviews