Scope

Our ability to collect quantitative data on the structure and function of living systems at many different spatio-temporal scales is expanding rapidly. Insights gained from these data are making it clear that physiological function arises from complex interactions both within (horizontal integration) and between (vertical integration) networks organized at different biological levels. Understanding how physiological function emerges from these network interactions is the next major frontier of biomedical science. However, because of the inherent complexity of living systems, qualitative thinking through the formulation of mental models is destined to fail. Instead, the development and analysis of computational models based directly on experimental data is necessary to achieve this understanding.

The Specialty welcomes the submission of original, computational modeling studies that provide novel insights into the nature of physiological function in both health and disease. Computational Physiology and Medicine is a forum for the publication of physiological system models, built on a strong foundation of experimental data, that demonstrate both reconstructive and predictive capabilities. We also welcome articles describing novel informatics technologies for managing and sharing experimental data on which models are based, technologies for managing and disseminating models, simulation results and model documentation, as well as articles describing novel mathematical and computational approaches that improve our ability to simulate physiological function.

The scope of the Specialty, regarding documentation and dissemination of modeling software, will evolve as new technologies emerge. We encourage that authors provide documented model source code to the community upon request. We accept models in any programming language; the documentation should be sufficiently clear, so users can understand how to adjust model parameters, perform simulations, and save simulation results; and the documentation should describe how to reproduce all simulation results presented in the paper.

Please consider the content and article type specifications as stated below 

Articles that address purely pathological processes or treatment/management of disease do not fall within the areas covered by Frontiers in Physiology. Articles of this type must be submitted to a more appropriate clinical journal. As an example, all cancer related articles should be submitted to an appropriate section of Frontiers in Oncology. Articles that focus exclusively on disease processes will be returned to authors without review, and/or with a suggestion to submit to a more appropriate Frontiers journal. Similarly, all articles with a research focus on genes and genomes should be submitted to an appropriate section of Frontiers in Genetics; these submissions will not be considered for review in Frontiers in Physiology.

Please note that not all Article Types are available in all Sections. Some article types, such as those that mention medicine, are section specific. Authors are encouraged to refer to the section specific 'About' pages for available article types. Special circumstances related to sections cross-listed between two or more journals also apply, read more below. Only article types that appear in the drop-down menu during the submission process are available for submission to the selected section.

Frontiers in Physiology no longer accepts Clinical Trials and Case Reports, including pilot studies.

The WHO defines a clinical trial as "any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes". 

In most cases, these submissions should be directed to one of the Frontiers medically related journals. Articles of this nature submitted to Frontiers in Physiology will be returned to authors without review, and/or with a suggestion to submit to a more appropriate Frontiers journal.

Due to the nature of our publishing program, sections cross-listed between two or more journals (for e.g. Autonomic Neuroscience, Biophysics, Exercise Physiology, Medical Physics and Imaging, Reproduction) may continue to welcome these article types, and others, by submission through the other relevant field journal. However, authors should not proceed with submission of a clinical trial, case report or pilot study through Frontiers in Physiology. As stated, articles of this nature submitted to Frontiers in Physiology will be returned to authors without review, and/or with a suggestion to submit to a more appropriate Frontiers journal.

In the case of General Commentaries, the journal will only consider those which comment on a paper already published with Frontiers. Special exception may be given if a commentary addresses a body of knowledge, pending approval from section Chief Editors.

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