Skip to main content
Log in

Overview

The Journal of the History of Biology is devoted to the history of the biological sciences, with additional interest and concern in philosophical and social issues confronting biology. While all historical epochs are touched upon, the journal pays particular attention to developments during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The journal serves both the working biologist who needs a full understanding to the historical and philosophical bases of the field and the historian of biology interested in following developments in the biological sciences.

Editor-in-Chief
  • Nicolas Rasmussen,
  • Vassiliki Betty Smocovitis
Impact factor
0.8 (2022)
5 year impact factor
1.1 (2022)
Submission to first decision (median)
3 days
Downloads
109,768 (2023)

Latest articles

Journal updates

  • Book Reviews

    For book review inquiries please contact the editors at jhistbioleditors@gmail.com.

  • Editors' Corner

    2024 Everett Mendelsohn Prize

    We are very pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2024 Everett Mendelsohn Prize is Jennifer Coggon (University of Toronto). Jennifer's article titled, "Sperm-Force:  Naturphilosophie and George Newport's Quest to Discover the Secret of Fertilization," was published in Journal of the History of Biology, vol. 55, no. 4 (December 2022), 617-687, can be freely accessed through May by clicking on the following link:

    Coggon, "Sperm-Force," https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10739-022-09696-3


    2023 Everett Mendelsohn Prize

    It is our pleasure to announce that the recipient of the 2023 Everett Mendelsohn Prize is R. Ashton Macfarlane (Harvard University). Ashton's article, “Wild Laboratories of Climate Change: Plants, Phenology, and Global Warming, 1955–1980,” published in Journal of the History of Biology, vol. 54, no. 2 (June 2021), 311–340, can be freely accessed through May by clicking on the following link:

    Macfarlane, "Wild Laboratories of Climate Change," https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10739-021-09643-8


    2022 Everett Mendelsohn Prize

    It is our pleasure to announce that the recipient of the 2022 Everett Mendelsohn Prize is Ryan Hearty (Johns Hopkins University),  whose essay, "Redefining Boundaries: Ruth Myrtle Patrick's Ecological Program at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 1947–1975," appeared in the Journal of the History of Biology, volume 53, issue 4 (December 2020), pp. 1-44. Ryan's article, which is the first contribution to JHB’s Topical Collection “Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Biology” edited by Donald Opitz, can be accessed by clicking on the following link:

  • Everett Mendelsohn Prize

    The first Everett Mendelsohn Prize was awarded in 2017 to mark the 50th volume of the Journal of the History of Biology. This prize is awarded annually to the author of an article published during the previous three years in the Journal of the History of Biology

  • JHB Topical Collections Announcement

    We are pleased to announce a new initiative for JHB that encourages the submission of articles that specifically address certain “themes.”  Wishing to stimulate new scholarship in areas that we wish to encourage greater attention, we have established a series of “Topical Collections” to which we actively encourage submissions. 

Journal information

Electronic ISSN
1573-0387
Print ISSN
0022-5010
Abstracted and indexed in
  1. AGRICOLA
  2. ANVUR
  3. Arts & Humanities Citation Index
  4. BFI List
  5. BIOSIS
  6. Baidu
  7. Biological Abstracts
  8. CAB Abstracts
  9. CLOCKSS
  10. CNKI
  11. CNPIEC
  12. Current Contents/Agriculture, Biology & Environmental Sciences
  13. Current Contents/Arts and Humanities
  14. Dimensions
  15. EBSCO
  16. EMBiology
  17. ERIH PLUS
  18. Google Scholar
  19. JSTOR
  20. Japanese Science and Technology Agency (JST)
  21. MLA International Bibliography
  22. Medline
  23. Naver
  24. Norwegian Register for Scientific Journals and Series
  25. OCLC WorldCat Discovery Service
  26. PhilPapers
  27. Portico
  28. ProQuest
  29. SCImago
  30. SCOPUS
  31. Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE)
  32. Social Science Citation Index
  33. TD Net Discovery Service
  34. The Philosopher’s Index
  35. UGC-CARE List (India)
  36. Wanfang
  37. Zoological Record
Copyright information

Rights and permissions

Springer policies

© Springer Nature B.V.

Navigation