About the Journal

Aims and Scope

SOCIOBIOLOGY publishes high-quality articles that significantly contribute to the knowledge of Entomology, emphasizing social insects. Articles previously submitted to other journals are not accepted. SOCIOBIOLOGY publishes original research papers and invited review articles on all aspects of the biology, evolution, and systematics of social and pre-social insects (Ants, Termites, Bees, and Wasps). The journal is expanding its scope to include the publication of articles on other arthropods that exhibit sociality. Papers may cover a range of subjects, such as ecology, ethology, morphology, population genetics, physiology, toxicology, reproduction, sociobiology, caste differentiation, economic impact, and pest management.

Short notes are also published, but we are more interested in manuscripts that address biology, ecology, sociality, behavior, and genetics, with at least an essential experimental/sampling component and quantitative/statistical analysis. Simplistic notes describing new records of species occurrence will not be accepted.

Articles and short notes that are only descriptive or anecdotal and of local interest will not be accepted.

Peer Review Process and Publication Deadline

The Associate Editors receive the manuscripts, which are then checked for plagiarism. An initial evaluation is then conducted regarding the relevance of their scientific contribution. This initial evaluation can take up to seven days. Then, initially approved manuscripts are forwarded to Section Editors and assigned to two ad hoc referees for a double-blind peer review.  The reviewers must conclude their evaluation within four weeks of the assignment. The authors have four weeks after initial acceptance to submit final revised versions. Then, the section editors take the final decision and send the manuscript to the copyediting staff. Accepted articles will be published continuously a few weeks after the final acceptance. This editorial flow is expected to result in a publication time of four to six months from submission.

Internal Ethics Compliance

Editors are not involved in decisions about manuscripts submitted by themselves or work colleagues, or that refer to products or services in which the editor is interested. As you know, submissions included in this situation are subject to the regular journal's review policies, and they don't have any privilege related to the relevance of the editor's role for the journal. 

Publication Frequency

Quarterly (in March, June, September, and December)

However, article publication is continuous within each quarter.

Publication Fees

 Sociobiology does not charge APCs or submission fees.

Open Access Policy

Sociobiology is financially supported by a public state university that receives endowments from the State treasurer. The costs of editing the journal are covered by public money. Furthermore, editors are spending part of their work hours funded by public money on journal management. Therefore, if the financial support comes from public funds, both the authors and the readers should benefit. The editorial board considers that scientific knowledge funded by public funds cannot be appropriated privately at any stage of the editorial process.

That is why this journal provides immediate access to its content on the principle that publicly funded scientific knowledge must be freely available to the public to support greater global knowledge exchange.

All content is freely available to users and their institutions without charge. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles or use them for any other lawful purpose without asking the publisher's or the author's prior permission. This follows the BOAI definition of open access.

Indexing, abstracting, and permanent preservation

Sociobiology is indexed and abstracted by:

Web of Science; SCOPUS; CAB Abstracts; DOAJ, CORE, Biological Abstracts; Zoological Records; Google Scholar; WorldCat, among others.

The archive of papers published online since 2012 is permanently preserved in the LOCKSS archival system.

Journal History

The journal Sociobiology was founded in 1975 by Dr. David Kistner and is published by California State University, Chico, aiming to provide a more timely forum for the publication of high-quality papers by researchers on social animals. The serial has grown substantially since its first publication, and, due to advances in computer-based technologies, quality improvements have also been made. Over the years, most papers have dealt with, but are not limited to, various aspects of the biology of social insects, including bees, wasps, termites, ants, and many associated species.

Commencing with Volume 60 (2013), the editorial and production offices were located at Feira de Santana State University in Bahia, Brazil. SOCIOBIOLOGY relies on peer-reviewed manuscript evaluation, scientific excellence of published articles, free-of-charge publication, and open access to all published papers.