Journal of Biological Chemistry

The Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC) is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that was established in 1905. Since 1925 it is published by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. It covers research in any area of biochemistry or molecular biology. The editor-in-chief is Herbert Tabor. All its articles are available free one year after publication. In press articles are available free on its website immediately after acceptance.

History
The journal was established in 1905 by John Jacob Abel and Christian Archibald Herter, who also served as the first editors; the first issue appeared in October 1905. The location of the journal's editorial offices has included Cornell Medical College (until 1937), Yale University (1937–1958), Harvard University (1958–1967), and New York (from 1967). The journal is currently published by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology on the campus of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology in Bethesda, Maryland.

Editors
The following individuals have served as editors-in-chief:
 * 1906–1909: John Jacob Abel and Christian Archibald Herter
 * 1909–1910: Christian Archibald Herter
 * 1910–1914: Alfred Newton Richards
 * 1914–1925: Donald D. Van Slyke
 * 1925–1936: Stanley R. Benedict. After Benedict passed away, John T. Edsall served as temporary editor until the next editor was appointed.
 * 1937–1958: Rudolph J. Anderson
 * 1958–1967: John T. Edsall
 * 1968–1971: William Howard Stein
 * 1971–present: Herbert Tabor
 * 2011–present: Martha Fedor

Ranking and criticism of impact factor
The editors of the Journal of Biological Chemistry have criticized the modern reliance upon the impact factor for ranking journals, noting that review articles, commentaries, and retractions are included in the calculation. Further, the denominator of total articles published encourages journals to be overly selective in what they publish, and preferentially publish articles which will receive more attention and citations. The journal's practice of publishing a broad cross-section of biochemistry articles has led it to suffer in impact factor, in 2006 ranking 260 of 6,164, while remaining the most highly cited journal. When science journals were evaluated with a PageRank-based algorithm, however, the Journal of Biological Chemistry ranked first. The 2010 impact factor of the journal is 5.328.