Journal of Biological Education

Top Research Topics at Journal of Biological Education?

Journal of Biological Education is organized to address concerns in the fields of Mathematics education, Science education, Science instruction, Teaching method and Secondary education. It explores Mathematics education concepts, specifically Concept learning but expands to research in Biological sciences. The Science education works featured in Journal of Biological Education incorporate elements from Higher education, Environmental education, Engineering ethics and Medical education.

• Mathematics education (36.67%)
• Science education (23.53%)
• Science instruction (11.81%)

What are the most cited papers published in the journal?

• Diagnosing secondary students' misconceptions of photosynthesis and respiration in plants using a two-tier multiple choice instrument (229 citations)
• Revisiting learning difficulties in biology (201 citations)
• Students' cellular and molecular explanations of genetic phenomena (184 citations)

Research areas of the most cited articles at Journal of Biological Education:

The most cited publications tackle a plethora of topics, such as Mathematics education, Science education, Teaching method, Science instruction and Concept learning. Concept map is a major topic of Mathematics education research in the journal articles. The journal articles focus on Science education but also tackle concerns of closely connected disciplines like

• Secondary education and related Ecology,
• Higher education together with Epistemology..

What topics the last edition of the journal is best known for?

• Ecology
• Law
• Gene

The previous edition focused in particular on these issues:

The journal primarily focuses on research topics in Medical education, Mathematics education, Curriculum, Engineering ethics and Blindness. The studies in Medical education featured incorporate elements of Intervention (counseling), Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), Outdoor education and 2019-20 coronavirus outbreak. Science education, Critical thinking and Student learning are among the concentrations of Mathematics education that garnered much attention in the journal.

The work tackled in the journal goes beyond the discipline of Curriculum as it also encompasses Secondary education. Journal of Biological Education facilitated discussions that integrated Blindness with the fields of Phenomenon and Social science.

The most cited articles from the last journal are:

• Plant blindness and children’s recognition of plants as living things: a research in the primary schools context (5 citations)
• Cell Biology Diagnostic Test (CBD-Test) portrays pre-service teacher misconceptions about biology cell (4 citations)
• 7 to 13-year-old students’ conceptual understanding of plant nutrition: should we be concerned about elementary teachers’ instruction? (2 citations)

Papers citation over time

A key indicator for each journal is its effectiveness in reaching other researchers with the papers published at that venue.

The chart below presents the interquartile range (first quartile 25%, median 50% and third quartile 75%) of the number of citations of articles over time.

Top authors and change over time

The top authors publishing in Journal of Biological Education (based on the number of publications) are:

• Roger Lock (36 papers) absent at the last edition,
• Michael Reiss (32 papers) published 1 paper at the last edition, 1 less than at the previous edition,
• Ian M. Kinchin (31 papers) published 1 paper at the last edition the same number as at the previous edition,
• John A. Barker (28 papers) absent at the last edition,
• Sue Dale Tunnicliffe (23 papers) absent at the last edition.

The overall trend for top authors publishing in this journal is outlined below. The chart shows the number of publications at each edition of the journal for top authors.

Top affiliations and change over time

Only papers with recognized affiliations are considered

The top affiliations publishing in Journal of Biological Education (based on the number of publications) are:

• University of Cambridge (36 papers) published 1 paper at the last edition, 1 less than at the previous edition,
• Hebrew University of Jerusalem (28 papers) absent at the last edition,
• University of Leeds (22 papers) published 1 paper at the last edition the same number as at the previous edition,
• University of London (19 papers) absent at the last edition,
• University of Glasgow (18 papers) absent at the last edition.

The overall trend for top affiliations publishing in this journal is outlined below. The chart shows the number of publications at each edition of the journal for top affiliations.

Publication chance based on affiliation

The publication chance index shows the ratio of articles published by the best research institutions in the journal edition to all articles published within that journal. The best research institutions were selected based on the largest number of articles published during all editions of the journal.

The chart below presents the percentage ratio of articles from top institutions (based on their ranking of total papers).Top affiliations were grouped by their rank into the following tiers: top 1-10, top 11-20, top 21-50, and top 51+. Only articles with a recognized affiliation are considered.

During the most recent 2021 edition, 9.46% of publications had an unrecognized affiliation. Out of the publications with recognized affiliations, 5.97% were posted by at least one author from the top 10 institutions publishing in the journal. Another 0.00% included authors affiliated with research institutions from the top 11-20 affiliations. Institutions from the 21-50 range included 16.42% of all publications and 77.61% were from other institutions.

Returning Authors Index

A very common phenomenon observed among researchers publishing scientific articles is the intentional selection of journals they have already attended in the past. In particular, it is worth analyzing the case when the authors participate in the same journal from year to year.

The Returning Authors Index presented below illustrates the ratio of authors who participated in both a given as well as the previous edition of the journal in relation to all participants in a given year.

Returning Institution Index

The graph below shows the Returning Institution Index, illustrating the ratio of institutions that participated in both a given and the previous edition of the conference in relation to all affiliations present in a given year.

The experience to innovation index

Our experience to innovation index was created to show a cross-section of the experience level of authors publishing in a journal. The index includes the authors publishing at the last edition of a journal, grouped by total number of publications throughout their academic career (P) and the total number of citations of these publications ever received (C).

The group intervals were selected empirically to best show the diversity of the authors' experiences, their labels were selected as a convenience, not as judgment. The authors were divided into the following groups:

• Novice - P < 5 or C < 25 (the number of publications less than 5 or the number of citations less than 25),
• Competent - P < 10 or C < 100 (the number of publications less than 10 or the number of citations less than 100),
• Experienced - P < 25 or C < 625 (the number of publications less than 25 or the number of citations less than 625),
• Master - P < 50 or C < 2500 (the number of publications less than 50 or the number of citations less than 2500),
• Star - P ≥ 50 and C ≥ 2500 (both the number of publications greater than 50 and the number of citations greater than 2500).

The chart below illustrates experience levels of first authors in cases of publications with multiple authors.