Peer-reviewed · Open access · ISSN 2692-1537
About the International Journal of Coronaviruses
The International Journal of Coronaviruses is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal publishing research on the coronavirus family — SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV, the endemic human coronaviruses and their animal reservoirs. It is published by Open Access Pub and has published under ISSN 2692-1537 since 2020.
- ISSN
- 2692-1537Online, registered in the ISSN Portal
- Publisher
- Open Access PubRancho Cordova, California
- First volume
- 2020
- Peer review
- Single-blind (double-blind on request)
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0Authors retain copyright
- DOI prefix
- 10.14302/issn.2692-1537Registered with Crossref
The published record
What the journal has actually published
The figures below are counted from the journal’s own record of published articles. No impact factor, acceptance rate, review-time average or usage statistic is published for this journal, because none has been independently measured.
Composition of the archive by article type
Counts are as at July 2026 and are re-checked when a new issue is released. “Other” comprises two analyses, one case report, one brief report and one published notice. Retractions and expressions of concern remain permanently in the archive and are counted here. The full list is on the archive page.
Scope
What the journal publishes
Coronaviruses are a permanent part of the human and animal disease landscape, not a closed episode: four human coronaviruses circulate seasonally, SARS-CoV-2 continues to diversify, and MERS-CoV remains a zoonotic hazard. The journal’s interest is the biology behind those facts. Its scope is organised in three tiers, set out in full on the Aims & Scope page with worked examples of what fits each one.
Virology and immunology
- Molecular virology and genome biology
- Viral evolution, genetics and variant emergence
- Host–pathogen interaction and immune evasion
- Immunology, neutralisation and immune memory
Countermeasures and detection
- Antiviral development and resistance
- Vaccine immunology and correlates of protection
- Zoonotic ecology and One Health surveillance
- Diagnostic and serological assay development
Computational and mechanistic
- Computational virology and structural modelling
- Viral pathogenesis mechanisms and persistence
- Transmission modelling that integrates viral biology
Article types considered include original research articles, systematic reviews, methods and protocols, short communications, data notes, mini reviews, perspectives and technical notes. Case reports are considered only where they provide exceptional mechanistic insight or document a novel viral phenomenon; opinion pieces are rarely published and must be invited.
Boundaries
What the journal does not consider
Submissions require experimental validation or a clear mechanistic contribution. The categories below fall outside the declared scope, so checking this list before you write is the most useful thing this page can offer.
- Clinical treatment protocols and patient-management guidelines
- Clinical practice belongs in medical journals; the focus here is viral mechanisms.
- Healthcare delivery models and hospital infection-control policies
- Public health implementation without a virology focus is outside the scope.
- Clinical outcome studies without a mechanistic virology component
- Patient outcomes alone do not advance understanding of viral biology.
- Psychological or social impact studies without a biological basis
- Social science research belongs in specialised journals.
- Health policy analysis and economic evaluations
- Policy research without a virology focus is outside a microbiology scope.
- Purely epidemiological models with no viral-biology element
- Transmission modelling is considered only where it integrates virology data.
Purely computational studies are considered, but undergo additional editorial review. These boundaries are quoted from the journal’s Aims & Scope.
Peer review
How a manuscript is handled
Peer review is single-blind: reviewer identities remain confidential while author identities are known to reviewers. A double-blind review can be requested at submission. Reviewers are selected on subject expertise and the absence of any conflict of interest with the submitted work.
Editorial screening
Scope fit, completeness and originality. Manuscripts are screened with Crossref Similarity Check during editorial review.
External review
Subject-matter reviewers assess experimental design, the validity of the analysis, the interpretation of the data and the clarity of the manuscript.
Decision
Accept, minor or major revision, or reject — issued with the consolidated reviewer comments, on scientific merit alone.
Revision and re-review
Authors respond to the reviewer comments; revised manuscripts are checked against those responses before acceptance.
Production
Copyediting, XML and PDF production, DOI registration with Crossref and metadata deposit, then open-access publication.
Appeal
Authors may appeal an editorial decision through a formal process by submitting a written appeal with a detailed justification.
The full procedure, including the complaints process, is set out in the editorial policies. Preparation requirements — a 300-word abstract limit for research articles, four to six keywords, Vancouver reference style — are in the instructions for authors.
Research integrity
The standards a submission is held to
The journal states that it adheres to the standards of publication ethics defined by the Committee on Publication Ethics. Each requirement below is published in full on the editorial policies page.
- Human-subject research
- Institutional Review Board approval is required, together with adherence to the Declaration of Helsinki.
- Animal research
- Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee oversight is required.
- Authorship
- Authorship follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors criteria; every listed author must have made a substantial contribution to the conception, design, data acquisition, analysis or interpretation.
- Conflicts of interest
- Full disclosure of potential conflicts is required from authors, and reviewers are selected for the absence of conflicts with the work they assess.
- Data availability
- A data availability statement is required for all research articles.
- Originality
- All submissions are screened for originality during editorial review, and all sources must be properly cited and acknowledged.
- Corrections and retractions
- The journal publishes prompt corrections for minor errors, formal errata for significant ones, expressions of concern, and retractions where there is serious misconduct or a fundamental flaw.
Access, copyright and cost
What publication costs, and what it buys
Every article is open access from the day it is published. Authors keep their copyright, and the fee is raised only if a manuscript is accepted.
- No submission fee and no review fee
- Charged only after a manuscript is accepted
- Peer-review coordination and editorial handling
- Copyediting, XML and PDF production, unlimited colour figures
- DOI registration with Crossref and metadata deposit
- Open-access hosting under CC BY 4.0
Membership reduces the charge by 15 to 35 per cent depending on tier. Full terms, payment methods and waiver criteria are on the article processing charges page.
Editorial independence
“Editors and reviewers cannot see membership or APC status. Decision criteria and timelines are identical for members and non-members.”
Editorial Independence Pledge, IJCV membership pageAn editorial decision is never based on:
- whether the article processing charge will be paid, or has been waived
- whether an author holds a membership, or which tier
- whether an author has bought an optional language-editing service
- whether an author sits on the editorial board or has reviewed for the journal
Copyright stays with the authors. Articles are published under CC BY 4.0, which permits reuse and redistribution in any medium provided the original work is properly cited. The journal’s own terms are on the copyright and licence page.
Editorial oversight
Who decides what is published
The editorial board has 17 members working in 13 countries. Fifteen of them have a registered ORCID iD on record, so their identity, affiliation and publication record can be checked without relying on anything stated here. The board is listed on the editorial board page.
What the board does
- Assesses whether a submission falls inside the declared scope
- Invites reviewers with relevant subject expertise and no conflict of interest
- Weighs the reviewer reports and issues the decision on scientific merit
- Handles appeals, complaints, corrections and retractions
- Upholds the ethics requirements set out in the editorial policies
Competing interests
Full disclosure of any potential conflict of interest is required, and reviewers are selected for the absence of a conflict with the work they are asked to assess.
Reviewing for the journal, or serving on its board, confers no advantage in the review or acceptance of that person’s own submissions.
Due diligence
Check this journal without taking its word for it
Every claim on this page can be checked against a register the journal does not control. If you are assessing where to send a manuscript, these are the checks worth making — here, and at any other journal.
- The journal exists as a registered serial
- Look up ISSN 2692-1537 in the ISSN Portal, the international register of serial titles.
- Articles carry registered DOIs
- Crossref publishes its record for the ISSN at api.crossref.org/journals/2692-1537, including the publisher name and the number of deposited works.
- A specific article resolves
- An article’s DOI resolves through doi.org — for example 10.14302/issn.2692-1537.ijcv-24-5218.
- Editorial board members are real, identifiable researchers
- Fifteen of the seventeen board members have a registered ORCID iD, and all fifteen resolve to an independent profile at orcid.org listing that researcher’s own affiliation and works.
- Which indexes actually list the journal
- The journal is registered with Crossref and in the ISSN Portal, and is carried as a source in OpenAlex, the open scholarly index. It is not currently listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals, Scopus, Web of Science or MEDLINE. Each of those maintains a public, searchable title list. What the journal does and does not claim is set out on the indexing page.
- No citation metric is published
- The journal is not covered by Web of Science and therefore has no Journal Impact Factor. No citation metric is published on its behalf, and none should be quoted for it.
Submit to the International Journal of Coronaviruses
Single-blind peer review, CC BY 4.0 open access with copyright retained by the authors, and a US$2,400 article processing charge raised only on acceptance.