Open Access Pub
Aims and Scope Journal of Peptides
Journal of Peptides publishes peer-reviewed research across peptide science: chemistry and synthesis, structure and function, bioactive and regulatory peptides, peptidomics and analysis, and the biological applications that follow from them.
The journal is defined by its object rather than by a field of application. Work belongs here when it addresses a substantive peptide-specific scientific question — when what the manuscript contributes is about the peptide. That contribution may be chemical, structural, analytical, biological, computational, pharmacological or translational.
Magnification one · the molecule
Chemistry, design and synthesis
Papers in which the peptide is being built, altered or planned, and the chemistry is the result.
- DesignSequence design and rational modification, peptidomimetics, constrained and stapled sequences, glycopeptides and conjugates, noncanonical and modified residues, heterocyclic and small-molecule hybrids, library design.
- SynthesisSolid-phase and solution-phase routes, coupling and protecting-group strategy, cyclization and ligation chemistry, on-resin modification, radiolabeling, scale, solvent choice and greener procedures.
- Purification and identityChromatographic separation, analytical and preparative methods, and the characterization by which a synthetic product is shown to be what the paper says it is.
Magnification two · the molecule in context
Structure, conformation and interaction
Papers about the shape a sequence takes, what determines it, and what it recognizes.
- ConformationFolding, secondary structure and constraint, stability and dynamics, self-assembly, and the determination of structure by spectroscopic, crystallographic, mass-spectrometric or computational means.
- InteractionPeptide–protein, peptide–membrane and peptide–carbohydrate recognition, receptor binding and selectivity, binding thermodynamics and kinetics, and structure–activity relationships.
- Analysis and characterizationPeptidomics and profiling, sequencing, quantification, electrophoretic, chromatographic and mass-spectrometric analysis, and the development of methods that make peptides measurable in complex samples.
- Computation and modelingStructure prediction, molecular dynamics and docking, sequence and property modeling, and data-driven design, as contributions in their own right and not only as support for experimental work.
Magnification three · the molecule at work
Activity, mechanism and application
Papers about what peptides do in living systems and in made things, where the peptide itself is scientifically central to the work.
- Bioactive and natural peptidesNeuropeptides and regulatory peptides, hormones, antimicrobial and host-defense sequences, food-derived and plant-derived peptides, venom and secretion peptides, and their isolation and identification.
- Function and mechanismSignaling and receptor activation, processing and post-translational modification, peptidase specificity and degradation, transport and cellular uptake, and comparative work across species.
- Pharmacology, efficacy and safetyPeptide-specific pharmacology, activity and selectivity in biological systems, stability and exposure, tolerability and safety questions, and the preclinical evaluation of peptide candidates.
- Applications and translationPeptide materials and self-assembled systems, delivery and imaging agents, biosensing, biotechnological, food and agricultural applications, and therapeutic, translational and clinically relevant research in which the peptide itself is scientifically central.
Where the boundary runs
A substantive peptide-specific contribution
Two questions kept apart: whether the peptide is scientifically central to the manuscript, and whether the particular claims it makes are supported.
Eligibility turns on contribution rather than on technique. A manuscript belongs here when it addresses a substantive peptide-specific scientific question — when what the work adds is about the peptide. That contribution may be chemical, structural, analytical, biological, computational, pharmacological, translational or clinical, and none of those is required of the others. Foundational studies and applied studies are read on the same terms.
What sits outside is correspondingly narrow: work in which a peptide is incidental — a supplied reagent, a comparator, a delivery component or a background detail — and in which nothing the study concludes is about the peptide itself.
Evidence standards follow the claims a manuscript actually makes. A synthetic route is supported by its characterization; a structural assignment by the measurements that determine it; a mechanistic account by the experiments that discriminate it; an efficacy or safety claim by the evidence such a claim requires; a computational result by validation appropriate to its method. The journal applies no chemical, structural, mechanistic, clinical, novelty or experimental requirement uniformly across every kind of contribution.
Representative connections
The territories are one subject read at different depths
The examples below are illustrative. They show how work in one territory reaches into another; they are not a checklist, and they do not limit what the journal considers.
- Synthesis to conformationA protecting-group or cyclization decision made at the bench determines which conformations the finished sequence can adopt, so a methods paper and a structural paper are often describing the same choice.
- Conformation to functionConstraining a backbone changes affinity, selectivity and resistance to proteolysis, which is why structure–activity work sits between the chemistry and the biology rather than after them.
- Function to applicationA sequence characterized for its activity becomes usable as a material, a probe, a delivery or imaging agent, or a therapeutic candidate — and each of those uses sends questions back to the chemistry.
Article types and submission
Accepted formats are Research Article, Review Article (including systematic reviews), Methods Article, Data/Resource Article, and Short Communication. Editorial and Perspective/Commentary are by invitation only. Preparation guidance is set out in the Instructions for Authors.
- Primary route: ManuscriptZone
- Alternative route: Simple manuscript submission form
- Assisted route: [email protected]
Authors must use only one submission route for the same manuscript.