Biotechnology Journal (RRJoBT): Scope, CAS Indexing and How to Publish in 2026

Biotechnology sits awkwardly between disciplines. A CRISPR study on a medicinal plant is part molecular biology, part plant science, part pharmacology. A microbial fuel cell paper is part microbiology, part environmental engineering. Journals built around a single discipline often send this work away for being outside scope.

Research and Reviews: A Journal of Biotechnology (RRJoBT) was set up for the multidisciplinary case. It is a peer-reviewed, hybrid open access biotechnology journal published since 2011 by STM Journals, and it states its intent plainly: to publish articles of a multidisciplinary nature across the different disciplines of bioscience and biotechnology.

Here is what it publishes, who leads it, where it is indexed, and how to submit.

What RRJoBT Covers

This biotechnology journal publishes current research across the field with a deliberate openness to work that crosses disciplinary lines.

Both print and electronic ISSNs are registered, and every article receives a DOI. The full Focus and Scope is on the journal page.

Who Leads the Journal

This is where RRJoBT distinguishes itself.

The Editor-in-Chief is Prof. Manchikatla Venkat Rajam, Professor in the Department of Genetics at the University of Delhi. His research sits in plant biotechnology, genetic engineering and genome editing — the exact territory a large share of the journal’s submissions occupy.

For a biotechnology journal, that matters more than most metrics. A CRISPR paper on secondary metabolite biosynthesis, a transgenic stress-tolerance study, or a plant genetic engineering manuscript will be assessed by someone who has spent a career in that field rather than routed to a general life sciences editor. The board includes practising researchers internationally, and manuscripts are assigned by subject expertise.

Research Areas

Based on recent issues, the published work falls into five areas.

Genome Editing and Plant Biotechnology

CRISPR/Cas9 applications, transgenic approaches, secondary metabolite engineering and stress tolerance in crops. This is the journal’s strongest area, consistent with its editorial leadership.

Industrial and Bioprocess Biotechnology

Fermentation, bioreactor design, growth kinetics, biopolymer production and process optimisation. Work connecting microbial behaviour to usable product.

Environmental Biotechnology and Bioremediation

Microbial fuel cells, waste treatment, resource recovery, bioremediation and circular bioeconomy approaches.

Agricultural Biotechnology

Climate-resilient crops, multi-omics, microbial biotechnology for agriculture, high-throughput phenotyping and climate-smart approaches.

Bioenergy and Biofuels

Bioethanol, microbial fermentation for fuel, plant-based feedstocks and the process engineering around them.

Recent Papers

Five examples that show the standard and spread.

CRISPR-Based Enhancement of Secondary Metabolites in Artemisia annua: Focus on Artemisinin Biosynthesis — Mishra and colleagues work on artemisinin, the sesquiterpene lactone that underpins global antimalarial therapy, using CRISPR/Cas9 to target glandular secretory trichomes in Artemisia annua.

Microbial Fuel Cell Technology for Sewage Sludge Treatment: A Sustainable Approach for Energy Recovery and Circular Bioeconomy — Singh and co-authors address the operational and environmental problem created by rising global sewage sludge volumes, covering extracellular electron transfer, electroactive microorganisms and coulombic efficiency.

Influence of Aeration on Biomass and Polyhydroxyalkanoate Accumulation in Priestia flexa JP1 — Pandey and Mathur study PHA accumulation under static versus agitated conditions, with growth kinetics and FTIR characterisation, as a foundation for nano-biomaterials.

Advancing Climate-Resilient Agriculture: Integrative Biotechnological Approaches for Sustainable Crop Production — Yadav and colleagues review genetic engineering, genome editing, multi-omics and microbial biotechnology against drought, heat, salinity and waterlogging stress.

Synergistic Biofuel Production, Refractometric Monitoring and Trypsin Digestion Studies from Clitoria ternatea, Cymbopogon citratus and Saccharomyces cerevisiae — Mishra and co-authors work on bioethanol from plant feedstocks via microbial fermentation.

Note the house style: a named organism or system, a defined method, and measurable output. Broad conceptual essays without data are less common here.

Indexing and Metrics

This biotechnology journal is indexed in Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), Google Scholar, Advanced Science Index, Citefactor, Scientific Literature (SCILIT) and Genamics.

CAS is the one to pay attention to. It indexes by substance, compound and reaction rather than only by title and keyword. A researcher searching for work on artemisinin, polyhydroxyalkanoates or a specific enzyme will find your paper through CAS regardless of how you titled it. For biotechnology, where the compound is often the point, this is meaningful reach.

Index Copernicus Value: 44.02 in 2022.

SJIF:

Stated directly, because it matters in life sciences: RRJoBT is not indexed in PubMed, Scopus or Web of Science. For biotechnology and biomedical work, PubMed indexing is often what a thesis committee or funder requires, because that is where life sciences researchers search first. Check your own institution’s requirements before you invest time in a submission anywhere.

What RRJoBT offers instead is CAS coverage, Google Scholar discoverability, DOI assignment and an editorial lead with genuine standing in plant biotechnology.

How to Submit

Confirm the biotechnology core. Your work needs a biological system doing something useful — an organism, an enzyme, a pathway, a bioprocess. Purely chemical or purely engineering studies without a biological component tend to fit elsewhere.

Follow the guidelines. The Author Guidelines and Instructions for Authors cover structure, references and figures.

Submit through the portal. Upload your manuscript, abstract, keywords and supplementary files via the manuscript submission system, which provides status tracking and direct contact with the editorial office.

Check the APC. As a hybrid open access journal, RRJoBT charges a processing fee for the open access route. See the Article Processing Charges page.

What Reviewers Will Look For

Biotechnology manuscripts come back for a consistent set of reasons, and most are avoidable.

• Strain and source documented. Organism name, strain designation, culture collection number or isolation source. “A Bacillus species” is not identification.
• Culture conditions complete. Medium composition, pH, temperature, aeration or agitation rate, inoculum size, incubation time.
• Biological replicates, not just technical ones. Independent cultures, stated number, with standard deviation.
• Controls present. Wild type alongside your engineered line, uninoculated medium, vector-only control.
• Molecular work verified. For CRISPR or transgenic studies: sequencing confirmation of edits, off-target assessment, copy number, expression data.
• Analytical methods specified. Instrument, column, standards, calibration curve, limit of detection. A yield figure without a quantification method behind it will be questioned.
• Statistics appropriate. Test used, assumptions, exact p-values and effect sizes, not significance alone.
• Biosafety and ethics stated where recombinant organisms, GM plants or regulated material are involved.
• Current references. Genome editing and synthetic biology move quickly; a reference list ending several years back weakens the paper.

Conclusion

This biotechnology journal will not substitute for a PubMed or Scopus indexed journal, and if your degree or grant depends on that, verify it before anything else.

What this biotechnology journal does offer is a combination worth weighing: an Editor-in-Chief from the Department of Genetics at the University of Delhi whose own field is plant biotechnology and genome editing; indexing in Chemical Abstracts Service, which is how biological chemistry is actually searched; fifteen years of continuous publication; registered print and electronic ISSNs; a DOI on every article; and an explicit welcome for multidisciplinary work that single-discipline journals push away.

For a CRISPR study on a medicinal plant, a bioprocess optimisation, an environmental biotechnology paper, or agricultural biotech work on stress tolerance, it is a credible venue. Researchers whose work leans toward the chemistry side may also want to look at the chemical technology journal JOMCCT, which is also CAS indexed.

If that fits your work, read the author guidelines, run through the checklist above, and submit your manuscript.

Frequently Asked Questions