Find quick answers to common questions about JoVE products and services.
What is the difference between a video produced by JoVE and a video produced by the author?
A video can be produced by either JoVE’s professional team or the author. JoVE films, edits and produces most videos because of our experience as both a publishing and video production house. We have the services and workflow established to make publication a straightforward and easy experience. If you are within our videographer network, you can choose the Video Produced by JoVE option.
Authors outside of our videographer network who have the professional and technical skills of editing video and audio may submit their own videos. However, if an author chooses to create their own video, it must meet the same publication standards of a Video Produced by JoVE. These videos must adhere to the JoVE format and style, as well as meet the technical guidelines specified in our Guidelines for Video Produced by Author. Both the manuscript and video must be simultaneously submitted and will go through the editorial and external peer review process together. Please note that Video Produced by Author submissions receive no production assistance from the JoVE video production staff, thus we only recommend this option if the authors have access to technical video production facilities. Both the text and video components frequently require multiple revisions prior to publication, so authors must have continued access to video editing equipment. Further details of the author produced video submission policies can be found on our Video Produced by Author workflow page.
What are my responsibilities as an author if JoVE will be creating the video? What’s involved in the process of a video produced by JoVE?
Your main responsibilities as a JoVE author are twofold. You are responsible for (1) writing and submitting a manuscript, followed by addressing any necessary revisions during the internal and/or peer review process and (2) preparing your laboratory for filming and demonstrating the protocol on the day of filming. Your interactions with JoVE as an author are given below.
Step 1: Submission and Review
Step 2: Filming
Step 3: Video Editing
Step 4: Publishing
Does JoVE have any open access video articles to preview?
This publication from George Church’s group at Harvard University is an open-access video that can be used to preview our video content.
How do I find my JoVE username and password?
To create a JoVE account, please follow the first link below. If you are an author, use the email address that was associated with your submission, allowing you to download your article (PDF and video). The second link allows you to reset your password.
What’s the difference between “standard” and “open” access in JoVE?
“Standard” access refers to any content published in JoVE that requires an institutional subscription to view. Some authors choose to pay an additional fee to provide access to the public, known as publishing in “open” access.
How do I give reprints?
As a JoVE author, you are able to use your article for non-commercial purposes, which include the reprint. Since JoVE’s content is web-based, there are no traditional hard copies. However, as the author, you are able to download your publication (both the written and video component) and share with colleagues. You could then send these files to a colleague via a CD, flash drive or ftp/file-sharing site. Also, JoVE permits authors to embed their videos on their academic websites. To do this, please contact your editor or support@jove.com.
How do I comply with the NIH Public Access Policy?
NIH-supported authors can self-deposit their full text accepted manuscripts in PubMed Central to comply with the NIH Public Access Policy. Relevant links: NIH Public Access Policy, FAQs and Manuscript Submission System.
If you have any questions, please contact us at editorial-office@jove.com.
What is JoVE Journal’s Impact Factor?
JoVE Journal’s 2024 ISI Impact Factor is 1.0.
JoVE Journal is indexed in PubMed, Web of Science, SciFinder, Scopus, and SCI Expanded as Journal of Visualized Experiments (J. Vis. Exp.)
How do I cite JoVE articles?
Please cite your article and encourage others to do the same whenever you use the techniques documented in it. Our citation format is: Author. Title. Journal(Issue), Page, doi:DOI (Year).
Ex: Welstead, G. G., Brambrink, T., Jaenisch, R. Generating iPS Cells from MEFS through Forced Expression of Sox-2, Oct-4, c-Myc, and Klf4. J. Vis. Exp. (14), e734, doi:10.3791/734 (2008).
How can I use my JoVE publication?
As soon as your article is published on JoVE’s website, you may download the PDF text. To download your article files, simply log into the JoVE website using your author-associated email address, i.e. the one you used for publishing, and click the links on the right side of your article page. If you have not yet created a JoVE account, please register with JoVE using your author-associated email address. If you already have a JoVE account, you can reset your JoVE password as necessary.
You can obtain and share your JoVE-produced video as soon as it’s published. We encourage all of our authors to use their video for educational and teaching purposes, including embedding your video into your laboratory homepage.
What is JoVE’s preprint policy?
A preprint is the author’s version of a manuscript prior to peer review. Authors may post preprints to a non-commercial preprint server. When posting the preprint, authors should choose a CC-BY-NC-ND license.
Upon publication, authors are responsible for ensuring that any existing preprints are updated to include a reference to the published article. The reference should include the DOI of the published article and a link to the article on the JoVE website.
Does JoVE offer publication fee waivers?
You may be eligible for a publication fee waiver if your country is included on this list. Please contact editorial@jove.com to confirm your eligibility.
How do I submit a manuscript to JoVE?
If you have spoken with a JoVE editor, please check your email for an invitation to submit a manuscript and click the included link to our submission site. If you have not spoken with an editor, first, visit our Publish page, then after reviewing our Manuscript Instructions for Authors, visit our submission site.
My submission disappeared before I could build the PDF and submit. What happened?
If you indicated a corresponding author that is not yourself, their approval is required before the submission process is completed. To move forward, either log into the submission site with their credentials (with their permission) or have the official “corresponding author” check their email, where they will find a link to view and approve the submission, officially submitting the manuscript to JoVE. The corresponding author for submissions will receive all correspondence prior to publication and does not necessarily need to be the one listed as the corresponding author on the publication. If you are having difficulty, please contact your editor to change the corresponding author on your submission.
JoVE assumes that the corresponding author represents all authors during the publication process, but the published corresponding author may differ from that used for correspondence with the editorial office during the submission and publication process. Please consider selecting a long-term corresponding author for publication.
I have attached all of my files, and clicked ‘Next’ until I arrived at a screen covered in red text. What happened?
Please read the red text. Most likely, some required information is missing from one of the submission steps. For example, you might not have entered a postal code for a co-author, or you may have suggested only two reviewers. You will not be able to submit until you have provided all required information in every step. The red text should indicate exactly which step is incomplete. If you still experience problems, please let us know.
My Table of Materials/Equipment submission item was split into separate pages in the generated PDF, what happened?
Please ensure that the Excel template (available here) has ‘Word Wrapping’ enabled and is in Landscape view. This will allow your entire table to fit on one page and not bump columns to new pages.
I tried attaching and uploading a file, but I was told my file is too large, what do I do?
If a file is larger than 50 MB, you will not be able to upload it through the JoVE submission site. Instead, you should continue with your submission and contact your editor or editorial-office@jove.com for instructions on uploading your large file(s) to our FTP site. Typically, this situation applies to authors who choose our video produced by author publication option. You should submit a low-resolution copy of the video (under 50 MB) via the submission site. After your submission is received and assigned to an editor, please notify the editor that you need to upload the full-resolution video or other large files. Instructions for uploading large files or high-resolution video will be sent to you.
Does JoVE have a style guide?
For a comprehensive overview of our style guide, you can download it here.
What is the script? How is it different from my initial submission?
The script is the document that defines the spoken content of your video. It is based on your initial submission. JoVE scriptwriters take your submission and convert it into a voiceover for the video; it is essentially a transcript, which will be read by voice talent at JoVE. You will not need to memorize it for filming.
As the script is geared toward guiding the video production, it may not contain all of the content that you originally submitted in your manuscript. Preparation steps, reagent recipes, or routine methods, may be omitted from the script document because they are not novel and are tedious to film. Your original submission will make up the text portion of your video-article, which will be displayed on the same page as your video. A downloadable PDF will also be available with your video-article.
Many JoVE personnel involved in the production of your article will work from the script document. These include the videographer, editor, voice talent, scientific editors, and you. Our script format is geared to the tasks of each of these individuals, so it is important that you are mindful of the numbering scheme and structure of this document while you make your edits.
Much of our experiment takes place under the microscope. How is this filmed?
Our videographer will bring a camera and microscope adapter setup to film your microscope work. Our adapter kit is more or less universally adaptable to all microscopes, because it fits in the ocular or trinocular ports, which, according to industry standards, are usually 30 or 23 mm in internal diameter.
One complication with our scope and adapter system is that complicated dissections may need to be performed as you look through one eyepiece. If your scope does not have a trinocular port housing with the internal diameter mentioned above, or does not project a virtual image, in stereo, to both the eyepieces and third port, then you will be unable to use both sets of eyepieces. The best solution is to try to find access to a teaching scope or stereoscope with a discussion bridge, since these have two sets of eyepieces and make it very easy for us to capture your footage.
Many of our authors who don’t have access to a teaching scope are fine with performing microscope work using one eye. These individuals will generally practice their procedures this way in the days before the experiment.
How long will the filming take?
The length of filming depends on the length of your protocol. Because of our length limitations on the protocol portion of the script, JoVE filming averages 6 to 7 hours. This includes videographer preparation and pack up time, filming of the protocol, the introduction and conclusion sections.
A simple way to estimate the duration of the shoot is to look at the number of steps in your protocol and the length of each step. In general, we require one visual per 1.5 lines of 12 pt text, and each visual takes about 5 minutes to capture. If your protocol consists of 30 steps comprised of three lines of text, then it will take about 5 hours to shoot your video protocol.
My experiment takes more than one day to complete. Do we need multiple days of filming?
No, protocols are filmed in one day. When additional shoot days are requested, authors are required to pay additional fees. To accommodate the single shoot day, long experiments with overnight incubation times will require samples to be prepared and processed before we arrive. On the day of filming, the protocol should be set up like a cooking show, meaning all parts of the recipe are ready to go and you can quickly move from one step to the next. If an additional shoot day is absolutely required, authors can take advantage of our Author-Provided Footage model to avoid the additional fees.
Much of what I’d like to demonstrate occurs on the computer. Should we just film the computer screen?
No, footage of the computer screen can often look distorted on camera, even if we dial down the shutter speed. Our suggestion is for you to download and use screen capture software to demonstrate computer based procedures and analyses. Popular screen capture programs for PC include Screen Capture Professional, Camtasia, or Adobe Captivate. For Mac, iShowU and iShowU HD are preferred. An excellent piece of software for both operating systems is SnagIt.
Please provide any screen capture files to us using either .mov (h.264 codec, 2 MB/s bitrate) or .avi formats (cinepak codec, 2 MB/s bitrate) and name files according to the step at which screen actions appear in the script.
My experiment requires multiple filming locations as one of the required instruments is off-site. Can JoVE film in two different sites?
All requests for multiple filming locations require approval from our production staff prior to submission; please e-mail your editor or submissions@jove.com with related requests. Generally, if the second location is within 1 hr drive of the primary laboratory location, then JoVE can film at both locations. However, minor changes may be required of your protocol section, in order to facilitate filming. If the second filming location is greater than 1 hr driving distance from the primary location, then another day of filming will be required and will incur an additional filming fee.
When will I get to see the final product? When will my video be published in JoVE?
On average, your article will be published roughly 3 months from your filming date. However, there are factors that influence this time line that depend on you. Your video may require additional media files (images, movies, or graphic files) that were not included in your initial manuscript submission. You will need to provide these materials to us.
Delays in submitting this material will cause a delay in your article being released. You will also be required to provide us with comments on your video article after a rough cut is produced. Submitting comments late will delay publication. However, we will not publish the video until you approve your article.
How much does it cost to publish with JoVE?
JoVE depends, in part, on the payment of publication fees to support its operations. Articles are considered for publication solely on the basis of their scientific merit and peer review.
The publication fee is $2,400. If authors choose the open access option for their full-text article, an additional fee of $1,800 will apply.
No additional fees apply if an author submits a video with their text manuscript. If the open access option is selected, the full-text article and author-submitted video will be freely available on the JoVE website, without a subscription.
No additional fees apply if an author engages JoVE production services to produce a video. The videos produced by the JoVE production services are not a part of the author’s submission and are available on the JoVE website under subscription.
What is JoVE’s policy regarding anonymity?
Reviewers remain anonymous throughout the entire publication process. We will not release reviewer names to authors or other reviewers. JoVE will not allow any attempt by authors to determine the identity of reviewers and we encourage reviewers to neither confirm nor deny any speculations regarding their identity.
Reviewers should not contact authors. Instead, please contact our Editorial Office with any questions or concerns. We utilize a single-blind review process; reviewers can access author identities to further inform their review and prevent any conflicts of interest. However, the editor will compile all peer review comments with any editorial comments and send these to the authors on the reviewers’ behalf.
What is JoVE’s policy regarding conflicts of interest?
We ask that peer reviewers declare any financial or personal conflict of interest before accepting an invitation to review. For more details regarding conflicts of interest, please see our Editorial Policies.
Referees and editors must exclude themselves from handling a submission if a conflict of interest affects their ability to make an impartial scientific judgment.
The final decision on potential conflicts of interest rests with JoVE. If there are any concerns regarding a specific conflict of interest, please contact review@jove.com.
I have more questions, how do I get more peer review help?
If there are any further questions that are not answered above please feel free to email peerreview@jove.com.
