About Physiological Measurement

Physiological Measurement (PMEA) publishes papers about sensing, assessing, visualizing, modelling, classifying, predicting, and controlling physiological functions in clinical research and practice. Particular emphasis is put on the development of state-of-the-art methods such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms, novel applications, and rigorous large-scale validation of existing methods. PMEA provides a well-balanced venue to bring together physiologists, clinicians, engineers, computer scientists, and data scientists to support the development and translation of novel ideas and solutions to promote human health (both physical and mental).

PMEA supports various types of publications and welcomes both methodological and application-oriented manuscripts, across the following list of topic areas. This list is not meant to be exhaustive, but rather illustrates the breadth of topics covered by PMEA.

Methodological track:

• Physiological signal processing, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning methods for time series—such as ECG, EEG, EMG, MEG, PPG, blood pressure, intracranial pressure, blood flow, blood flow velocity, BCG, IMU, imaging, radar, voice, etc.—separately or in an integrated way.
• Advanced, physics-based measurement techniques: electrical, bioimpedance, optical, magnetic, and acoustic.
• Multimodal machine learning, data integration and understanding, e.g., clinical notes and physiological signal integration.
• Predictive models using data from electronic health records and medical devices that measure physiologic data in various clinical settings.
• Hardware, software, and predictive models for wearable, ingestible, video, and radar-based human health/disease monitoring.
• Physiological modelling, simulation, model identification, and control, using both empirical and physics-based models.
• Physics- and model-based machine learning.
• Physiological measurement standards and guidelines.
• Regulatory sciences and practices related to both traditional medical devices and software as a medical device.
• Ethical issues such as privacy, biases and fairness in the use of measurement and AI technologies to assess physiological functions and make decisions.

Application track:

• Monitoring patient behaviour in hospitals, clinics, home, and ambulatory settings.
• Diagnostics of cardiovascular, neurological, pulmonological, immunological, and infectious diseases.
• Brain health, including neurodegenerative diseases and psychiatry.
• Benchmarking existing algorithms.
• Mobile health.
• Sleep and circadian rhythms.
• Maternal, foetal and child health.
• Physiological measurement in low-resource and extreme environments.
• Sports medicine, personal fitness tracking and wellness monitoring.
• Workforce performance monitoring.
• The effect of the environment on physiology.

PMEA will consider all types of review articles (topical reviews, roadmaps, editorials, and perspectives) within the above scope. An invitation to contribute is not necessary but authors are encouraged to have a pre-submission discussion with an editorial board member before undertaking a large endeavour to develop a review article.

The journal encourages submissions from a diverse range of research teams and authors, particularly from the global south, as well as citing authors from these regions.

PMEA is an interdisciplinary journal. Authors of each article are therefore asked to ensure that at least the title and abstract of their article are understandable to researchers in other disciplines and to supply suitable keywords as a concise method of describing its general research topic, in both clinical and scientific terms.

• Rigorous and fair peer review: peer review is administered by the in-house editorial office in consultation with the Editor-in-Chief and with direct support from the Editorial Board. We aim for two reviewer reports on every article, ensuring quality and fairness.
• Fast: we are committed to providing you with a fast, professional service to ensure rapid first decision, acceptance and publication. We make a first decision on papers in an average of 26 days and accept articles in under 100 days. Once accepted, your article will be accessible to readers within 24 hours and will include a citable DOI.
• Transfer opportunities: as well as accepting direct submissions, the journal also offers you a quick and easy solution to transfer your manuscript from another IOP Publishing journal if it does not fit that journal’s scope or significance criteria. Articles are transferred along with peer review reports to save time and avoid duplication of work for reviewers.
• International Editorial Board: scientific leadership for Physiological Measurement is provided by an Editorial Board of prominent researchers and supported by a large international advisory board, with a diverse scientific and geographical distribution.
• Society owned: published by IOP Publishing, on behalf of IPEM, both of which are not-for-profit companies. Revenue generated by the journal is used by both organisations (IOP and IPEM) to promote and advance the understanding and dissemination of science in the UK and across the world.
• Article flexibility: there are no page limits or forced requirements for formatting submissions, and we publish any supplementary data at no extra charge. Let us know if you have any other requirements and we will be happy to help.

Physiological Measurement welcomes submissions of the following article types:

• Research papers: Reports of original scientific research, techniques and applications; not normally more than 8000 words. The abstract must be no longer than 250 words and structured using the following headings: Objective, Approach, Main results, Significance.
• Letters: Outstanding concise articles reporting important, timely new developments; not normally more than 3000 words. Letters should be deserving of priority review, and you are required to upload a justification statement along with your submission.
• Topical reviews: Intended to summarize accepted practice and report on recent progress in selected areas. Topical reviews are generally commissioned by the Editorial Board, from experts in various fields. A topical review should discuss the current state of research in the field, and also include a general overview and an introduction with enough basic information to make the article interesting and informative for non-specialist scientists. Typically between 12,000–18,000 words.
• Notes: Brief descriptions of a single piece of apparatus or a technique developed for a specific purpose, a small but important experimental or theoretical point or a novel solution to a commonly encountered problem; not normally more than 3500 words. The abstract of your note should be structured using the following headings: Objective, Approach, Main results, Significance.
• Comments and replies: Comments on, or criticisms of, work previously published in this journal. The original authors will be invited to submit a Reply. Not more than 1800 words.

This journal publishes Special Issues which are focus collections of articles on a specific theme.

Articles previously considered by other journals
Alongside their submission, authors are encouraged to submit reviews from other journals, and the responses to these reviews. These materials will be considered by the editorial staff and may expedite the review process.

Articles reporting measurements on groups of human subjects
For papers that report measurements on groups of human subjects we require the number of subjects in each group to be 30+. This is for both statistical reasons and for clinical credibility. If your work does not meet this criterion but you feel there are exceptional reasons why the work should be considered please contact us.

Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER)
For articles that report on subjects capable of differentiation by sex and/or gender Physiological Measurement requires that assessment and reporting of sex and gender information is considered in study design, data analyses, results and interpretation of findings. Authors should utilise the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines in preparation of their manuscripts and include in their manuscript a statement on whether sex as a biological variable has been considered in the study and justifying any imbalance in sex in subject groups.

NIH-funded papers in PubMed Central
NIH Public Access Policy requires that our North American authors make all papers arising from research funded by the NIH publicly available in PubMed Central no later than 12 months after online publication in the journal.

As part of IOP Publishing’s commitment to ensure that publishing in our journals is as simple and easy as possible, we will upload the final, accepted manuscripts for NIH-funded papers to PubMed Central automatically, unless an author requests otherwise. More information on this process can be found on our Publishing Support website.

We work with our authors to help make their work as easy to discover as possible. Physiological Measurement is currently included in the following abstracting and discovery services:

• CABS/Biobase
• CNKI Scholar
• EBSCO Academic Search Alumni Edition
• EBSCO Academic Search Complete
• EBSCO Academic Search Elite
• EBSCO Academic Search Premier
• EBSCO Academic Search Ultimate
• EBSCO Engineering Source
• EBSCO STM Source
• EBSCO TOC Premier
• Ei Compendex
• Embase
• INIS (International Nuclear Information System)
• Inspec
• Medline/Index Medicus
• Meta
• NASA Astrophysics Data System
• PubMed
• Scopus
• VINITI Abstracts Journal (Referativnyi Zhurnal)
• Web of Science (Science Citation Index, Science Citation Index Expanded, Current Contents – Clinical Medicine, Current Contents – Life Sciences, BIOSIS Previews)