Cells (journal)

Cells is a multidisciplinary journal devoted to the biology of cells and their interactions with tissues and organisms.¹ Its scope includes cell signaling, metabolism, gene regulation, membrane biology, organelles, cell death, stem cells, development, aging, cancer, immunology, and regenerative medicine. The journal is published by MDPI and makes its articles freely available online under an open-access model.¹

The breadth of its remit allows studies using molecular biology, microscopy, biochemistry, genomics, bioinformatics, animal models, and clinical material to appear within one venue. That breadth also means that the journal is best understood as a field-spanning cellular-science publication rather than as a periodical limited to one organism, technique, or disease area. Its content is organized into recurring subject areas as well as special issues coordinated by guest editors.

Cells publishes several article types, with original research and review literature forming its principal scientific content.² Research articles present primary results, while reviews synthesize established or rapidly developing areas; communications and other formats are used for shorter or specialized contributions. Manuscripts are submitted electronically, assessed for editorial suitability, and sent for external peer review when they meet the journal's basic requirements.

The journal's instructions address authorship, conflicts of interest, research ethics, data availability, reporting standards, figure preparation, and post-publication corrections.² These procedures matter particularly in cell research, where conclusions can depend on image quantification, antibody validation, biological replicates, cell-line authentication, and the distinction between correlation and mechanism. Editorial decisions and publication ethics are framed by established standards such as those maintained by the Committee on Publication Ethics.⁴

Open access is central to Cells: published articles can be read online without a subscription or reader-side payment.³ This model supports rapid distribution of results across universities, hospitals, public laboratories, and researchers who lack access to extensive journal bundles. Articles can be cited, downloaded, and reused subject to the license attached to the individual work and the conditions stated by the publisher.

The model does not make every article identical in evidentiary strength. Readers still need to distinguish peer-reviewed research from reviews, editorials, protocols, corrections, and conference-related material, and should inspect methods, supplementary files, data statements, and any published amendments. Directory of Open Access Journals records provide an independent discovery and transparency point for open-access serials and their policies.⁵ Indexing and citation databases may cover different portions of the journal's output, so database presence should be checked directly for a particular article.

Cells is notable for the range of cellular scales represented in a single journal, from protein complexes and organelles to multicellular models and human disease.¹ This creates useful connections between traditionally separate areas, such as mitochondrial biology and aging, mechanobiology and cancer, or autophagy and infection. It also means that a paper's relevance may be methodological or conceptual even when its biological system is unfamiliar to the reader.

Special issues are an important, sometimes overlooked part of the journal's identity: they gather papers around a focused theme and may be proposed or managed by guest editors.² The journal's long tail therefore includes niche subjects such as extracellular vesicles, cellular senescence, organelle contact sites, single-cell analysis, and biomaterials interacting with cells. For historical or bibliographic work, the journal's ISSN, article DOI, version history, and correction notices are more reliable identifiers than a citation based only on a shortened title.

Open access

A publication model in which readers can access scholarly articles online without paying a subscription to the journal.

Peer review

Evaluation of a submitted scholarly work by qualified researchers before publication.

Special issue

A themed collection of articles assembled around a defined subject, often under the coordination of guest editors.

Cellular senescence

A durable state in which a cell stops proliferating while remaining metabolically active and often altering its secretory behavior.