The scope of the journal is intentionally relatively wide. While focusing on core technological issues, it is recognised that these may be inherently diverse and in many cases may cross traditional disciplinary boundaries. The scope of the journal will therefore include any topics where it can be shown that a paper can increase our understanding of biometric systems, signal future developments and applications for biometrics, or promote greater practical uptake for relevant technologies:

• Development and enhancement of individual biometric modalities including the established and traditional modalities (e.g. face, fingerprint, iris, signature and handwriting recognition) and also newer or emerging modalities (gait, ear-shape, neurological patterns, etc.)
• Multibiometrics, theoretical and practical issues, implementation of practical systems, multiclassifier and multimodal approaches
• Soft biometrics and information fusion for identification, verification and trait prediction
• Human factors and the human-computer interface issues for biometric systems, exception handling strategies
• Template construction and template management, ageing factors and their impact on biometric systems
• Usability and user-oriented design, psychological and physiological principles and system integration
• Sensors and sensor technologies for biometric processing
• Database technologies to support biometric systems
• Implementation of biometric systems, security engineering implications, smartcard and associated technologies in implementation, implementation platforms, system design and performance evaluation
• Trust and privacy issues, security of biometric systems and supporting technological solutions, biometric template protection
• Biometric cryptosystems, security and biometrics-linked encryption
• Links with forensic processing and cross-disciplinary commonalities
• Core underpinning technologies (e.g. image analysis, pattern recognition, computer vision, signal processing, etc.), where the specific relevance to biometric processing can be demonstrated
• Applications and application-led considerations
• Position papers on technology or on the industrial context of biometric system development
• Adoption and promotion of standards in biometrics, improving technology acceptance, deployment and interoperability, avoiding cross-cultural and cross-sector restrictions
• Relevant ethical and social issues