Biotechnology Journal
Biotechnol. J. 2014, 9, 1462–1463
DOI 10.1002/biot.201400785
www.biotechnology-journal.com
Editorial: Building on the BTJ experience to foster scientific and research communication
W
hen I first joined BTJ in 2011, I wrote an editorial on my vision for Biotechnology Journal [1]. When I came to realize that many of these missions were fulfilled, I came to the conclusion that it was time for me to move on and for the Journal to flourish under new “management”, whose fresh and bright ideas would propel BTJ to new heights. It has been a real privilege for me to work on BTJ over the past four years. Having trained as a biotechnologist, the thought of working with Prof. Alois Jungbauer and Prof. Sang Yup Lee, was somewhat daunting to begin with. My initial anxieties were quickly soothed by their warm welcome into the BTJ team. These days, they are known to me as “Alois” and “Sang Yup”; both have defined for me leadership, integrity, innovation and humanity. I am able to write this “report card” for BTJ because of Alois and Sang Yup’s leadership and faith in me and the BTJ team. Their confidence and trust have greatly enabled us and brought the best out of us. One of my original visions of BTJ entailed the Journal being the trend setter in biotechnology and providing unique perspectives. I am pleased to say that we have tackled some interesting topics in this regard, including the special issues that address the question, “what is the difference between nanobiotechnology and bionanotechnology” (edited by Prof. François Baneyx and Prof. Je-Kyun Park) [2]; the special issue examining the interactions between stem cells and materials (edited by Prof. Anthony Ho and Prof. Norio Nakatsuji) [3]; and the latest on fluorescent biosensors (edited by Dr. May Morris and Prof. Marc Blondel) [4], to name a few.
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With regards to BTJ offering a collaborative environment for biotechnologists, I am pleased to say that BTJ has continued our very fruitful collaboration with the European Society of Biochemical Engineering Sciences (ESBES) through regular special issues on biochemical engineering science in which the best presentations from the ESBES meeting are published [5]. I am also much honored that the Asian Federation of Biotechnology (AFOB) chose us as their official publishing partner in 2012 [6, 7]; it was a real highlight of my tenure at BTJ to attend the signing ceremony in Taiwan. Both societies now contribute a significant portion of BTJ’s content and I hope that these publications not only will further the careers of the researchers who choose to publish with us but also provide a solid foundation for further progress in biotechnology. My predecessor Dr. Barbara Janssens had already set BTJ on the right course and unfortunately for me, I cannot take the credit for the many great initiatives that were started by Barbara. For example, BTJ had already enjoyed a unique role in communicating biotech to the public and encouraging dialogue [8]; during my time I had the privilege of working with several renowned authors on thought-provoking articles on improving biotechnology communication [9], bridging science and society [10], and also at a more regional level, how to win public support for genetically modified mosquitoes in Malaysia [11]. One of the reasons I studied biotechnology at university is the desire to somehow contribute to a better environment. It has been quite some time since I did any experiments in the lab and I am glad
that through BTJ, I was able to chaperone some great studies in their transition from a submitted manuscript to a published paper. A memorable paper for me in this regard is the “tricking” of Escherichia coli to produce phenol reported by Sang Yup Lee and colleagues [12] – a feat that would have been thought of as a pipe dream due to the toxic nature of phenol to bacteria. Publishing and even more so, digital publishing, has evolved rapidly over the past few years. BTJ too has benefited from these changes and we now have our own mobile app (available from the Apple store). While technology is indeed important, what cannot be forgotten is that technology is there to help us translate data from the lab to published results that is easily accessible and comprehensible. Therefore, we have also focused our attention on bringing content that is of value to the biotech community: we introduced the first BTJ commentaries in 2012, in which we invite leading experts to discuss the latest research papers in context of the available knowledge [13, 14]. Furthermore, we also introduced the “graphical abstract”, in which authors provide a summary image and text so that it can be readily understood by an educated reader. BTJ has grown tremendously over the past few years through the leadership of Alois and Sang Yup. I would also like to take this occasion to thank the many people with whom I have worked on BTJ. Professional journal editors will know what I mean when I say that “there are editors and there are editors”. I need to again thank Barbara for the familylike atmosphere that she has created with the editorial board of BTJ – BTJ’s success, with its respectable
© 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Biotechnology Journal
Biotechnol. J. 2014, 9, 1462–1463 www.biotecvisions.com
www.biotechnology-journal.com
first impact factor of 3.4 and now 3.7, would not have been possible without the continued support of BTJ’s editors and editorial board, who not only provide the highest standard of peer-review and some of the most read and cited papers in the Journal but also invaluable advice. My sincere gratitude goes to also the many guest editors, who have enabled us to provide high quality and up-todate research to our readers in the biotech community. I have already mentioned the productive collaborations that BTJ enjoys with ESBES and the AFOB. Both have a great team of people behind them and I would like to especially thank the Presidents, Prof. Guilherme Ferreira of ESBES and Prof. Ho Nam Chang of the AFBO for their support and generosity with their time to help BTJ become the great journal that it is today. There are also many people behind the scenes, who rarely receive the credit they deserve, including our content managers: Sigi Mehren, Birgit Hill and Meike Blaschke; our typesetters: Typodesign (for the record, “Typo” refers to the font style, and our typesetters have routinely prevented us from embarrassing typos in the Journal); our marketing managers: Patricia Knoerrer and Vicci Parr; our advertising manager Marion Schulz; and our freelance/copy editors, Dr. Susan Debad, Dr. Marilyn Igloi, Dr. Trish van Kuyk, Dr. Rosalyne Cowie, Dr. Ewa Pohlmeyer and Dr. Fran Harding, as well as Deepak and his team at Thomson Digital. Over the past four years I worked closely with Dr. Uta Göbel and Dr. Jing Zhu on BTJ. It has been a real honor to lead this team of highly qualified and most dedicated editors. Not only are Uta and Jing great
fun to work with, they also keep me on my toes and prompt me to deliver my best and meet their high expectations of the Journal. I would like to also thank my line-manager at Wiley, Dr. Carol Bacchus, who entrusted me with one of her pet journals, endowed me with the freedom to operate, and also gave me the room to grow as a manager with a portfolio of journals and increased personnel responsibilities. I am very grateful that Biotechnology Journal has taken me to some wonderful places. Whether it is presenting an author workshop at the International Biotechnology Symposium in Daegu, South Korea; being a moderator at BioVision in Lyon, France; or hosting BTJ’s editorial board meeting at the Biochemical and Molecular Engineering Conference in Seattle, USA, all these events have one thing in common: I have had the privilege of meeting and interacting with the most fascinating and inspiring people. I hesitate to name names as the page allowance I have allocated myself for this editorial would not be enough. Importantly, every person, every interaction, were unique in their own way and have given me valuable lessons. I aspire to achieve and deliver more because of the many great minds and people that I have met. I move on to the next phase of my publishing adventures knowing that BTJ will be in the expert hands of Uta and Jing under the leadership of Alois and Sang Yup. In my new role, I hope to leverage my experiences with the biotech research community to further research and scientific communication. While it is common knowledge that the publishing industry is facing a multitude of challenges, I do believe that there is a very real place for publishers in the
© 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Judy Peng
effective transformation of research data into published scientific record that will serve as the basis of tomorrow’s research. Finally, to you, BTJ’s authors and readers: thank you for believing in BTJ, with your continued support, I look forward to seeing an even better BTJ in the future.
Judy Peng, PhD. Managing Editor Biotechnology Journal E-mail: [email protected]
References [1] Peng, J., Biotechnol. J. 2011, 6, 2–3. [2] Baneyx, F., Park, J. K., Biotechnol. J. 2013, 8, 158–159. [3] Ho, A., Nakatsuji, N., Biotechnol. J. 2013, 8, 694–695. [4] Morris, M. C., Blondel, M., Biotechnol. J. 2013, 8, 171–173. [5] Ferreira, G., Jungbauer, A., Biotechnol. J. 2013, 8, 634–635. [6] Peng, J., Biotechnol. J. 2013, 8, 4–5. [7] Park, T. H., Chen, G. G., Biotechnol. J. 2013, 8, 1246–8. [8] Sinemus, K., Biotechnol. J. 2007, 2, 1047. [9] Weitze, M. D., Pühler, A., Biotechnol. J. 2013, 8, 970–972. [10] Pierce, R. L., Biotechnol. J. 2013, 8, 875–877. [11] Subramaniam, T. S. et al., Biotechnol. J. 2012, 7, 1323–1327. [12] Kim, B. et al., Biotechnol. J. 2014, 9, 621–629. [13] Gautam, N., Biotechnol. J. 2012, 7, 17–18. [14] Randolph, T. W., Biotechnol. J. 2012, 7, 18–19.
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Biotechnol. J. 2014, 9, 1462–1463
DOI 10.1002/biot.201400785
www.biotechnology-journal.com
Editorial: Building on the BTJ experience to foster scientific and research communication
W
hen I first joined BTJ in 2011, I wrote an editorial on my vision for Biotechnology Journal [1]. When I came to realize that many of these missions were fulfilled, I came to the conclusion that it was time for me to move on and for the Journal to flourish under new “management”, whose fresh and bright ideas would propel BTJ to new heights. It has been a real privilege for me to work on BTJ over the past four years. Having trained as a biotechnologist, the thought of working with Prof. Alois Jungbauer and Prof. Sang Yup Lee, was somewhat daunting to begin with. My initial anxieties were quickly soothed by their warm welcome into the BTJ team. These days, they are known to me as “Alois” and “Sang Yup”; both have defined for me leadership, integrity, innovation and humanity. I am able to write this “report card” for BTJ because of Alois and Sang Yup’s leadership and faith in me and the BTJ team. Their confidence and trust have greatly enabled us and brought the best out of us. One of my original visions of BTJ entailed the Journal being the trend setter in biotechnology and providing unique perspectives. I am pleased to say that we have tackled some interesting topics in this regard, including the special issues that address the question, “what is the difference between nanobiotechnology and bionanotechnology” (edited by Prof. François Baneyx and Prof. Je-Kyun Park) [2]; the special issue examining the interactions between stem cells and materials (edited by Prof. Anthony Ho and Prof. Norio Nakatsuji) [3]; and the latest on fluorescent biosensors (edited by Dr. May Morris and Prof. Marc Blondel) [4], to name a few.
1462
With regards to BTJ offering a collaborative environment for biotechnologists, I am pleased to say that BTJ has continued our very fruitful collaboration with the European Society of Biochemical Engineering Sciences (ESBES) through regular special issues on biochemical engineering science in which the best presentations from the ESBES meeting are published [5]. I am also much honored that the Asian Federation of Biotechnology (AFOB) chose us as their official publishing partner in 2012 [6, 7]; it was a real highlight of my tenure at BTJ to attend the signing ceremony in Taiwan. Both societies now contribute a significant portion of BTJ’s content and I hope that these publications not only will further the careers of the researchers who choose to publish with us but also provide a solid foundation for further progress in biotechnology. My predecessor Dr. Barbara Janssens had already set BTJ on the right course and unfortunately for me, I cannot take the credit for the many great initiatives that were started by Barbara. For example, BTJ had already enjoyed a unique role in communicating biotech to the public and encouraging dialogue [8]; during my time I had the privilege of working with several renowned authors on thought-provoking articles on improving biotechnology communication [9], bridging science and society [10], and also at a more regional level, how to win public support for genetically modified mosquitoes in Malaysia [11]. One of the reasons I studied biotechnology at university is the desire to somehow contribute to a better environment. It has been quite some time since I did any experiments in the lab and I am glad
that through BTJ, I was able to chaperone some great studies in their transition from a submitted manuscript to a published paper. A memorable paper for me in this regard is the “tricking” of Escherichia coli to produce phenol reported by Sang Yup Lee and colleagues [12] – a feat that would have been thought of as a pipe dream due to the toxic nature of phenol to bacteria. Publishing and even more so, digital publishing, has evolved rapidly over the past few years. BTJ too has benefited from these changes and we now have our own mobile app (available from the Apple store). While technology is indeed important, what cannot be forgotten is that technology is there to help us translate data from the lab to published results that is easily accessible and comprehensible. Therefore, we have also focused our attention on bringing content that is of value to the biotech community: we introduced the first BTJ commentaries in 2012, in which we invite leading experts to discuss the latest research papers in context of the available knowledge [13, 14]. Furthermore, we also introduced the “graphical abstract”, in which authors provide a summary image and text so that it can be readily understood by an educated reader. BTJ has grown tremendously over the past few years through the leadership of Alois and Sang Yup. I would also like to take this occasion to thank the many people with whom I have worked on BTJ. Professional journal editors will know what I mean when I say that “there are editors and there are editors”. I need to again thank Barbara for the familylike atmosphere that she has created with the editorial board of BTJ – BTJ’s success, with its respectable
© 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Biotechnology Journal
Biotechnol. J. 2014, 9, 1462–1463 www.biotecvisions.com
www.biotechnology-journal.com
first impact factor of 3.4 and now 3.7, would not have been possible without the continued support of BTJ’s editors and editorial board, who not only provide the highest standard of peer-review and some of the most read and cited papers in the Journal but also invaluable advice. My sincere gratitude goes to also the many guest editors, who have enabled us to provide high quality and up-todate research to our readers in the biotech community. I have already mentioned the productive collaborations that BTJ enjoys with ESBES and the AFOB. Both have a great team of people behind them and I would like to especially thank the Presidents, Prof. Guilherme Ferreira of ESBES and Prof. Ho Nam Chang of the AFBO for their support and generosity with their time to help BTJ become the great journal that it is today. There are also many people behind the scenes, who rarely receive the credit they deserve, including our content managers: Sigi Mehren, Birgit Hill and Meike Blaschke; our typesetters: Typodesign (for the record, “Typo” refers to the font style, and our typesetters have routinely prevented us from embarrassing typos in the Journal); our marketing managers: Patricia Knoerrer and Vicci Parr; our advertising manager Marion Schulz; and our freelance/copy editors, Dr. Susan Debad, Dr. Marilyn Igloi, Dr. Trish van Kuyk, Dr. Rosalyne Cowie, Dr. Ewa Pohlmeyer and Dr. Fran Harding, as well as Deepak and his team at Thomson Digital. Over the past four years I worked closely with Dr. Uta Göbel and Dr. Jing Zhu on BTJ. It has been a real honor to lead this team of highly qualified and most dedicated editors. Not only are Uta and Jing great
fun to work with, they also keep me on my toes and prompt me to deliver my best and meet their high expectations of the Journal. I would like to also thank my line-manager at Wiley, Dr. Carol Bacchus, who entrusted me with one of her pet journals, endowed me with the freedom to operate, and also gave me the room to grow as a manager with a portfolio of journals and increased personnel responsibilities. I am very grateful that Biotechnology Journal has taken me to some wonderful places. Whether it is presenting an author workshop at the International Biotechnology Symposium in Daegu, South Korea; being a moderator at BioVision in Lyon, France; or hosting BTJ’s editorial board meeting at the Biochemical and Molecular Engineering Conference in Seattle, USA, all these events have one thing in common: I have had the privilege of meeting and interacting with the most fascinating and inspiring people. I hesitate to name names as the page allowance I have allocated myself for this editorial would not be enough. Importantly, every person, every interaction, were unique in their own way and have given me valuable lessons. I aspire to achieve and deliver more because of the many great minds and people that I have met. I move on to the next phase of my publishing adventures knowing that BTJ will be in the expert hands of Uta and Jing under the leadership of Alois and Sang Yup. In my new role, I hope to leverage my experiences with the biotech research community to further research and scientific communication. While it is common knowledge that the publishing industry is facing a multitude of challenges, I do believe that there is a very real place for publishers in the
© 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Judy Peng
effective transformation of research data into published scientific record that will serve as the basis of tomorrow’s research. Finally, to you, BTJ’s authors and readers: thank you for believing in BTJ, with your continued support, I look forward to seeing an even better BTJ in the future.
Judy Peng, PhD. Managing Editor Biotechnology Journal E-mail: [email protected]
References [1] Peng, J., Biotechnol. J. 2011, 6, 2–3. [2] Baneyx, F., Park, J. K., Biotechnol. J. 2013, 8, 158–159. [3] Ho, A., Nakatsuji, N., Biotechnol. J. 2013, 8, 694–695. [4] Morris, M. C., Blondel, M., Biotechnol. J. 2013, 8, 171–173. [5] Ferreira, G., Jungbauer, A., Biotechnol. J. 2013, 8, 634–635. [6] Peng, J., Biotechnol. J. 2013, 8, 4–5. [7] Park, T. H., Chen, G. G., Biotechnol. J. 2013, 8, 1246–8. [8] Sinemus, K., Biotechnol. J. 2007, 2, 1047. [9] Weitze, M. D., Pühler, A., Biotechnol. J. 2013, 8, 970–972. [10] Pierce, R. L., Biotechnol. J. 2013, 8, 875–877. [11] Subramaniam, T. S. et al., Biotechnol. J. 2012, 7, 1323–1327. [12] Kim, B. et al., Biotechnol. J. 2014, 9, 621–629. [13] Gautam, N., Biotechnol. J. 2012, 7, 17–18. [14] Randolph, T. W., Biotechnol. J. 2012, 7, 18–19.
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