Editorial
JOURNAL OF MICROBIOLOGY & BIOLOGY EDUCATION DOI: https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.v18i2.1330
New Changes for JMBE : A Look Forward Samantha L. Elliott St. Mary’s College of Maryland, St. Mary’s City, MD 20686 Heraclitus once said, “Change is the only constant in life.” When I became Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education ( JMBE) in 2014, the Editorial Board made a series of changes that have grown and sustained the journal for the past three years. As ASM reconfigures itself with a new governance structure, we are on the cusp of even more changes. Our ultimate goal is for JMBE to remain a leader in life sciences education by providing innovative, inspirational and useful resources to its readership. To do this, we must adapt to the ever-changing landscape of science education publishing, not only in terms of content, but also process and sustainability. What does the future of JMBE entail? Here are some of the changes you will notice in the near future: Rolling publication Starting immediately, all JMBE articles will be published on ASMscience once they have completed the production process. This will allow JMBE authors and readers to access content in a timelier manner, rather than being restricted to our former biannual publication schedule. Readers will have earlier access to JMBE content, authors can showcase their work ahead of “print,” and the community as a whole can respond more rapidly to issues within life sciences education. With this new publication scheme, we will close out three JMBE “issues” a year (Spring, Fall, and Winter); each issue will include everything published since the previous issue, regardless of whether it is themed or regular content. Editorial Board structure To keep up with the growing influx of manuscripts and to ensure a timely review process, we have been diligently working to expand our Editorial Board. Our recent call for reviewers was met with an outstanding response from the community, and we have since welcomed over 40 additional reviewers onto our team. We are also in the process of Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biology 18952 E. Fisher Rd. St. Mary’s City, MD 20686. E-mail: [email protected]. Received: 12 April 2017, Accepted: 12 April 2017, Published: 28 July 2017.
expanding our section editor teams and, in some cases, bringing in additional lead editors to keep up with demand. To that end, we welcome four new editors to our group. Dr. Loretta Brancaccio-Taras, Professor of Biology at Kingsborough Community College and 2016 Carski Foundation Distinguished Teaching Awardee, will join Dr. Marcy Peteroy-Kelly as co-Editor of Research. Dr. Brian Sato, Associate Teaching Professor in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at University of California, Irvine, joins us as a Curriculum Section Editor. Dr. Massimiliano Marvasi, Senior Lecturer in Microbiology at Middlesex University, London, UK, also joins our team as a Curriculum Section Editor. Finally, Dr. Miriam Segura-Totten, Professor of Biology and the Harry B. Forester Eminent Scholars Chair at the University of North Georgia, is our new Theme Issue Editor! Themed issues Speaking of themed issues, the response from the community about our themed issues has been exceedingly positive. To build upon this enthusiasm, we are expanding to two themed content areas in 2018! We also hope to make the themed content an annual occurrence, rather than every other year. You may have seen our call for manuscripts for Science Communication themed content. We have a great group of Guest Editors, including Dr. Emily Cloyd (AAAS), Dr. Jennifer Gardy (University of British Columbia), Dr. Jean Goodwin (North Carolina State University), Dr. Holly Menninger (North Carolina State University), and Dr. Dennis Mangan (University of Rochester). Submissions are due in August 2017 for an early 2018 publication date. Our second themed content area will focus on international life sciences education—details coming soon!—with an anticipated publication in late 2018. Additional changes are in the works, and we will share those details as they come to fruition. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these latest efforts to provide you with a quality JMBE experience. Sign up for eTOC alerts to be notified when an issue is closed, or visit the JMBE homepage for details on upcoming themed issues, author and reader enhancements, and newly published content.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author has no conflicts of interest to declare.
©2017 Author(s). Published by the American Society for Microbiology. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ and https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode), which grants the public the nonexclusive right to copy, distribute, or display the published work.
Volume 18, Number 2
Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education
1
JOURNAL OF MICROBIOLOGY & BIOLOGY EDUCATION DOI: https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.v18i2.1330
New Changes for JMBE : A Look Forward Samantha L. Elliott St. Mary’s College of Maryland, St. Mary’s City, MD 20686 Heraclitus once said, “Change is the only constant in life.” When I became Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education ( JMBE) in 2014, the Editorial Board made a series of changes that have grown and sustained the journal for the past three years. As ASM reconfigures itself with a new governance structure, we are on the cusp of even more changes. Our ultimate goal is for JMBE to remain a leader in life sciences education by providing innovative, inspirational and useful resources to its readership. To do this, we must adapt to the ever-changing landscape of science education publishing, not only in terms of content, but also process and sustainability. What does the future of JMBE entail? Here are some of the changes you will notice in the near future: Rolling publication Starting immediately, all JMBE articles will be published on ASMscience once they have completed the production process. This will allow JMBE authors and readers to access content in a timelier manner, rather than being restricted to our former biannual publication schedule. Readers will have earlier access to JMBE content, authors can showcase their work ahead of “print,” and the community as a whole can respond more rapidly to issues within life sciences education. With this new publication scheme, we will close out three JMBE “issues” a year (Spring, Fall, and Winter); each issue will include everything published since the previous issue, regardless of whether it is themed or regular content. Editorial Board structure To keep up with the growing influx of manuscripts and to ensure a timely review process, we have been diligently working to expand our Editorial Board. Our recent call for reviewers was met with an outstanding response from the community, and we have since welcomed over 40 additional reviewers onto our team. We are also in the process of Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biology 18952 E. Fisher Rd. St. Mary’s City, MD 20686. E-mail: [email protected]. Received: 12 April 2017, Accepted: 12 April 2017, Published: 28 July 2017.
expanding our section editor teams and, in some cases, bringing in additional lead editors to keep up with demand. To that end, we welcome four new editors to our group. Dr. Loretta Brancaccio-Taras, Professor of Biology at Kingsborough Community College and 2016 Carski Foundation Distinguished Teaching Awardee, will join Dr. Marcy Peteroy-Kelly as co-Editor of Research. Dr. Brian Sato, Associate Teaching Professor in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at University of California, Irvine, joins us as a Curriculum Section Editor. Dr. Massimiliano Marvasi, Senior Lecturer in Microbiology at Middlesex University, London, UK, also joins our team as a Curriculum Section Editor. Finally, Dr. Miriam Segura-Totten, Professor of Biology and the Harry B. Forester Eminent Scholars Chair at the University of North Georgia, is our new Theme Issue Editor! Themed issues Speaking of themed issues, the response from the community about our themed issues has been exceedingly positive. To build upon this enthusiasm, we are expanding to two themed content areas in 2018! We also hope to make the themed content an annual occurrence, rather than every other year. You may have seen our call for manuscripts for Science Communication themed content. We have a great group of Guest Editors, including Dr. Emily Cloyd (AAAS), Dr. Jennifer Gardy (University of British Columbia), Dr. Jean Goodwin (North Carolina State University), Dr. Holly Menninger (North Carolina State University), and Dr. Dennis Mangan (University of Rochester). Submissions are due in August 2017 for an early 2018 publication date. Our second themed content area will focus on international life sciences education—details coming soon!—with an anticipated publication in late 2018. Additional changes are in the works, and we will share those details as they come to fruition. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these latest efforts to provide you with a quality JMBE experience. Sign up for eTOC alerts to be notified when an issue is closed, or visit the JMBE homepage for details on upcoming themed issues, author and reader enhancements, and newly published content.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author has no conflicts of interest to declare.
©2017 Author(s). Published by the American Society for Microbiology. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ and https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode), which grants the public the nonexclusive right to copy, distribute, or display the published work.
Volume 18, Number 2
Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education
1
