Editorial Cite This: Biomacromolecules XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
pubs.acs.org/Biomac
Celebrating 20 years of Biomacromolecules! his year marks the 20th anniversary of Biomacromolecules as we begin publishing our 20th volume in 2019! As the inaugural Editor of the journal, it has been a humbling experience to see the journal grow from its launch in 2000 as a fresh new publication focused on “integration of knowledge in both polymer and biological sciences” to now being established as one of the topmost journals in the field 20 years later. We successfully navigated the ever changing landscape of scholarly publication as we moved from also accepting mail-in conventional hardcopy manuscripts to online-only submission, print publication to online publication and to a new world of social media. The journal had modest beginnings with an inaugural impact factor of 1.913 and 236 citations in the 2002 Journal Citation Reports. We are thankful for the support of our authors, reviewers, readers and the journal team that contributed immensely to our growth trajectory and helped us reach our current impact factor of 5.738 and close to 37 000 citations in the 2018 Journal Citation Reports. The original editorial team of Biomacromolecules consisted of three Associate Editors, namely, Professors David Kaplan and Kazunori Kataoka, and Dr. Graham Swift. Twenty years later our team has expanded to seven Associate Editors representing our global audience with editorial offices in USA, Switzerland, France, China, and Australia. Most recently, in 2018 we welcomed our newest Associate Editor, Professor Michael Monteiro from the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology at The University of Queensland. Michael is a University of Queensland Vice Chancellor Fellow. In 2011, he won the Australian Leadership award ADC. We are delighted to have Michael join us here at Biomacromolecules and establish our first editorial office in Australia. Keeping pace with the evolving scope of the field, in 2018 Biomacromolecules published a couple of thematic issues. In response to increasing submissions and published content from our authors in Asia, we published a special issue focused on research being done in Asia (https://pubs.acs.org/toc/ bomaf6/19/6#BiomacromoleculesAsianSpecialIssueEditorial)b). The Asian special issue “Polymers from Nature and for Nature” highlighted research in polymers “from nature” and “for nature” being performed in China, India, Japan, Korea, and Singapore. A total of 55 fascinating manuscripts were presented that reflect how rapidly this field is growing in Asia. The Asian special issue was organized by our Associate Editors Zhiyuan Zhong and Harm-Anton Klok. The other special issue in 2018 was titled Stimuli-Sensitive and -Responsive Polymer Biomaterials, organized by our Associate Editor Harm-Anton Klok together with guest editor Professor Terry Steele, in collaboration with the Materials Research Society of Singapore (https://pubs.acs.org/toc/ bomaf6/19/5#StimuliSensitiveandResponsivePolymerBiomaterialsEditorial). This special issue included nine papers, which were presented at the 2017 International Conference on Materials for Advanced Technologies (ICMAT) symposium held in Singapore. The collection emphasized advances in the
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© XXXX American Chemical Society
development of stimuli sensitive and responsive polymer biomaterials. The manuscripts include examples of hydrogels, bioadhesives, antimicrobial polymer, polymer interfaces, biosensors, and composite biomaterials, relevant for future biomedical applications. I hope you enjoyed reading both these special compilations! In September 2018, our Associate Editor Zhiyuan Zhong organized the fifth Symposium on Innovative Polymers for Controlled Delivery (SIPCD 2018) in Suzhou, China (http:// www.sipcd.com/). This biennially held conference has been ongoing since 2010 and is successfully established as a highlevel conference in the fields of biomaterials, controlled drug delivery, protein and cell delivery, gene delivery, polymerbased diagnostics, and tissue engineering. In SIPCD 2018, there were about 600 participants from all over the world. There were over 30 invited plenary lectures by worldwide leading experts as well as oral presentations and like previous years, Biomacromolecules sponsored student poster awards at this meeting. 2018 also marked the sixth year of our continued collaboration with ACS Macro Letters, Macromolecules, and the Division of Polymer Chemistry (POLY) to continually promote and bring to the forefront our next generation of polymer scientists by recognizing them through the Biomacromolecules/Macromolecules Young Investigator Award. The 2018 recipients were Professor Matthew I. Gibson from University of Warwick and Jeremiah A. Johnson from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A half day award symposium honoring them was held at the 2018 ACS Fall National Meeting in Boston with presentations close to the scope of the three sponsoring ACS polymer journals. As part of our 20th anniversary celebrations in 2019, we are starting the new year and the 20th volume with a special issue from our Associate Editors Sébastien Lecommandoux, HarmAnton Klok, Tim Deming, and Zhiyuan Zhong based on the conference organized by Sébastien in 2018 − The Bordeaux Polymer Conference (BPC 2018, http://bpc2018.u-bordeaux.fr/en). The articles presented in this special issue (https://pubs.acs.org/toc/bomaf6/20/1) draw from his highly successful meeting that saw many interesting presentations. You can also look forward to another special collection we have planned for Issue 2 of this year “Rational Design of Multifunctional Renewable-Resourced Materials”, drawing from presentations at a symposium Biomacromolecules sponsored with the ACS Cellulose and Renewable Materials Division at the 2018 ACS Fall National Meeting in Boston. This was organized by our Associate Editor Simona Percec and myself. We are also planning an anniversary symposium at the ACS Fall National Meeting this year titled “The Future of Biomacromolecules at a Crossroads of Polymer Science and Biology” and welcome you to attend and help us make this celebration a big success.
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.biomac.8b01782 Biomacromolecules XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
Biomacromolecules
Editorial
As I embark on this milestone year of Biomacromolecules, I look back at the support we have received from the polymer science community in the last 20 years and hope you will stand by the journal with your continued contributions as authors, reviewers, readers, Editorial Advisory Board members, and Editors. In the next 20 years, we look ahead to continually diversify the journal topically, demographically, and geographically to serve and reflect our research community. As an expression of our gratefulness, the editorial team here at Biomacromolecules will endure to maintain the reputation and standards you have come to expect of the journal.
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Ann-Christine Albertsson, Editor-in-Chief AUTHOR INFORMATION
ORCID
Ann-Christine Albertsson: 0000-0001-8696-9143 Notes
Views expressed in this editorial are those of the author and not necessarily the views of the ACS.
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.biomac.8b01782 Biomacromolecules XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
