Editorial pubs.acs.org/JAFC
JAFCMost Trusted Partner in a Global Transition of Agriculture− Food−Nutrition Research!
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and phenolics. The research is directed toward food, feed, and biobased products, thereby encompassing a wide range of raw materials from agricultural, aquatic, and microbial origin. He strengthens our expertise in the fields of molecular food chemistry and glycan chemistry. Dear Harry, welcome to our team! Elizabeth Waters (Australia) completed 12 years of service and left the editorial board in December 2016. On behalf of the ACS staff and JAFC readers, I would like to thank Elizabeth for her active engagement as Associate Editor and dedicated service helping to further develop the journal over the past years. We now have 13 Associate Editors from Asia, Europe, and North America, representing many of the subfields along the agriculture−food−nutrition continuum: Zhen-Yu Chen (Hong Kong), John W. Finley (USA), Harry Gruppen (The Netherlands), Chi-Tang Ho (USA), Yoshinori Mine (Canada), Russell Molyneux (USA), Peter Schieberle (Germany), Takayuki Shibamoto (USA), Veronika Somoza (Austria), Francisco Tomás-Barberán (Spain), Qing X. Li (USA), Liangli (Lucy) Yu (USA), and Holger Zorn (Germany). Aiming to direct the Journal toward an even more successful future, we redefined the key role of and support given by our EAB. Our EAB members act as passionate JAFC ambassadors in the world and are important bridges to the various regions of potential JAFC readers. They reach out and attract new authors at (inter)national meetings and conferences and reinforce JAFC’s financial support of such events, such as the 11th Wartburg Symposium on Flavor Chemistry and Biology (Germany, June 21−24, 2016), the 26th International Conference on Coffee Sciences (China, November 13−19, 2016), and the 10th China International Food Safety and Quality Conference (China, November 2−3, 2016). The EAB members bring back outside reflections from authors on our Journal and share new perspectives considering the needs of the agricultural and food science community. They help us to set the agenda and strategy of the Journal, provide suggestions for high-ranked scientists as new EAB members and new Associate Editors, publish high-quality science and timely reviews based on their expertise, and nominate candidates for awards such as the JAFC Research Article of the Year Award. I am pleased to announce some new EAB members who are going to support the Journal for the next several years and who will help JAFC to expand its global reach. Let me cordially welcome Ana Gutiérrez (CSIC, Spain), Qingrong Huang (Rutgers University, USA), Sanghoon Ko (Sejong University, Korea), Coralia Osorio Roa (Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia), Sonia de Pascual-Teresa (CSIC, Spain), Luca Valgimigli (University of Bologna, Italy), Antonio Vicente (University of Minho, Portugal), and Baldwyn Torto (International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Kenya).
purred by the demand for efficient solutions that help to overcome increasing challenges in agricultural practices, food quality and supply, and nutritional health and pushed by new technologies appearing on the horizon, the field of agriculture and food chemistry is evolving more rapidly than ever before. At the same time, the landscape of scientific publishing is in a transition with new journals sprouting, many of them miniaturized in scope or limited by a narrow readership. In comparison, the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (JAFC), established 65 years ago, is firmly rooted in a long tradition of publication excellence in the broader chemistry and biotechnology of agricultural and biobased materials all the way up to food products including bioactivity, nutritional, and health aspects. To sustain JAFC as a most trusted partner in the field, in 2017 we are going to further professionalize our editorial work and leverage the potential of our international Editorial Advisory Board (EAB) members who provide outside reflections from authors and share new perspectives for the Journal’s overall agenda and strategy. We are also going to enhance the visibility of our most outstanding scientific work and better support and highlight the work of all the external experts providing high-quality, constructive, and timely reviews.
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CHANGES IN JAFC EDITORIAL AND EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARDS To mirror the transition of the agriculture and food sector by a more global mindset and new expertise of our team of Associate Editors, the editorial team was expanded in April 2016 with the addition of Prof. Dr. Harry Gruppen as a new Associate Editor (Figure 1). Harry is full professor and head of the Laboratory of Food Chemistry at Wageningen University & Research (The Netherlands). In his own research, he develops and applies molecular tools to elucidate the effects of processing and enzymatic modification on glycans, proteins,
Figure 1. Harry Gruppen, Wageningen University & Research, The Netherlands, new Associate Editor of JAFC since April 2016. © 2017 American Chemical Society
Published: January 11, 2017 1
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.6b05545 J. Agric. Food Chem. 2017, 65, 1−3
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
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Figure 2. Our outstanding reviewers (from left to right and top to bottom): Paula Andrade, REQUIMTE, Portugal; Luis Goya, CSIC, Spain; Michael Hellwig, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany; Thomas Henle, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany; Francisco Hidalgo, CSIC, Spain; John Johnston, USDA/FSIS/OPHS, United States; Weiying Lu, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China; Shengmin Sang, North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University; United States; Gow-Chin Yen, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan. Not pictured: Hitoshi Ashida, Kobe University, Japan.
with this first issue of 2017. After identifying such excellent manuscripts by the help of expert referees, JAFC will invite top authors to create a full-color cover art, helping them to promote their exciting work and, at the same time, provide an eyecatching design for our Journal. Having their research published on the JAFC cover may be gratifying in particular for young student scientists and postdocs. We are also expanding our portfolio of manuscript types, so as to better meet the needs of our authors and address the demands of our global audience in rapidly moving fields of research. To introduce a mechanism for JAFC community to quickly and easily communicate perceived important research needs, “Viewpoints” are being introduced as short “opinion-
On behalf of ACS and the authors of JAFC, I would like to cordially thank Massimo Marcone (University of Guelph, Canada; 10 years of service), Edwin N. Frankel (University of CaliforniaDavis, USA; 4 years of service), Jeanette von Emon (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, USA; 10 years of service), and Sharon Shoemaker (University of California, USA; 8 years of service), who are rotating off as EAB members, for their active engagement in helping to navigate the Journal during their tenure.
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CHANGES TO JAFC IN 2017 To highlight outstanding scientific achievements published in our journal, JAFC will introduce customized cover art starting 2
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.6b05545 J. Agric. Food Chem. 2017, 65, 1−3
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submission to acceptance, and to acquire more than 90,000 citations. All together, we are looking forward to an extension of our trusted partnership. I wish all of you a prosperous and healthy year!
style” manuscripts of a scientific nature. These papers provide authors with a venue to comment on an issue of pressing importance to the broader JAFC readership community. They will be used to clearly articulate a research need to the reader while avoiding having to summarize a particular research area or study. Viewpoints are not peer-reviewed but are subject to editorial approval. Please see the first JAFC Viewpoint “Trends in Food Enzymology” by Associate Editors Qing Li and Holger Zorn, in this issue. Additionally, from 2017 on, “Perspectives” will be repurposed; as opposed to a comprehensive, full-length review article, Perspectives will now be highly focused mini-reviews targeting recent developments in an established or emerging topical area and attracting a broader reader community. Perspectives should help readers keep abreast of the advances and trends in agricultural and food chemistry outside their own area of expertise. Therefore, Perspectives will have to be written in a manner understandable to scientists working in any area under the broader umbrella of agricultural and food chemistry.
Thomas F. Hofmann, Editor-in-Chief
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
ORCID
Thomas F. Hofmann: 0000-0003-4057-7165 Notes
Views expressed in this editorial are those of the author and not necessarily the views of the ACS.
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AWARDS AND RECOGNITION Once more, JAFC, together with the ACS Divisions of Agrochemicals (AGRO) and Agricultural and Food Chemistry (AGFD), recognized the work of our most outstanding authors with the JAFC Research Article of the Year Award Lectureship. Following a three-stage process of nomination, critical evaluation, and voting on articles published in 2015, two papers demonstrated outstanding creativity and impact on agricultural and food chemistry as a whole and were awarded (one from each category): • AGRO: Thöming, G.; Norli, H.R. Olfactory cues from different plant species in host selection by female pea moths. J. Agric. Food Chem. 2015, 63, 2127−2136, DOI: 10.1021/jf505934q • AGFD: Zhu, Y.; Soroka, D.; Sang, S. Oxyphytosterols as active ingredients in wheat bran suppress human colon cancer cell growth: identification, chemical synthesis, and biological evaluation. J. Agric. Food Chem. 2015, 63, 2264−2276, DOI: 10.1021/jf506361r. Both Lectureships came with a U.S. $1000 award, and Dr. Sang presented his work in an AGFD symposium at the 252nd ACS National Meeting in Philadelphia, PA, USA. A trusted journal relies on high-quality papers as well as on constructive, timely, and professional reviews. As part of our ongoing efforts also to recognize the support of our 15,000 active reviewers and to express the editors’ gratitude to some of our best reviewers, JAFC introduced the JAFC Excellence in Review Award in 2015. This year, the editors of JAFC are proud to recognize 10 reviewers (Figure 2) whose efforts, dedication to quality, and professionalism have been considered outstanding in the past year. These scholars are acknowledged with the 2016 JAFC Excellence in Review Award. My cordial thanks for all the high-quality, constructive, and timely reviews you prepared for JAFC and the contribution you provided to the scientific community! As we begin the new year, I want to extend my best wishes to the scholarly community of JAFCour inspiring authors, engaged reviewers, curious readers, valuable advisors, passionate editors and their office staff, and highly supportive colleagues from ACS Publications. Without you, JAFC would not have managed to publish more than 1050 papers in 2016, to reach an historic minimum of less than 70 days from 3
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.6b05545 J. Agric. Food Chem. 2017, 65, 1−3
