Editorial pubs.acs.org/JAFC
Vanishing Boundaries between Chemistry and Biology: Reflections on Our Journal
Downloaded by 114.142.207.181 on August 23, 2015 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date (Web): August 19, 2015 | doi: 10.1021/acs.jafc.5b03450
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Current specific categories within the scope of the journal include the following: (i) Agricultural and Environmental Chemistry: to advance molecular knowledge (e.g., crop protection chemistry, nanotechnology, natural toxins, fate and biotransformation of residues) and understanding of mechanisms of action of agrochemicals and to promote innovative solutions for increased agricultural productivity, a sustainable supply of food and fiber, and protection of public health and the environment including water quality/treatment, agricultural waste, and energy-related issues. (ii) Bioactive Constituents, Metabolites, and Functions: to increase knowledge of chemical structures of bioactive constituents, phytonutrients, and nutraceuticals in foods, their human metabolism, and their mechanisms of biological function to affect human health status, including various aspects of molecular nutrition such as nutritional biochemistry, nutrigenomics, and metabolomics. (iii) Biof uels and Biobased Materials: to advance knowledge of the chemistry, biology, and processing of biobased products and biofuels including all of the related areas of biodiesel, bioethanol, biogas, biotransformations, and bioprocesses (plants, algae, etc.), waste utilization, biorefinery and bioresource technologies associated with the conversion or production of biobased materials, and sustainability and environmental emissions and effects associated with these processes. (iv) Biotechnology and Biological Transformations: to foster technological advances in plant/agricultural biotechnology (e.g., crop improvement, nutraceuticals, bioenergy, transgenic plants, phytoremediation), microbial and insect biotechnology (metabolic engineering and synthetic/ systems biology of bacteria, fungi, insects, yeasts, and algae in the context of fermentation/bioproduction, biocatalysis, bioremediation, biodegradation), food and flavor biotechnology (biotransformations and metabolic aspects of food/ beverage systems), and protein and enzyme technology (recombinant proteins/enzymes, cell-free protein expression systems, and biocatalysis using immobilized enzymes). (v) Chemistry and Biology of Odor and Taste: to advance molecular knowledge of the instrumental analysis (e.g., bioelectronics sensors), chemical structures, formation pathways of aroma and taste molecules of plant- and animal-derived foods and beverages, chemosensory receptors mediating flavor object recognition (in vitro cell assays etc.), human in vivo psychophysics (including multisensory integration), and neurological processing of flavor stimuli (imaging technologies etc.). (vi) Food and Beverage Chemistry/Biochemistry: to deepen the fundamental understanding of chemical structures, structural modifications, interactions, and (bio)chemical
ix months after taking over the position of the Editor-inChief of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (JAFC), it is time to draw a first summary. First of all, I would like to thank the authors for consistently submitting the best of their scientific work to our journal during this transition time, our international team of Associate Editors for their unbroken passion to further increase the quality of papers published, and Matt Hotze for his continuous efforts as the Managing Editor of JAFC. My transition into the role of EIC would never have been successful without Matt being highly committed to pursuing the everyday tasks of dealing with papers and reviewers, growing experiences that are pivotal for us. As you might have noticed that the journal has been changing within the past months, I would like to take this opportunity to share changes in personnel with you, define the scope of the journal, and clarify our current thinking on the standard for papers we wish to publish. Since March 2015, the team of 12 Associate Editors has been expanded by a new member: Holger Zorn, Director of the Institute of Food Chemistry and Food Biotechnology, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany. Holger is a trained food chemist focusing on the enzymology of basidiomycetous fungi and insects. He is building a bridge from the discovery of biochemical phenomena to novel biocatalysts tailored to industrial applications (e.g., flavor biotechnology and enzymatic utilization of renewable resources including the final downstream processing). Besides knowledge on enzymology and protein chemistry, he brings new expertise on molecular biotechnology and modern bioanalytics to the team. Holger, cordial welcome to our team! The changes in the Editorial Team have mirrored adjustments to the scope of JAFC. Founded in 1953, the journal has been the home of significant advances in agricultural and food chemistry, while reflecting the broad interest of those who practice it. The journal’s scope had grown organically over the decades to include the related fields of bioactive molecules, molecular nutrition, and chemosensory research, to name a few. This has resulted in our citations increasing to over 82000 in 2014. In the future, the journal will continue to publish original and high-quality chemical research advancing the molecular understanding of renewable resources, product attributes, processes, and technologies, as well as health aspects encompassing the agriculture− food−nutrition continuum. However, the boundaries between chemistry and biology are vanishing. With this in mind we will now also consider manuscripts that have a fundamental component of biochemistry and/or molecular biology. This can be combined with novel aspects of process engineering and food technology, authenticity and origin aspects of food, or the biological evaluation of agricultural and/or food systems. The latter may include microbial, nutritional, physiological, sensory, or toxicological properties; however, data must accompany sufficient discussion to demonstrate their relevance to food and nutrition. Concurrent with these changes to our scope, we have also reconsidered the sections the journal is divided into. © 2015 American Chemical Society
Published: August 19, 2015 7095
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.5b03450 J. Agric. Food Chem. 2015, 63, 7095−7096
Downloaded by 114.142.207.181 on August 23, 2015 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date (Web): August 19, 2015 | doi: 10.1021/acs.jafc.5b03450
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Editorial
is, metabolic changes need to be identified on a molecular level and validated by means of targeted analysis of the key metabolites. Similarly, incremental extensions of existing compound series without a better understanding of the structure−activity relationships or without any novel chemical/biological approaches only consume reviewer and editor time better spent on other studies. In particular in an era when biological evaluations of extracts and fractions, as well as the mechanistic understanding of biological activities of compounds, are en vogue, it is mandatory that manuscripts reporting biological properties of crude extracts include detailed information on the chemical composition of the extracts responsible for the described properties. Moreover, discussion of data on nutritional or physiological relevance and conclusions drawn about human health benefits should be formulated carefully considering the experimental design used (appropriate cell-based or other in vitro assays, animal models, clinical human trials, significance of test/trail, relevant dose levels, etc.) and the robustness of the data obtained. Although new findings on food product health benefits attract media attention, it is our responsibility as scientists to treat our data with care; we should not allow ourselves to overestimate findings and present specific solutions to cure life-threatening diseases without a solid scientific basis. “Overselling of certainty” will undermine the credibility of science and will lead to more confusion than progress. Although these criteria are not new and to a certain extent subjective, authors should expect a stricter application. I wish to emphasize that for a manuscript to be suitable for JAFC, it should conform to the highest standards of chemical/biological research, be comprehensive in content, make a significant contribution to one of the journal’s categories (i−x above), and also present interesting science for our broad group of international readers. We look forward to your participation in our endeavor to continue improving JAFC so it can best serve the needs of our community.
transformations of major and minor components in foods and beverages, potentially in combination with novel aspects of process engineering, food technology, nanotechnology, packaging and storing, authenticity and origin aspects of food, or the biological evaluation of food and beverage systems. (vii) Food Safety and Toxicology: to advance our knowledge of detrimental health effects and the mechanisms of adverse physiological or pathological changes induced by natural or synthetic chemicals occurring in the human environment with particular emphasis on foods, crop protection chemicals, contaminants, and related chemicals (e.g., nanomaterials, biotechologically derived products), including agricultural safety and consumer product safety, and the design and action of chemically related processes that enhance food safety. (viii) Functional Structure/Activity Relationships: to increase the knowledge of the relationship between chemical structure and biological (microorganisms, insects, animals, human) or technofunctional activity (e.g., emulsifying, foaming, gelation) of agricultural and food components; the category comprises (a) organic synthetic studies and structural biological studies (X-ray, NMR, etc.) of relevant ligands and targets with the aim of investigating molecular recognition processes in the action of biologically active compounds, (b) molecular biological studies (e.g., site-directed mutagenesis) of macromolecular targets that lead to an improved understanding of molecular recognition, and (c) computational studies that analyze the SAR of compound series of general interest and lead to experimental studies or analysis of other available chemical and/or biological data that substantially advance the knowledge in agricultural and food chemistry. (ix) New Analytical Methods: to expand the repertoire of analytical methods in agricultural and food research by new analytical method development using chemical, physical, and biological principles. (x) Omics Technologies Applied to Agriculture and Food: to promote a more integrative understanding of complex systems in agriculture, food, and nutrition by the application of metabolomics, proteomics, and transcriptomics/ genomics technologies combined with but not limited to bioinformatics and computational biology. This scope makes JAFC a broad and large journal; we currently publish about 120 articles per month. In a sense, JAFC could be considered many journals in one. We embrace participation by scientists across traditionally defined fields and international boundaries. JAFC is the place to publish when you want the attention of scientists not just in your specialty area, and it is the place to publish when you want those same scientists to know your manuscript cleared a high standard for publication. Today the pressure to publish may be surpassing the pace of major scientific progress. In this atmosphere, I believe that JAFC has a responsibility to the scientific community to maintain a large signal-to-noise ratio. Therefore, JAFC’s publication criteria require papers to present significant new and important molecular knowledge on key topics encompassing the agriculture−food− nutrition nexus. Correctness of data alone is not sufficient for publication in JAFC, and premature publication of the latest increment of what could be further developed to become a more comprehensive and stronger paper does not serve the scientific community. For example, manuscripts presenting omics data should go beyond a sheer holistic fingerprinting of samples; that
Thomas F. Hofmann, Editor in Chief
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
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.jafc.5b03450 J. Agric. Food Chem. 2015, 63, 7095−7096
