Editorial pubs.acs.org/biochemistry
Yes, Biochemistry Now Publishes Communications and Something NewFrom the Bench
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FROM THE BENCH Rapid Dissemination of New or Improved Methods. New methods inspire discovery and catalyze innovation, in biological chemistry and elsewhere. Flash chromatography is a classic example of a game-changing technique in organic chemistry;2 PCR is an example from biochemistry.3 Indeed, many papers are influential less because of the discovery than because of the new methods devised to achieve that discovery. Biochemistry now offers authors an option called From the Bench, a chance to publish validated new methods, or substantive improvements to existing methods, before they are applied to achieve an important new discovery. From the Bench pieces are appropriate for both new experimental procedures or new computational/bioinformatics tools. All we ask is that each submission include all the details needed to successfully reproduce the technique elsewhere and a clear validation study comparing the new method to the prior stateof-the-art method so the advantages are clearly shown.
The Biochemistry editorial board has been working hard to align the journal with the full spectrum of modern biological chemistry research.1 Part of this realignment is a new editorial team, which includes experts in disease biology and biochemistry (Nathanael Gray), neuro-related biochemistry (Linda Hsieh-Wilson), structural biology (Hongwei Wang), cell biology (Riki Eggert), synthetic biology (Farren Isaacs), and chemical biology (Schepartz), while retaining excellent coverage of structural biology, biophysics, and of course mechanistic enzymology (John Gerlt and Jayant Udgaonkar). A second part of this realignment is a change in the types of manuscripts that Biochemistry seeks to publish, which now includes four new (that is, new to Biochemistry) formats: Communications, From the Bench, Viewpoints, and Perspectives. Two of these manuscript types should be familiar to all, as they mirror those that appear in multiple other ACS journals. Communications represent a streamlined replacement for Rapid Reports, seeking to describe advances of high significance, timeliness, and broad interest while retaining the urgency of publication for which Rapid Reports were known. Perspectives represent an updated replacement for Current Topics, with a focus on recent work of particular importance or that dramatically alters current thinking. The two other new formats for manuscripts are completely new. From the Bench pieces acknowledge that biological chemistry can be driven by new tools (or improvements to existing tools) and represent one of the first manuscript types at ACS dedicated exclusively to biological methods. Viewpoints provide an opportunity to reflect on a new advance in a manner that informs and places the work in context for experts and non-experts alike, especially students.
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PERSPECTIVES Focused Highlights of Recent Advances. Biochemistry Perspectives are not comprehensive reviews; there are other ACS venues for that type of publication. Instead, Perspectives should be focused reviews (4−7 pages) that highlight recent advances across biological chemistry with an eye toward guiding future research. Although most Perspectives are invited by a member of the editorial team, you are welcome to propose ideas for Perspectives directly to the editors by emailing eic@ biochem.acs.org. Please include an abstract that clearly communicates how your proposed Perspective will be unique, especially if recent reviews on similar topics have appeared elsewhere.
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COMMUNICATIONS Vastly Expedited Peer Review. Sometimes you discover something that everyone needs to know about. Other times you just need to get your results out the door and in press. Perhaps a graduate student is transitioning to a postdoctoral position elsewhere; perhaps a related paper has materialized unexpectedly in your journal feed, or perhaps it is essential that an important result appear in the progress report for a competing grant renewal. If you can fit your science clearly into roughly 3000 words and up to four figures, then send it to Biochemistry as a Communication. We will identify reviewers immediately and ask them to return their reviews within 7 days. This fast turnaround virtually ensures that even with minor revisions the paper could be cited accurately as “in press” within 2−3 weeks. And we will work hard to move things along even faster as National Institutes of Health grant deadlines approach. All we ask is that you include in your cover letter a brief explanation of why you believe the manuscript will capture the attention of the Biochemistry readership. And if we ask you to review a Communication, please do so quickly! © 2017 American Chemical Society
VIEWPOINTS
Highlighting Hot-Off-The-Press News and Results. Biochemistry is committed to providing the community with accessible summaries and commentary on the most important and interesting advances that impact our field. Viewpoints are designed to achieve this goal, by educating our readers, expert or not, about recent exciting findings published in Biochemistry or elsewhere or discussed at scientific meetings. They are also a way in which authors can succinctly (in 1000 words or less with up to 5 references) communicate the impact of recent published work and place it within a broader context. Most Viewpoints are commissioned, but all proposals will be considered: simply send an abstract to
[email protected]. Viewpoint submissions, while not peer-reviewed, are evaluated by one or more members of the editorial board, and changes may be requested prior to publication. Received: May 17, 2017 Published: June 13, 2017 2863
DOI: 10.1021/acs.biochem.7b00474 Biochemistry 2017, 56, 2863−2864
Biochemistry
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Editorial
NEXT STEPS The scientific community at large has greatly benefited from these types of manuscripts, and I am excited that Biochemistry now also offers them to the community. For full details about how to prepare these submissions, I encourage you to visit our Information for Authors webpage at http://pubs.acs.org/page/ bichaw/submission/authors.html. Sincerely,
Alanna Schepartz,* Editor-in-Chief
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Department of Chemistry, Yale University, 225 Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, United States
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail:
[email protected]. ORCID
Alanna Schepartz: 0000-0003-2127-3932 Notes
Views expressed in this editorial are those of the author and not necessarily the views of the ACS.
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REFERENCES
(1) Schepartz, A. (2016) Building on 50 Years of Excellence Where Chemistry Meets Life Science. Biochemistry 55, 4997. (2) Still, W. C., Kahn, M., and Mitra, A. (1978) Rapid Chromatographic Technique for Preparative Separations with Moderate Resolution. J. Org. Chem. 43, 2923. (3) Mullis, K. B. (1994) The Polymerase Chain-Reaction (Nobel Lecture). Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. Engl. 33, 1209.
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.biochem.7b00474 Biochemistry 2017, 56, 2863−2864
