High Profile Publishing in Molecular Biology

Hélène Hodak, h.hodak@elsevier.com Marina Ostankovitch, m.ostankovitch@elsevier.com

© 2014 Elsevier

The field of Molecular Biology, inception to current trends

Behind the scenes or the role of the editor

Preparing a high profile article in Molecular Biology

© 2014 Elsevier

1880 1959 1974 1914 1982 2003

Reference journals in Molecular Biology

1869

1993-94

1997

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Establishment of the field of Molecular Biology

• ~1930: First mention of molecular biology

• Biological problems approached using various disciplines (chemistry, physics) • Problem of specificity of structure and action

• ~1960: Creation of the field molecular biology

• Creation by scientists at leading institutions in USA (Caltech Institute, CA) and Europe (Medical Research Council laboratory, UK; Pasteur Institute, France; Max-Plank, Germany; Israel; Italy; Switzerland; …)

• Founding disciplines

• Structural biology (X-ray crystallographers) • Perutz, Kendrew, Crick, Watson

• Microbiology and Genetics as microbial (molecular) genetics • Monod, Jacob, Brenner

• Biochemistry, as enzymology or protein chemistry (Sanger, Monod) • Biophysics • Embryology

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Journal of Molecular Biology: 1959 – founded by Sir John Kendrew, Medical Research Council laboratory (Cambridge, UK), Nobel Prize winning biochemist and crystallographer

First multidisciplinary Life Science journal focused on Molecular Biology

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The field of Molecular Biology is managerial, problem oriented, and multidisciplinary

• New fundamental research enterprise, closely related to physics, relying on expensive instrumentation

• Funds administered by centralized agencies rather than universities (National public and private Science, Technologies and Research agencies and institutions)

• Caltech • Rockefeller Foundation • National Science Foundation • National Institutes of Health • Pasteur Institute • Medical Research Council Laboratory • European Molecular Biology Organization • …

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The field of Molecular Biology is managerial, problem oriented, and multidisciplinary

• Relevance to medicine and capable of eventually bringing medical benefits

‘a given number of problems which are among the most important in pathology seem to come directly under the jurisdiction of molecular biology . . . above all, the problem of cancer is obviously a molecular biology problem’ (Strasser BJ, 2002)

• Integration of multiple disciplines to approach fundamental problems of life

• Function and cellular significance of molecular interactions • Structure–function relationship

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Disciplines in Molecular Biology

• Molecular Cell biology • Genetics and Epigenetics

• Developmental biology (Regenerative

medicine, Stem Cell biology, Aging…) • Engineering • Computational Biology • Synthetic Biology

Since inception • Microbiology

• Molecular genetics

• Structural Biology • Biochemistry, enzymology, protein chemistry • Biophysics • Embryology

Later included

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Multi-disciplinary to inter-disciplinary research

• Multidisciplinary research uses multiple disciplines to address a problem from each of their perspectives. The research is collaborative but a separation between the disciplines remains.

• Interdisciplinary research integrates multiple disciplines to create new instruments, models, approaches. New understanding is achieved by creating a new way of raising new questions.

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Current approaches in Molecular Biology

• Diversification of biological samples (from test tube to cells, organs, whole organisms, cohorts) allows basic to translational science studies

• Smaller samples (miniaturization)

• Improvement of biological models and higher relevance to biology and medicine (in-vitro, in-silico, in-situ, ex-vivo, in-vivo, human health and disease samples..)

• Higher relevance of cellular environment of in vitro models (3D culture, microfluidics techniques, engineering of matrices and cellular media)

• More powerful and quantitative technologies (better resolution, more efficient) • single cell, single molecule, time-resolved crystallography, microcrystals,

deep-sequencing (detecting fewer number of copies), super-resolution imaging …

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Current approaches in Molecular Biology

• Structural biology: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Time-Resolved Crystallography, crystallography in microplates, cryo-electron microscopy

• Computational biology, bioinformatics, statistics: predictive, modelling, reconstruction studies of molecular interactions in biological systems using larger scale datasets.

• Automation, high-throughput and systematic studies allow large scale analyzes of systems and networks (proteomics, genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics,…)

• Imaging, kinetics and computational studies address spatiotemporal and dynamic aspects of biological questions

• Single molecule analysis: optical/magnetic tweezers, atomic force microscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, Förster resonance energy transfer

• High order genomic structure, Chromosome Conformation Capture and variants

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Current trends in Molecular Biology

Allosteric Interactions and Biological Regulation

Non-coding RNAs in Systems

Molecular Effects of Naturally Occurring Genetic Differences

Regulation of DNA Replication and Genomic Instability

Antiviral Innate Immunity

The Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms of Amyloidosis

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Current trends in Molecular Biology

Emerging concepts in epigenetic signaling

Molecular mechanisms of microbiota

Functional and mechanistic aspects of ion channels

Functional relevance and dynamics of nuclear organization

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The field of Molecular Biology, inception to current trends

Behind the scenes or the role of the editor

Preparing a high profile article in Molecular Biology

© 2014 Elsevier

Before you start writing • Conception of your research project

• Novelty • Biologically significance • Reproducibility • Combine and integrate approaches to make new discoveries

• Choosing the right journal and the format of your paper

• Who is the journal’s audience? • How fast does the journal make a decision and publish your paper? • What is the appropriate format of your paper? : Research article,

Communication, Brevia, Method Notes, Database….

Preparing a high profile article in Molecular Biology

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• Title: appealing, stating the main finding • Figures and legends: self-explanatory, in logical order • Highlights: 4-5 key sentences (background, results, conclusion) • Abstract: includes background, highlights main findings and relevance

Pre-submission

• Clarity, objectivity and accuracy (direct and short sentences, avoid multiple

statements) • Avoid over-interpretation • Cite fairly all reference articles

• Cover letter explains additional research rational and specific circumstances • Recommend Reviewers

Writing your manuscript

Preparing a high profile article in Molecular Biology

© 2014 Elsevier

The field of Molecular Biology, inception to current trends

Behind the scenes or the role of the editor

Preparing a high profile article in Molecular Biology?

© 2014 Elsevier

JMB office

Referees

Authors

Editorial Process

Associate Editors

Editorial Board & Guest Editors

Editor in chief

Scientific editors

• Triage • Oversee and smoothen review process • Invitation of referees • Provide guidance during decision making

• Expert evaluation • Invitation of referees • Make decision

Scientific Editors

Academic Editors

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Peer-review process at JMB

Initial screening by the Editors

Editorial rejection Peer review °1

Accept Revise Reject

Major revision Minor revision

Accept Reject

Peer review °2

>75%

50% 2%

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• Editorial Rejection: 3 days • From submission to 1st decision: 4 weeks • Revision: • Minor: 1 month • Major: 2 months • From re-submission to final decision: 2 weeks

Turnaround time from submission to acceptance: 75 days

Manuscripts turnaround

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Summary Role of the scientific editors

• Shape the content of the journal

• Work with the Editor-in-chief and academic editors

• Selection of articles suitable to the journal

• Commission of special content

• Work with Editorial Board Members during entire review process

• Oversee and smoothen entire review process

• Provide guidance to and ensure communication with authors, academic

editors, and other stakeholders during the publishing process

• Promote content

• Featured articles & commentaries

• Editorials

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Thank you

• Elizabeth Gaskell, Scientific Editor at Molecular Cell

• Amy Keating, Associate Professor of Biology, MIT, Editorial Board Member

• Daniel Day, co-chair of committee Academics, Research, & Careers,

Graduate Student Council at MIT

• Ryan Bailey, Research Focus, Elsevier

• Peter Wright, Professor, Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, Editor-in-Chief of JMB

• Editorial Board Members at JMB

• Bart Wacek, Publishing Director, Elsevier • Lucia Franco, Executive Publisher, Elsevier

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