As many of you know, BioTechniques was first published in the spring of 1983. That thin first issue—put together by co–founding editor Jeffrey Felton with the help of several other enthusiastic scientists—contained only five papers. During those early days it was often a struggle to find articles, since the concept of a peer-reviewed methods-oriented journal was new to the publishing world. But to the credit of those involved in that pioneering issue, this idea has thrived: in the years since, BioTechniques has published thousands of methods-oriented research articles—more than any other publication devoted to reporting methodological information—and has changed the way researchers work at the laboratory bench.
Over the past twenty-six years, there have been four different chief editors at the helm of BioTechniques, each guiding the journal through various stages of its distinguished history. Now, our fifth editor-in-chief, Nathan Blow, assumes this role. Leadership changes often provide the opportunity for reflection and self-evaluation, and our change has been no different. As we enter our twenty-seventh year, the entire BioTechniques staff has spent time looking closely at the journal to identify its strengths and examine areas in need of improvement. Unlike 1983, today there are a growing number of journals reporting on laboratory methods advances from an ever-expanding array of disciplines within biology and chemistry. This has created new opportunities—and challenges— for BioTechniques, as the scope of topics within our pages has widened greatly. And while we continue to receive high praise from readers for many sections in the journal (especially the popular Citations and Troubleshooting Forum features), we are working to enhance and broaden the coverage for all of our features and review articles in order to capture and report on the methodological advances that are driving emerging areas of scientific research.
With this in mind, you will see several changes being made in the coming months to both the print version of BioTechniques and online at www.BioTechniques.com. Some changes will be small and barely noticeable to all but the most hawk-eyed of readers (indeed, this month we made a minor change to the format of the print journal by altering the style of the section headings in an effort to make locating and indexing articles easier). But more extensive changes will soon follow, with new features; an expanded number of review articles in rapidly changing fields such as proteomics, metabolomics, and stem cell biology; and interactive webinars led by some of the top leaders in their fields. Our main goal with all of these changes is to provide you as readers an even more in-depth and comprehensive look at emerging laboratory methods and techniques.
As the editorial staff continues its work over the coming months, we hope that you will provide us with feedback on how we are doing and whether our new changes are helpful to your research efforts. Continue to let us know the sections and topics that you are most interested in every month, and which articles and reviews you have found most useful. In this way, we will be able to provide you with the information that you need to make your time at the bench more productive. Submit a post to our Molecular Biology Forums under “To the Editor” (http://molecularbiology.forums.biotechniques.com) or via email to our editors (bioeditor@biotechniques.com). We look forward to hearing from you.
