New editors bring new energy to MBoC.

When I am asked what distinguishes Molecular Biology of the Cell (MBoC) from other journals, or why submit manuscripts to MBoC, my first answer is always “our editors.” All of our editors are practicing scientists and leaders in their fields of cell biology. Our editors have a reputation for selecting quality peer reviewers and providing constructive feedback. This allows us to provide excellent service to authors, all while maintaining our commitment to publishing rigorous science.

Because our editors are the foundation of MBoC, I’m excited to bring to your attention several important additions to the Editorial Board. First, we have significantly expanded our scientific expertise in both traditional and emerging fields of cell biology. Second, we have expanded our team of Features Editors, paving the way for additional features content and for improving the quality of our scientific visualizations. Third, we have added Voices Editors to enable us to further amplify historically excluded voices in the cell biology community. Finally, to both embrace and make sense of the expanding preprint literature, we have added an entirely new board of Early-Career Editors who will work to curate preprints to bring notable new manuscripts to the immediate attention of the cell biology community. I hope you’ll take a moment to read below for more information about these exciting additions and initiatives.

NEW EDITORS, INCLUDING THOSE FROM TRAFFIC, EXPAND OUR EXPERTISE IN INTRACELLULAR TRAFFICKING AND BEYOND

After recently stepping down from the Editorial Board of Traffic (Marks ), many Traffic Editors and Associate Editors have joined the MBoC Editorial Board. We are thrilled to welcome Michael Marks from the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania as one of our senior Editors. We are also thrilled to welcome new Associate Editors, including Anita Corbett from Emory University, Bruno Goud from the Institut Curie, Sergio Grinstein from the University of Toronto, Mark Marsh from University College London, Elizabeth Miller from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Robert Parton from the University of Queensland, Trina Schroer from Johns Hopkins University (also see below), Dominique Soldati-Favre from the University of Geneva, Alexander Sorkin from the University of Pittsburgh, Sharon Tooze from The Francis Crick Institute, and Christian Ungermann from the University of Osnabrück. These seasoned editors enhance the scientific expertise of the MBoC Editorial Board in membrane biology, exocytic and endocytic trafficking, protein quality control, and microbial and viral infection.

We are also thrilled to welcome more new Associate Editors who bring additional expertise in biophysics, biomolecular condensates, development, immunity, organelle biology, and signaling. These include Avery August from Cornell University, Amy Gladfelter from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Michael Murrell from Yale University, Martin Ott from the University of Gothenburg, JoAnn Trejo from the University of California, San Diego, and John Wallingford from the University of Texas at Austin. With the addition of these new editors, I’m confident that you will be able to identify more than one member of the Editorial Board who is well qualified to handle your manuscript.

NEW VOICES EDITORS BRING A PASSION FOR AMPLIFYING HISTORICALLY EXCLUDED VOICES

In 2020 MBoC launched a new series of essays, called Voices. The goal of this essay series is to provide diverse members of our community, many of whose voices have historically been unheard, with a forum to raise issues, share experiences, and present perspectives that are important for our community to appreciate (Welch, 2020a). We have now published a number of Voices essays, most written by scientists from historically excluded groups. I encourage you to read each and every one of these essays if you have not done so already. Many are stark reminders that we have a long way to go to create a truly diverse, equitable, and inclusive community. MBoC, like other journals (Eisen, 2020), has an important role to play in this endeavor, and the Voices series is one way in which we can contribute.

To enhance the Voices series, I’m delighted that Derek Applewhite from Reed College and Veronica Segarra from High Point University have agreed to serve on the Editorial Board as Voices Editors. Derek and Veronica bring outstanding scientific and editorial credentials and a passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion. We encourage members of our community to contribute a Voices essay to MBoC.

NEW FEATURES EDITORS AND A NEW VISUALIZATION EDITOR ENHANCE OUR FEATURES

Our Features Editors solicit and handle our popular Retrospectives, Perspectives, MBoC Technical Perspectives, and other features content. I’m excited to announce that Trina Schroer has joined the Features Editor team, bringing energy and expertise in molecular motors and membrane trafficking. I plan to further expand the team of Features Editors as we move to include more content, including full-length reviews.

I am also thrilled that Janet Iwasa of the University of Utah has joined the Editorial Board as our first ever Visualization Editor. One role of the Visualization Editor will be to contribute to journal cover content. You may have already noticed Janet’s cover illustrations for our last two special issues, including our first ever video cover for our recent Seventh Special Issue on Quantitative Cell Biology. Janet will also be available to consult with authors of features content to help improve the visual quality of their model illustrations. In addition to MBoC Science Sketches video abstracts, announced in an earlier Editorial (Welch, 2020b), this is another part of our expanding effort to enhance authors’ ability to visually communicate their ideas and reach a broader readership.

EARLY-CAREER EDITORS BRING AN EXCITING NEW FOCUS ON PREPRINT CURATION

The landscape of scientific communication is changing rapidly, and among these changes is the community’s embrace of the preprint literature, resulting in an ever-expanding volume of preprints. Identifying notable preprints from this voluminous literature is an increasing challenge. Funded by a Learned Society Curation Award grant from the Wellcome Trust and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to MBoC’s publisher, the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB), we have initiated an exciting new curation project to help meet this challenge. We will be highlighting selected preprints for MBoC readers by publishing Significance Statements that explain the key findings and advances and applying Badges that identify specific contributions of the preprint, such as advancing a new concept or methodology, providing open data sets, or having instructional value. We will also soon be including Significance Statements and Badges with MBoC papers, increasing the accessibility of articles that we publish.

As we launch this new curation project, I’m extremely excited to welcome a dynamic group of 24 postdoctoral fellows and pre–tenure faculty as the first class of MBoC Early-Career Editors (ECEs). These outstanding young scientists were selected through an open call for applications, which allowed us to recruit an incredibly diverse group encompassing different areas of scientific expertise, nationalities, and backgrounds. The ECEs will curate notable preprints from bioRxiv with editorial supervision from Curation Manager Michael Lacy. They will also have opportunities to learn firsthand about the editorial process and contribute to peer review through mentorship by regular editors. The ECEs will serve for one or two years, and we will solicit new applications each year. We enthusiastically encourage early-career scientists to apply to be an ECE in future application cycles.

THANK YOU TO OUR RETIRING EDITORS

Changes are usually disruptive, and the changes at MBoC are no exception. When I took over as Editor-in-Chief, I established a policy of term limits to enhance turnover on the Editorial Board. Therefore, while I’m excited to welcome all of our new board members, I’m also sad that many long-standing board members have reached the end of their terms. This includes several Associate Editors who have served the journal for many years, as well as the entire Board of Reviewing Editors. It was a privilege and honor to work with these outstanding scientists and editors, and I wholeheartedly thank them for their dedication and service to the journal.