Abstract
‘Change', as defined by Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, means to make different in some particular way, or to make radically different, or to give a different position, course, or direction, or to replace with another. For some, particularly in older individuals (like myself), change is difficult to accept and to adapt to, and causes great anxiety. Things that were once comfortable and well known become unknown and sometimes even uncomfortable. Nevertheless, change also represents new opportunities to make things more exciting and better, and now represents one of those times.
During my short tenure as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism (JCBFM), there have been several important and exciting changes made (and being made) to our journal. The first of these had to do with bringing the journal into the 21st century by making JCBFM all electronic. Thanks to Tony Strong, Graham Lees, and myself, all manuscript submissions, reviews, and correspondence are now handled completely electronically via the Manuscript Central/Scholar-One system. On the whole, this system is functioning extremely well, and while on occasion a glitch in the system occurs, it has been corrected very quickly and easily. I hope you will enjoy this change and making use of this system.
The second change has to do with the manuscripts considered for publication by JCBFM. I am trying to broaden the base areas of scientific interest in considering manuscripts from genetic, molecular, and cellular interest all the way to in vivo animal and human research, all, of course, relating to the brain. It would appear that we are, thus far, receiving manuscripts of very high quality in all these areas, and hopefully these excellent manuscripts and reviews will help to increase the impact factor and visibility of the journal in the fields of neuroscience.
The third major change is the expansion of the Editorial Board. I have greatly expanded the board with individuals of broad interest in order to handle the increased flux of manuscripts in many areas. Members of the Editorial Board are appointed for a two-year period, at which time the member can be renewed. I must admit that with Manuscript Central, the system is seamless and it is easy to see how active a reviewer is (from how long it takes to respond to a request to review to how long it took to review a manuscript). And, since I am reading all reviews and many manuscripts, I feel that I have some idea about the quality of the review itself. These kinds of data make it easy for the Editorial Board to be carefully modulated over the years. To all of you (Editorial Board Members and others) who are reviewing for JCBFM, I thank you for your hard work. I know that it takes time and great effort to review a manuscript properly, and I am grateful to all referees who participate in this important function.
The final change, and a very notable one, is that JCBFM has changed publishers, thanks to Tony Strong, Jim McCulloch, Graham Lees, Ulrich Dirnagl, and myself. Our new publisher is Nature Publishing Group (NPG). NPG is an outstanding publisher of several notable journals—we are pleased to have entered into an agreement with NPG. As a result, you will see significant changes in the Journal: an updated cover design that features a different figure from the contents monthly, a new internal page design for our papers, and new guidelines for authors. Being affiliated with NPG will clearly help JCBFM, as indeed it already has with its forward thinking approach to publishing in general.
We have moved ahead with these changes with great thought and some concern. With change comes anxiety, but also opportunity. I hope you like and enjoy the changes and continue your support for both the Journal and the Society it represents. I am grateful to the previous Editors-in-Chief, now Emeritus Editors (A Murray Harper, Konstantin-A Hossmann, Myron D Ginsberg, and James McCulloch). Through their efforts, a journal was born in 1981, which now maintains a solid position among neuroscience journals in the world today. I hope I can continue in their footsteps and achieve even greater recognition for JCBFM. Change means opportunities, and we certainly have plenty of opportunities now.