Jörg Enderlein, the Editor-in-Chief of the new BPS Open Access journal Biophysical Reports sat down to share his thoughts on this new venture.
What inspired you to pursue a career in biophysics?
While the 20th century was certainly the century of physics, with its revolutions of quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity, the 21st century will become the century of biology, with the incredibly fast development of molecular biology and our deeper and deeper understanding of life on the molecular level. But these advances go hand in hand with a deeply physics-based understanding of all involved molecular and cellular processes and interactions. Complex reaction networks, cellular mechanics, nanofluidics, non-linear system physics, out-of-equilibrium thermodynamics and small-system statistical physics, quantum chemical and molecular dynamical modeling and understanding of molecular interactions or such complex processes as protein folding—all these topics show a deep interconnection between physics and biology. Besides that, physics does also contribute tremendously to biology via the development of extremely powerful new techniques for studying biological systems; see, for example, superresolution optical microscopy, cryo-electron microscopy, single-particle x-ray diffraction, or all the advanced methods of NMR and EPR. Thus, in my view, the intersection of physics and biology is one of the most fertile and fascinating research fields of our time, and this is the fundamental reason why I became a biophysicist.
What excites you the most about launching and leading Biophysical Reports?
The Biophysical Society is the biggest international society of professional biophysicists. Biophysical Journal is the flagship publication of the Society, but it is focused on broad biophysical research and less on methodological advances— for example, those in superresolution microscopy, cryo-electron microscopy, molecular dynamics, statistical physics, but also bioconjugation and chemical labels. Currently, these advances often are published in very expensive and/or subscription model journals. Here, I see a huge potential pool of authors who want to publish their papers in a fully open access journal at an affordable price. In particular, the fully open access feature of Biophysical Reports will be especially important for researchers in many European countries, where open access publication is becoming mandatory in more and more cases. Another important feature of Biophysical Reports will be the fast-track publication of short Letters and Reports, which offers the possibility to get poignant and focused results published rapidly without much delay.
What is your vision for Biophysical Reports? And why do you think researchers in this field should be really excited?
I very much hope that the journal becomes the gold standard for open access publishing in biophysics. I have put together an excellent international Editorial Board. Working through the partnership with Cell Press we will have high production values, and plan to promote graphical abstracts, lay summaries, and other features that BPS has not done so far. They also help us with strategic vision, and marketing support, open access licensing, discounts for transformative agreements with various countries and funders. I hope that the biophysical community will embrace this journal and it will be the place where they want to publish their work.
What are the core publishing tenets of Biophysical Reports?
The journal will have mainly three different publication formats. Short Letters will be seen by only one referee and can be accepted in a very short time. This allows the rapid publication of short and important results in a streamlined process. Reports are also short and published rapidly but may have two reviews. Finally, Research Articles are similar to conventional full-length articles. Here, we expect to see submissions about methodological advances in biophysics that are currently published elsewhere. And then we have (mostly invited) in-depth Reviews, which will give comprehensive overviews about specific biophysical research fields, again with an emphasis on new methodology. This suite of article options allows us to offer and accommodate the needs of the author community.
What should authors and readers expect from Biophysical Reports?
First of all. a high-quality journal. We also want to lower as many barriers as possible for authors to submit and publish and we aim to provide a high level of service. As an Editorial Board, we will try all we can to assure rapid and fair editorial decisions, without sacrificing scientific quality and standards. We hope to attract the huge number of biophysicists that develop new and exciting biophysical techniques and methods, experimental as well as theoretical, from new measurement techniques over exciting biophysically relevant chemistry to theoretical tools; as well as biophysicists who currently do not find their research well represented within existing biophysics publications.