I assumed the role of Section Editor for Biomedicine and Life Sciences about a year ago. It is an honor to serve Science Advances in this capacity as it has offered me the opportunity to work alongside the brilliant publishing professionals that make up the editorial leadership of the Science family of journals.
Over the past year, the Biomedicine and Life Sciences section has been “on the move and finding its groove” as Gene McFadden and John Whitehead wrote in “Ain’t no stoppin’ us now,” their 1979 hit song. By year’s end, our section will have handled close to 40% of the 28,000 new submissions the journal received. As Section Editor, I am committed to making Science Advances the go-to journal for the best science in the sub-disciplines covered by our section. The purpose of this editorial is to provide our authors - both past, present, and future - and readers with a glimpse into some of our priorities.
I published my first paper in Science Advances in 2019. This submission was at the urging of one of my postdoctoral scholars. At that time, I had not heard of Science Advances. As evidenced by our increased submissions, and strength of the papers we publish, over the last five years, the journal has made significant inroads into multiple topical communities as a first-choice journal in which to publish. However, opportunity exists in many topical areas to improve the journal’s visibility so that it becomes known as an important outlet for research in those areas.
MUST-READS
Science Advances is the gold open access arm of the Science family. We want direct submissions to the Biomedicine and Life Sciences section that represent advances for members of specific scientific communities. Our goal is to publish findings that will be of great interest to a wide, general audience, as well as work that is specialized when it will have a significant impact on advancing a field or be critically important to the larger research enterprise. Papers published in Science Advances are “must-reads” --those reporting new knowledge or methods that warrant application or implementation in the field and cannot be ignored. I think of the journal as Science on steroids!
Our ability to cover the breadth of science that we do with confidence reflects the expertise of our editorial board. The Biomedicine and Life Science section relies on 19 editor teams each headed by a deputy editor (DE) and assisted by associate editors (AEs) with topical area expertise. This approach allows the journal to manage the breadth of our current submissions and to strategically work to obtain submissions in new areas we would like to see the journal cover. All members of the journal’s editorial board are practicing scientists.
Getting your manuscript into review is a high hurdle. Currently, 26% of manuscripts in our section pass the initial DE evaluation and are assigned to an AE for further consideration. If a manuscript goes to an AE for consideration, then most often the next step is to secure reviewers. If we cannot achieve this goal in a timely fashion, we will typically “desk reject” as we do not expect to have a problem securing reviewers for the most exciting, impactful papers in a field. Currently, statistics show that about 15% of papers in our section go out to review and of those that get reviewed, about 50% get accepted after review. The pace at which we do our initial review has led us to discourage pre-submission inquiries. If we are going to provide an opinion on a paper, we really need the entire manuscript. This ensures a fair evaluation process for all authors.
Submitting your best work to Science Advances will not only save you time but will also offer huge cost savings. Our APC is less than $5500, a bargain for a multidisciplinary journal with an impact factor greater than 10. Because of the journal’s open access status, the journal enjoys a broad readership. As a bonus, authors can take advantage of AAAS’s stellar social media and press coverage teams.
GETTING TO REVIEW
I want your submissions to be reviewed. To do this I recommend engaging colleagues outside of your area of specialization as evaluators of your manuscript prior to submission. The title and abstract should indicate the impact of the study and be interpretable to any biomedical or life scientist. The figures should be easy to evaluate, even without the legends. It should be clear from the figures that rigor and reproducibility are exemplary and that more than a single approach was used to evaluate the most important conceptual advances of the study.
Research integrity begins with you. We are now screening figures in manuscripts for problems, for example duplications and manipulations. Most issues that arise are inadvertent but cast a shadow of concern on the work that can be easily avoided by triple checking your figures. We lean on experts in your field for review. It is very helpful when your reviewer recommendations include scientists easily recognized or identified as leaders in your field by our editors. Remember those leaders in your field who get excited about your work when you speak at a meeting, university, or research institute. These individuals are great choices. Hopefully, these tidbits will help you as you prepare your first (or second or third) submission to Science Advances.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
I am excited about the future of Biomedicine and Life Sciences at Science Advances. We will commission more reviews in emerging areas. We will enhance our visibility by attending more meetings, sponsoring some, and offering awards at others. To keep pace with the ever-changing needs of our junior and mid-career authors, we will expand our board of associate editors to include scientists at these career stages that are working in academia, industry, and government. Finally, we want to align our practices with the needs of our authors and readers. To this end, we created a mechanism to get feedback from you directly. We want to hear your constructive criticism and your recommendations for improvement. Use this Airtable form https://bit.ly/3Zfkzxl to share your thoughts with the journal. Looking forward to connecting with all of you and continuing the tradition of excellence at Science Advances.