Minireviews Revisited

With the publication in this issue of the article by Mathias et al., the Journal is pleased to announce that it is launching an upgraded minireview program to enhance its coverage of topics of timely interest to the proteomics community and beyond. Since its inception, MCP has welcomed minireview submissions, but it has not been particularly active in soliciting them. Most of the reviews that have appeared in the Journal have been volunteered or have been associated with special issues, which are naturally limited to the topic being covered. The Journal fully intends to continue doing special issues, as it considers these concentrated collections to be very useful to its readership. Indeed, there are several that are presently in progress. However, the Journal also realizes that these do not ensure that important topics, particularly in areas in which the “boundaries” of proteomics continue to spread into new subject matter, will receive consideration in original research articles. These areas are well illustrated by the dauntiing complexity of topics presented by post-translational human biology and other 'omic areas.

Minireviews are generally composed of three to five pages (although not strictly limited to that if an exception is warranted) and must cover the topic being reviewed in a balanced and scholarly fashion. These should not be confused with perspective or other opinion-centric contributions, which are reserved for discussing controversial topics. Minireviews that describe historically important developments in proteomics will also be included. As with all material submitted to the Journal, they will be subject to peer review, and an invitation to submit does not guarantee acceptance. It is a goal of the program to have at least one review per month, and to achieve a regular flow that will ensure this, the Journal will generate and maintain an invitation list. It will likely require several months to achieve this steady-state level, but we are pleased to note that we have already begun building an effective pipeline of first-rate articles. An important feature of these articles will be uniform, high quality artwork, as was generated for the special issue on post-translational modifications (December 2013).

Initially, the program will be dependent on invited articles. However, we are not necessarily aware of every development in this highly dynamic field, so we will be pleased to consider proposals for unsolicited articles. Authors with well formulated ideas should feel free to contact us with a one-page outline that delineates the main topics to be discussed with an explanation of why such an article is timely and of interest. An invitation may be issued, depending in part on previously invited articles. We strongly encourage authors not to submit finished manuscripts without first being asked to do so. We are confident that this program will be of value to our readership, and we welcome comments and suggestions.