The EMBO Journal at 40—here’s to the future!

Abstract

Looking back at the journal’s first issue in January 1982 provides an opportunity to reflect on its historical development and to introduce upcoming initiatives.

When The EMBO Journal published its first issue in January 1982, it was in several ways ahead of its time. As present‐day editors, it is fascinating to look back at the foreword (Tooze & Weber, 1982) with which the founders had sent it on its way: they defined the journal as very broad in scope (“anything that interests molecular biologists”, in the spirit of a Francis Crick quote), and stressed the importance of clarity and of rapid publication. Furthermore, our predecessors already worried about “the great, perhaps unwarranted, proliferation of scientific journals […] and the problems our libraries have in finding money to pay for them”! Nevertheless, the original journal was still a child of its times in other respects: despite final oversight of the editorial process by an (academic) Editorial Board, content selection remained primarily in the hands of elected members of EMBO, who could contribute their own articles or communicate the work of colleagues. This was based on the well‐founded intention to “increase the coherence and strengthen the voice of European molecular biologists” in those days (Tooze & Weber, 1982).

As we move into the journal’s fifth decade, this original editorial model has evolved considerably toward in‐house professional scientific editors, working together with an academic Chief Editor and an external Advisory Editorial Board comprised of active scientists; as recently discussed in more detail (Pulverer & Batista, 2021). However, the geographic focus and principal mission—empowering European science—has also gradually changed. Our Advisory Editorial Board now comprises researchers from all over the globe and of different career stages. 1995 brought the transition from article communication via members to direct submission to a dedicated editorial office, which pre‐selected papers for a truly external peer‐review. Such a new submission policy opened publication opportunities to a much broader authorship, irrespective of having special connections that were often linked to location or career stage. This may be well reflected by delighted coffee‐break remarks like “My first paper was in EMBO JoTO urnal!”, which always reminds us of the importance of helping early‐career researchers establish themselves in the world of scientific publishing, be it as authors, reviewers, or commenters. Throughout this anniversary year, we will revisit some of these personally formative EMBO Journal articles, as well as papers that have been groundbreaking in a wider sense.

While an anniversary provides a nice opportunity to look back at past developments and achievements, we nevertheless must not content ourselves with this, but also need to consider what lies ahead. Scholarly publishing models are on the verge of changing in a number of ways (as recently described here (Pulverer & Batista, 2021)), many of which are most readily embraced by younger researchers—for example, preprint posting, data accessibility and open science, or journal‐independent or post‐publication peer‐review. Research in the broader domain of molecular cell biology is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary and spreading into adjacent areas. And while highly visible discoveries in established journals are still frequently dominated by recognized universities and institutes in the Western world, life science research has long become a global effort, with very many scientists outside Europe and North America looking to publish their results. Yet, we note that young investigators, scientists working outside the classical research hotspots, or researchers with a more diverse background continue to face many of the long‐standing challenges associated with receiving recognition and visibility of their research, and often struggle to get their voices heard. To tackle these issues, The EMBO Journal is starting its 41st year with the launch of a new initiative—the Catalysts program—that will bring together a range of scientists from different research areas and diverse geographical and personal backgrounds. It is our hope that working together with the whole Catalysts group, as well as with subject‐specific subgroups, will allow us to better incorporate the perspectives, concerns, and needs of both early‐career and global researchers when considering key issues related to scientific publishing and research assessment. Via such discussions, we moreover wish to remain open for current debates and developing new areas, expanding even further beyond our originally broad “molecular biology” scope definition and minimizing any remaining interdisciplinary boundaries. We will announce the first members of the Catalysts program on our website early in 2022, with the expectation that this will become a dynamically interacting and diversifying body complementing our traditional Advisory Editorial Board, whose input we will continue to seek wherever required for concrete manuscript decisions before or after review.

Prefacing The EMBO Journal’s first issue in 1982, its founders had vowed to “maintain a catholic definition of molecular biology”, and in the true Greek sense of the word, a “universal” and “non‐restrictive” definition is what we continue to strive for as we move ahead into the future. We have had the privilege to publish outstanding science over the past 40 years, and we look forward to the next 40 years of research you will share with us!

The EMBO Journal (2022) 41: e110330.