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Editorial—Marking the Millennium with Three Enhancements

As we enter the year 2000, Molecular Endocrinology begins its 14th year of serving The Endocrine Society as a vital source for publications that focus on molecular mechanisms of hormone action. The year 2000 also marks the beginning of the third year of the current editorial staff. In striving to continue the tradition of excellence established by the previous editors, we are pleased to announce three new enhancements that collectively seek to broaden the range of topics covered by the journal and to improve its efficiency. Two of these, bimonthly minireviews and a December edition devoted to structural biology, seek to expand our coverage of topics pertinent to molecular endocrinologists. The third enhancement will focus on efficiency by unveiling an electronic route for manuscript submission and peer review. Each will be described in more detail below.

This issue includes the first of our bimonthly series of minireviews. Dr. Tony Means, the previous Editor-in-Chief, has graciously consented to model the way for a forum that we hope will provide provocative and illuminating discussion of timely topics that extend our range of interest and predict the future direction of the selected area. In this issue Dr. Means focuses on regulatory cascades involving calmodulin-dependent protein kinases. Subjects covered in forthcoming issues will include nuclear hormone receptor cofactors, molecular chaperones, and bioinformatics tools. Topics under future consideration include nuclear transport, insulin signaling, phosphatases, and phosphodiesterases. As many of the minireviews will be invited, we welcome suggestions of topics and authors. In addition, we would be pleased to evaluate abstracts of potential minireviews from interested authors.

Last year, our June issue was devoted to topics pertinent to women’s health. We were extremely pleased with the response to our call for papers and felt that similar solicitation for selected topics could be an effective tool as we work to expand our coverage. To that end, the editors would like to devote the December 2000 issue to papers that explore the interface between structural biology and molecular endocrinology. We have established a submission deadline of July 1 to provide ample time for appropriate peer review and revision. With the emergence of structural biology as a discipline, we want to encourage submission of a wide array of manuscripts that push the boundary of how work in this area can expand our knowledge of the molecular mechanisms underlying hormone action. Manuscripts would be expected to emphasize novel structures and, when possible, include molecular models. Examples of potential topics include proteomics, structural features of RNA that impact on regulation and processing of mRNA, enzyme catalysis and protein folding, especially that affecting secretory pathways, structural features that govern the thermodynamics of ligand binding, DNA repair mechanisms underlying endocrine cancers, DNA-protein complexes, and chromatin structures that modulate the accessibility of promoter-regulatory regions of genes regulated by hormones.

In addition to expanding our coverage of topics relevant to molecular endocrinology, the editors of all The Endocrine Society journals are committed to improving the efficiency of the submission and review process without compromising integrity and quality. In this regard, I am pleased to announce that the year 2000 will see the implementation of a fully integrated Web-based submission, review, and manuscript-tracking system for The Endocrine Society journals. While we are not the first journals to take this step, our electronic submission process will incorporate many new features tailored to our needs that will facilitate author submission and improve the review process, as well as shortening the publishing interval.

The newly designed Web-based submission/review process is the product of an active collaboration between our redactor, Cadmus Journal Services (CJS), and the editorial staff of all four Endocrine Society journals. The system will allow authors to submit their manuscripts electronically by uploading Word or WordPerfect document files, with figures attached in TIFF or EPS format, onto a secure server site maintained by CJS. The portal for this site will reside on The Endocrine Society home page. Upon submission, manuscripts will be converted to a PDF format. The appropriate editorial office will be alerted that a new submission has arrived and will retrieve the manuscript from the Web site. All subsequent review activities will be conducted electronically, including distribution of the PDF file to reviewers through a secure format. Throughout this process, authors will be able to access the Web site and determine the status of their manuscript. After the review is complete, authors will be able retrieve comments, perform revisions when necessary, and then post the revised manuscript back to the Web site.

At this point, The Endocrine Society Office and the staffs of the four journals have completed the first phase of an extensive review of the base electronic product and expect to beta test the live product beginning June 1, 2000. Once the beta testing is completed (2 to 4 months), the system will be implemented by our three sister journals.

The associate editors and I hope that all of you, as the readers, reviewers, and authors of Molecular Endocrinology, will share in our excitement for our planned special issue and new minireview series. We also hope that you will embrace the new on-line submission and review process with enthusiasm tempered by patience. As with all new ventures, there will undoubtedly be some rough spots in the beginning. But we look forward to the opportunity to improve the journal through new technology and to make peer-reviewed data more accessible and meaningful.

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