Steering towards success in stormy times: <i>FEBS Open Bio</i> in 2021

Abstract

In this Editorial, the Editor-in-Chief Professor Miguel A. De la Rosa discusses the performance and development of FEBS Open Bio in 2020 and outlines his plans for the journal in 2021. Any summary of 2020 will necessarily focus on the devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic and the effects of lockdowns worldwide. The pandemic and the response have created a whole host of challenges, which have affected the research landscape in a myriad of ways – researchers have found themselves unable to enter their laboratories, preventing them from completing critical experiments. Students have found their graduation plans postponed, careers have been put on hold, and many people have had to juggle work commitments and childcare as schools and nurseries closed. More widely, healthcare workers and health services have been put under enormous strain, and the effects of lockdowns on industry, the economy, and physical and mental health are likely to be considerable. As an online-only journal, FEBS Open Bio has been able to continue operations, but has still experienced substantial challenges. Our Editorial Office in Cambridge was closed, and our staff have had to adapt to working from home. Many members of our Editorial Board had to transition to online teaching at short notice, which took up all available time. The clinicians on the board had to focus on treating patients, making them unavailable to handle manuscripts. Likewise, it became increasingly difficult to find willing reviewers for our submissions as researchers had to prioritise their own work. The 45th FEBS Congress, to be held in Ljubljana, was postponed to 2021, delaying plans for cross-promotion between FEBS Open Bio and the Congress. Furthermore, the journal's first ever Editorial Board meeting had to become an online-only event. The challenges above were complicated further by the phenomenal growth the journal experienced in 2020 – by the end of November, our submissions had increased by an amazing 72% as compared to the same period in 2019. In addition, our accepted manuscripts increased by 60% in the same period. In the face of such a large increase in submissions and acceptances, our Editorial Office staff and Editorial Board worked tirelessly to ensure that we continued to process manuscripts and address author queries in a timely manner. I discuss the measures taken to facilitate the discovery of willing reviewers and reduce the time taken to decision below. While the increase in submissions may partially be driven by laboratory closures leaving researchers little to do but write up completed work, submissions to FEBS Open Bio had already been increasing year on year long before the pandemic began and may be a result of increased awareness of the journal, our prestigious Editorial Board and our reputation for publishing sound science across biochemistry and the molecular life sciences. Vessela Kristensen The scientific career of Vessela N. Kristensen started in the field of toxicology. Her PhD thesis encompassed the functional characterisation of polymorphic CYP at the Karolinska Institutet to elucidate the effect of genetic polymorphisms and their relevance to environmentally induced cancers. During her postdoctoral work, Kristensen studied aromatase (CYP19) in the laboratory of Dr. Nobuhiro Harada in Japan. Later technology allowed her to expand her studies of how genetic variation affects the occurrence of somatic alterations, gene expression patterns and genome-wide copy number alterations in human breast at a whole-genome scale. As a professor at the Faculty of Medicine, her projects have become translational in nature. Kristensen has been guest professor at the NCI, NIH in 2003 and Princeton University in 2012. As Director of Research at the Department of Medical Genetics at Oslo University Hospital, Kristensen's research interests have expanded to the genetic basis of other diseases and have turned to the functional effects of disease-causing mutations. Vessela Kristensen leads large international networks in the framework of EU ERA CoSysMedicine and Horizon 2020. For this overall contribution to cancer research, she has received the Mørk legat prize in 2012 and the King Olav's award for cancer research in 2018. In 2020, she became a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science. Vessela Kristensen joins Cornelia de Moor, Irene Díaz-Moreno, María Fabiana Drincovich, Alexander Gabibov, Sergio Grinstein, Gabor Juhasz, Alicia Kowaltowski, In Hye Lee, Marcelo López-Lastra, Ivana Novak, Rafael Radi, Josep Rizo, Lena Ruiz-Azuara and Guangbiao Zhou as the 15th member of the Editorial Board appointed in 2020. Biosketches of all of them were published in a couple of former editorials in 2020. Moreover, Beáta G. Vértessy, who has served on the Board since 2013, has been promoted to Senior Editor. I would like to offer a warm welcome to Vessela and congratulate Beáta on her promotion. I am especially thankful to all our formerly appointed senior and associate editors, many of whom have served on the board since the journal launched in 2011. In addition, 2020 saw the introduction of our Editorial Advisory Board, which at present has 27 members. The Editorial Advisory Board are committed to providing peer review for manuscripts in their field of expertise, thereby ensuring that the journal is well-positioned to review submissions in a thorough and timely manner. The 12 inaugural members were swiftly joined by Janesh Kumar [National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS), Pune, India] and Chongde Sun [School of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, China] in April, and since then, we have appointed another 13 members. I am pleased to announce the appointment of the following members of our Editorial Advisory Board and welcome them to the journal: As noted in the Introduction, submissions and acceptances increased dramatically in 2020 as compared to 2019. This is fantastic news, and I am pleased that so many authors are considering our journal for the publication of their work. We have published several excellent papers this year, including a characterisation of a novel cold-adapted transglutaminase from Atlantic cod, which may have implications for food processing [[1]]. This article was the subject of our first commentary article [[2]], and we hope to commission commentaries to accompany other papers of especial significance in the future. Other exciting work across the molecular and cellular life sciences published in FEBS Open Bio this year includes a report of alterations in neuronal development in a mouse model of Timothy syndrome [[3]], the crystal structure of botulinum neurotoxin subtype A3 cell-binding domain in complex with the ganglioside GD1a [[4]], engineered variants of tobacco etch virus protease with enhanced enzymatic activity [[5]], the discovery that autologous apoptotic neutrophils inhibit inflammatory secretion by dendritic cells [[6]] and the use of fluorescence microscopy to reveal cooperative binding of cardiac troponin and tropomyosin to filamentous actin [[7]]. These are but a few of the fascinating studies published this year in the journal. The research topic of single greatest interest this year is without question the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. It is therefore perhaps unsurprising that our most downloaded and most cited article published in 2020 reports on a structure-based virtual screen that identified 28 bioactive compounds that may have potential for the development into anti-SARS-CoV-2 targets [[8]]. A second study, published later in the year, reported that the expression of five genes known to encode coronavirus receptors is differentially expressed between cancer and control tissues and is associated with COVID-19 comorbidities [[9]]. These two in silico studies demonstrate the value of large datasets for rapid identification of potential drugs and gene targets for disease treatment. The journal's Education section, introduced in 2017 under the helm of Angel Herráez and Luciane V. Mello, also continues to go from strength to strength. In 2020, we published five Education articles, on subjects as diverse as how to provide good written feedback to students [[10]], a study of how teaching laboratory peer groups affect student attainment [[11]] and recommendations for teaching biologically inspired design [[12]]. In addition, a total of 10 Education articles were submitted to the journal, our most in a single year to date. Many of our education articles are well-downloaded, indicative of their interest to educators. Like all of our articles, the papers in the Education section are free to read. Moreover, our Education articles are published at no cost to the authors, with FEBS supporting the costs as part of our commitment to supporting biochemistry education. FEBS Open Bio is a signatory of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) and uses a range of metrics to evaluate both its own performance and the individual impact of the articles it publishes. Journal performance improved in 2020 based on several metrics. Our median times to first and final decision have decreased in 2020 as compared to 2019 (as discussed further below), in line with our commitment to providing rapid and thorough peer review. Furthermore, downloads of our articles continue to rise dramatically: in addition to the articles mentioned above, other well-downloaded articles this year include a report that the histone demethylase KDM3B protects against ferroptosis via SLC7A11 [[13]] and a study of the role of HSF1 in the mitochondrial unfolded protein response [[14]]. The authors are free to post the final version of record of their article in any repository they like, thereby helping to boost the visibility of articles published in FEBS Open Bio. This is an important benefit of the open-access publishing model for authors. Several of our articles received considerable attention online, which is quantified as an Altmetric Attention Score. Unsurprisingly, our two articles on SARS-CoV-2 saw the most engagement online [[8, 9]]. Our Education articles also received high online attention scores [[10-12]], as did studies on the effect of endurance exercise duration on muscle hypertrophy [[15]] and potential sources of interference with the detection of alpha-synuclein seeds by the qRT-QuIC technique [[16]]. Several journal-level bibliometrics for 2019 increased from 2018, including the two- and five-year impact factor (both 2.231 for 2019) and CiteScore (3.000 for 2019). Our highest cited article from the last two years reports on the use of the MinION™ nanopore sequencer to identify bacteria based on 16S rRNA genes [[17]]. To mark the beginning of my tenure as Editor-in-Chief, it was agreed in 2019 that we would host the first Editorial Board meeting for FEBS Open Bio in Seville in late 2020. Preparations began in early 2020 as we explored possible venues and consulted with our editors to determine the optimal date. As the coronavirus spread and travel restrictions began, it became apparent that we needed a backup plan in the unlikely (as it seemed at that time) case it would be impossible to hold a physical meeting in the autumn. As the months passed, it became increasingly clear that 2020 was not going to be a year for travel, and the decision was made to make the meeting a virtual event. This may have been a blessing in disguise, however, because many editors who were unable to attend the physical meeting were able to log on to the virtual event, making for a very fruitful and active discussion. The meeting covered a range of topics and featured talks by the Chair of the FEBS Publications Committee László Fésüs, the Image Integrity Analyst Jana Christopher, the journal's Editorial Manager Duncan Wright and me. The meeting was also attended by Mary Purton, the FEBS Press Publisher, and Jackie Jones, publisher at Wiley, our publishing partner. Jackie Jones answered our editors' questions on developments in open access and the implications for authors in low-income countries. The journal's history and recent performance were described by Duncan Wright and me, and an overview of FEBS and its publishing history was presented by László Fésüs. Jana Christopher introduced the members of our Editorial Board to her important role as Image Integrity Analyst during the meeting. FEBS Open Bio and the other three FEBS Press journals take image integrity and the issue of paper mills very seriously (as discussed in recent articles by Jana Christopher [[18, 19]]), and screen all accepted manuscripts for potential figure issues. This service, which is performed at no extra cost to the authors, helps identify both genuine mistakes (such as the accidental duplication of a panel) and anomalies with potentially more sinister origins. Such detection can save the author (and the journal) an embarrassing corrigendum in the event of a mistake, as well as helping ensure that manuscripts with fraudulent data are not published, preventing them from contributing to the reproducibility crisis. The time, work and expertise required means that few other journals routinely perform figure checking, and I consider this service helps distinguish FEBS Open Bio above its competitors. Several key conclusions were reached during the meeting. We have decided that, henceforth, the authors will be required to recommend at least three and up to five reviewers at the time of submission. Formerly, this was optional, but in the face of increasing difficulties in finding reviewers, we have decided to make it compulsory. There was spirited discussion on the journal's minimum standards for peer review; while we will remain true to FEBS Open Bio's core mission of considering sound science, we now expect that all submissions will represent a minimum contribution to the relevant field, so as to filter out offerings from paper mills (which take advantage of mega journals by preparing (potentially fraudulent) manuscripts based on minor derivations of published work) and cases of extreme ‘salami slicing’, where the work is very simple/preliminary. We hope that this decision will allow us to continue to serve the community by providing a home for sound science while protecting the reputation of the journal and the integrity of the scientific record [[19]]. Several editors voiced the hope that we could hold annual online Editorial Board meetings, such was the appreciation of the merits of the format. I consider the meeting a great success, and now that we are used to the technology, anticipate that we will be able to hold even smoother and more interactive meetings online in future. I am grateful to our presenters, our Editorial Board and Mary Purton for hosting the meeting, Duncan Wright for arranging it and preparing the minutes, and Jacob Weller for excellent technical support and for monitoring the chat. With the increase in global research output, many journals are experiencing increasing difficulties in finding willing reviewers. For a growing mega journal like FEBS Open Bio, which considers diverse submissions across the molecular and cellular life sciences, this problem is particularly acute. Moreover, the pressures on researchers caused by the coronavirus pandemic have exacerbated this problem even To ensure that we can our of rapid peer review of we have introduced a number of The journal has a large of reviewers, which we have to and by all reviewers to ensure they remain active and committed to manuscripts for the journal, and by ensuring that all have research in our Moreover, 2020 saw the introduction of the journal's Editorial Advisory Board, which has 27 members on to editors with manuscripts where to reduce the on editors and also reduce the time to decision for authors, we are now to manuscripts editors are unable to 10 These to be with median time to first decision from in 2019 to in 2020, median time to final decision from to and median time to from to While time to decision is important in an of rapid research it a to thorough peer review – we work to ensure that authors and with which to their work for will not be for year saw a number of developments for the journal, but we still have several plans in the I am pleased to announce the of a section for FEBS Open Bio the This section will a number of review articles on an exciting research In 2021, we will two such on with This section will accompany the and section to be held at the FEBS The second the section will focus on with Irene Díaz-Moreno, to accompany the on in Cell and which has been to this out for in an We to the journal and its prestigious Editorial Board a of articles with our This is by our Senior Beáta G. with support from Editorial Manager Duncan Beáta will be the subject of the first which will be published in a In addition, we hope to articles of especial interest of two article to be for articles that demonstrate a in the field, and for articles with implications for the articles will be written by postdoctoral researchers under the of our Cornelia de As a journal by the FEBS Open Bio an important role in to the scientific As part of this I consider that the journal support the annual FEBS Congress. The has been published as a in FEBS Open Bio for the last two and we to to serve the in this In addition, we will present two at the Congress, to be held this year in the FEBS Open Bio will be to an a PhD student a postdoctoral years of their who is the first author of a paper of especial interest and published in the journal in the year, as decided by the Editorial The prize of a for travel and to allow the to attend the FEBS Congress. we will present to the of two talks at the FEBS Congress. A of from the journal's Editorial Board will attend and it based on the interest and of the work and the of the will to be presented at the we hope to mark the of FEBS Open Bio in with a issue the end of the This issue will focus on the history and of the journal and will articles from editors and authors of cited articles published in FEBS Open Bio the last This has been an year for FEBS Open Bio, with many and challenges. We have a this year, and I hope we can on this in 2021. of this would be possible without the work of on the journal. I my to our Editorial Board, all of whom have their time and expertise to handle so many I this was no for our editors, all of whom will have had many other to attend to at this time. I would also like to our Editorial Manager Duncan Wright and Editorial Jacob Weller for their work and to the journal at this time of growth and I am to Mary Purton, FEBS Press and formerly of FEBS Open Bio, who has continued to provide and I am also thankful for the great of the Editorial Advisory Board and all of our reviewers, work has us to review so many submissions in 2020. I am very grateful to our Image Integrity Analyst Jana Christopher, of were put to the in this I my to Jackie Jones and all of our at Wiley, who have excellent and support all I would also like to offer my to the of FEBS and Senior of FEBS Open Bio since its will as this year, and I would like to congratulate on his and excellent I am also very grateful for the support and of László Fésüs, who his as Chair of the Publications Committee at the end of 2020. László has worked tirelessly for FEBS commitment and in the face of many challenges to the I would like to welcome as the Chair of the and I to working with to further the journal. but not I would like to all of our authors, reviewers and without whom of this would have been I hope that FEBS Open Bio will continue to be journals of for publication and that we can work as a community to ensure that sound science published and I all of and and the very for and would like to to work to FEBS Open Bio in our year of

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