Biophysical Society Bulletin | April 2020

Publications

The Biophysicist Announces Reduced Publication Fees The first issue of The Biophysicist has been published and the journal is well on its’ way to issue two. Thanks to all who submitted, reviewed, tweeted about and read the journal. Be sure to spread the word about this open access, education-focused journal. The Biophysicist is celebrating the first issue by reducing publication fees by 50 percent through August 31, 2020. What does this mean for you as an author? • If you submitted to the journal between July and December of 2019, and your article was accepted, there are no publication charges. • If you submit to the journal between January 1, 2020, and August 31, 2020, publications fees will be reduced by 50 percent as follows: Research Articles • $800 Nonmembers • $500 Members • $400 Members at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution Reports • $200 Member • $100 Member at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution • No Charge for Student Forum, Book Reviews, Comments Submit your work to The Biophysicist and take advantage of these rates. If you haven’t read this journal yet, visit www.thebiophysicist.org/toc/biop/current.

With the advent of Plan S and other funder mandates, hybrid journals are not always an acceptable solution and some funders require that research they support be published in a fully open access journal. In response to this, BPS will be launching a fully open access journal next year called Biophysical Reports . A new open access journal would be Plan S compliant and is in keeping with the Society’s strategic initiatives. The Society already has the infrastructure in place to support an open access journal. Finally, The Biophysicist , the new BPS education-focused journal is also fully open access. Next Issue: Plan S, Executive Orders, and Publisher Mandates . BPS to Publish Biophysical Reports In response to last year’s publications survey and focus groups, and as a result of the growing open access move- ment, the Biophysical Society plans to publish a fully open-access journal titled Biophysical Reports . The journal will include: • Letters: Letters will move out of BJ and into Biophysical Reports . Letters are less than five pages, with no supple- mental materials. • Reports: Reports have a maximum of 25k characters and five figures. Supplemental materials can have no more than five figures and must be as short as (or shorter than) the Report. • Articles: Articles are full-length papers from authors who desire to or must publish in fully open access journals. Although the overall scope will overlap with Biophysical Jour- nal , this publication will distinguish itself in two categories: (1) process, including faster decision times in all categories, and (2) focus, where Letters and Reports are not required to be written for a generalist audience and therefore may be written for specialists (more niche), and papers reporting new methods or technologies that have potential to open new areas of biophysical investigation are suitable, but specific application to a research study is not necessary. The journal is targeted to launch in 2021 and will be published in partnership with Cell Press.

April 2020

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