Biophysical Society Bulletin | June 2018

Publications

Know the Editor Jeffrey Fredberg Harvard University

Top Reasons to Publish in BJ 1. Acceptance to publication now in 2-3 days. 2. New author proofing system allows authors to enter corrections easily directly into proof preserving the underlying coding. Saves time and effort. 3. New LaTex template through Overleaf allows easy composition and submission of files. 4. Direct submission available from BioRxiv to BJ and from BJ to BioRxiv. 5. Rigorous and constructive peer review by working scientists. 6. No page limits. 7. Hybrid journal with open access and licensing options. 8. Comprehensive policies that promote transparency and data sharing. 9. Affordable publication fees with discounts for BPS members. 10. Automatic consideration for the Paper of the Year Award 11. Easy submission with ORCIDs. 12. Authors receive link to share their article for 50 days. 13. Opportunities to have your work highlighted with cover art, sliders, video clips, press releases, and more.

Editor, Systems Biophysics

Jeffrey Fredberg

What are you currently working on that excites you? Just as each sand grain in a sand castle nestles among its immediate neighbors, so too does each cell in certain tissues. As regards cell packing, we found that slight differences of shape from cell-to-cell within a packed epithelial tissue — the tissue type that lines the surface of every organ — is not so much a matter of biological happenstance as much as it is a physical necessity required for cells to migrate, organs to develop, and tissues to remodel. We came to realize, further, that the epithelial tissue displays two distinct behaviors. On the one hand, cells comprising an integrated epithelial tissue can rearrange among themselves and flow like a liquid, but on the other hand they can stop those rearrangements and freeze like a solid. As such, there exists a remarkable phys- ical analogy between the manner in which an organ can be molded from a collection of cells and the manner in which a sandcastle can be molded from a collection of sand grains. Both arise from collective systems that can jam and unjam. What has been your most exciting discovery as a biophysicist? It was the realization that the cytoskeleton of the living eukaryotic cell is solid-like, not fluid-like, and conforms to the class of systems called soft glassy materials, which includes pastes, foams, and colloids.

14. Opportunity to submit a Figure360. 15. Broad focus; wide dissemination.

Biophysical Journal Is Committed to Rapid Publication Papers accepted to the Biophysical Journal are now being published 2-3 days from receipt of final files. To check out recently accepted manuscripts at https:/www.cell.com/biophysj/newarticles. These recently accepted manuscripts have not been copyedited or composed into pages; however, corrected proofs will replace the accepted manuscript online as soon as they are available. In addition to initiating rapid publication, the journal has moved to a new author proofing system where author queries can be dealt with at the same time as the proofing stage, as opposed to separately via email as has been done in the past. This will speed up acceptance to publication of the final version of the article by two days.

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