Dear Colleagues,
The time is approaching wheneLife, the new journal initiated by three prestigious biomedical research funders – the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society and the Wellcome Trust – will open for submissions. Please begin to considereLifeas a venue for your best papers over the next few months.
Consider us becauseeLifeis unique. In addition to being the product of a rare funder-researcher collaboration and scientist-driven,eLifehas a distinct approach to the review process and a commitment to maximizing the impact of important discoveries through open access and content enhancements.
Our approach focuses on:
- Getting your work published faster– We will streamline the review process, eliminating unnecessary requests for revision and cycles of review, and having reviewers and editors consult to provide a consolidated view of their comments in the decision letter.
- Helping your findings achieve maximum reach and impact– Your article will be selected by notable life science colleagues from around the world and published alongside work that is judged to be amongst the most outstanding in its field. Impact statements from reviewers and editors, along with plain language summaries and commentary from thought leaders will help to explain the significance of the work. And, your article will be immediately and freely available to the world.
- Making your research more useful for a wider audience– You will have the space to present your work completely, to include rich media and the key data that underpins the work. The richness of the work will be open to exploration by all readers rather than being lost in supplementary files that are difficult to find and use. Your article will also be enhanced with dynamic usage, citation, and Web metrics that provide readers (and authors) with indicators of its influence and significance.
Learn more about each of these elements: http://www.elifesciences.org/the-journal.
We – the nearly 200 practicing scientists behind this new venture– believeeLifewill deliver and inspire a much-needed science- and scientist-oriented approach to publishing. My colleagues and I are committed to submitting our best works right away. A dozen great stories are already intended foreLife, and we look forward to seeing if they’ll pass muster with our peers.
Join us. From your own work and that of your colleagues, please help us identify the most influential research – from the most fundamental work in life and biomedical science through to translational, applied and clinical research.
Spread the word. Let your colleagues and students know we’ll be open for submissions of new manuscripts in early summer, and that the launch of this anticipated journal will take place this winter.
As the community considerseLife, questions are bound to emerge – from investigators funded by our founders, from students and post-docs, and others. Answers to the key questions we’ve encountered are detailed in our new FAQ, at http://www.elifesciences.org/about/frequently-asked-questions. If you have more, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Sign up to be notified when we open for submissions. To learn more about the journal, visit http://www.elifesciences.org/the-journal.
I’ll look forward to news of what you might plan to submit and who else you know is thinking abouteLife. Reach us through editorial [at] elifesciences [dot] org or my email at Berkeley.
Thank you. I’ll look forward to hearing from you.
Randy
Randy Schekman
HHMI Investigator
Editor-in-Chief, eLife
Dept. of Mol. and Cell Biology
Li Ka Shing Center
UC Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-3370
