Editorial (2012)

Welcome to the first issue of the eleventh volume of Plant Biotechnology Journal. I would like to start this editorial by thanking the Founding Editor-in-Chief, Professor Keith Edwards for his vision, leadership, commitment to high quality, ethical standards and leading PBJ to achieve an impact factor of 5.442. As a Founding Editor, I have had the pleasure of working with Keith for the past ten years and have immensely enjoyed his friendship. With Keith's leadership, highly efficient editors and excellent contributions from our authors, PBJ is now ranked 6th among 190 plant science journals and 10th among 157 biotechnology journals publishing original research. It is my goal to continue to increase the impact of PBJ on plant biotechnology, among academic/industry researchers and regulatory agencies, and to increase the awareness of this research among the public. To achieve the latter of these goals, PBJ will start a new section that publishes commentaries, opinion pieces and news articles. This series will be started by expert commentaries on current topics of common interest, including GM food labeling (recently defeated California Prop 37 in the US elections) and the Supreme Court decision on genetically modified crops in India to educate readers on all aspects of these complex issues. This section could highlight newsworthy articles published in other journals, important inventions/patents and regulatory approvals, or controversies related to plant biotechnology. PBJ will continue to publish high-quality articles in its established areas of strength, as well as expand into new emerging areas. The Editorial Board will be expanded to represent new areas and different continents. We welcome aboard Dr Steve Streatfield from Fraunhofer USA (molecular farming) and Dr Dave Edwards from the University of Queensland, Australia (genomics), and at the same time convey thanks for the excellent service offered by our current (Drs Malcolm Campbell, Maelor Davies, Robert Henry, Dominique Michaud) and outgoing Associate Editors, Drs Loic Faye, Paul Quick and Robert Birch. We aim to appoint more Associate Editors and Editors to reflect new and emerging areas. PBJ will continue to publish special issues covering topics of interest to our readers. The first special issue published next month will be on metabolic engineering, edited by Dr Robert Birch. We welcome suggestions for other timely topics. Like several other journals, PBJ will be published exclusively online from January 2013, and compatibility with mobile platforms, tablets, iPads and iPhones will be modified accordingly. We encourage all readers to visit the journal homepage (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1467-7652) to keep themselves updated with the latest developments in these areas and to sign up for our automated e-alerts in order to receive emailed notifications when new issues and Early View articles are published. Please note that readers need to ‘opt-in’ to receive e-alerts, by visiting the journal homepage (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1467-7652) and registering at the ‘Get Content Alerts’ area. With these and other changes, PBJ will continue to serve the plant research community and offer a platform to publish exciting research findings.