Editorial (2014)

First, let me say that I am deeply honored to be the incoming Editor-in-Chief (EiC) of the Journal of Experimental Zoology-A (JEZ-A). The giants of zoological science served as EiC or Associate Editors on this journal. For almost 45 years the original editorial board included William K. Brooks, William E. Castle, Charles B. Davenport, Edwin G. Conklin, Ross G. Harrison, Frank R. Lillie, Jacques Loeb, Herbert S. Jennings, Thomas H. Morgan, George H. Parker, Charles O. Whitman, and Edmund B. Wilson. For those interested in the history of science, particularly as it regards this journal, I direct you to the January 1, 2004 issue. Subsequent generations included Howard A. Bern, Edgar J. Boell, Donald S. Farner, Donald R. Griffin, Mac E. Hadley, Viktor Hamburger, Frederick L. Hisaw, Donald Kennedy, Clement L. Markert, Ladd Prosser, Charles L. Ralph, Lynn M. Riddiford, Frank H. Ruddle, Francis O. Schmidt, and Paul A. Weiss. I would like to also take this opportunity to thank Dr. Günter Wagner and the current editors and board for their work on the journal. Dr. Wagner, the Alison Richard Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the Yale School of Medicine, has been the Editor-in-Chief since 2005. Though he will be staying on as Editor-in-Chief of Part B, he felt it was time to step back and give up his tenure as Editor-in-Chief of Part A. I thank him and his team most sincerely for all their valuable input in bringing the journal to its current reputable status. Historically, Europeans dominated biological research at the turn of the twentieth century and the original editors wanted to provide a venue to highlighting zoological research in North America. As the record shows, this was a brilliant success. For 110 years this journal has stood witness to the flourishing experimental zoological sciences. Of course, today JEZ-A is back to being an international journal, embracing work not only from North America and Europe, but the rest of the world as well. JEZ-A will continue to focus on well-designed experimental studies that cross disciplines. It will continue the tradition in integrative, organismal-based research and encourage submissions in areas not typically seen in recent years. My goal as EiC is to broaden JEZ-A rather than restrict its scope to ecological genetics and physiology. For example, in its first decade of existence fully one-third of JEZ content focused on behavior as a vital interface of the individual with its environment. Such papers are not typically seen in the journal today. Another, and related area, is neuroscience. The brain is the organ of behavior and we have known for almost a century that hormones modulate activity of the nervous system, thereby altering the perception and behavior of organisms. Accordingly, more effort will be made to recruit behavioral neuroendocrinology papers that use vertebrates and invertebrates. With this expansion of topics to Huxley's “three major problems of biology,” namely causation, survival value and evolution, to which Tinbergen added the topic of development, the journal will cover both the breadth and depth of contemporary research in zoology. The strength of JEZ-A lies in publishing experiments that combine and integrate across levels of biological organization. With this in mind, knowing what not to pursue is just as important as developing new areas of content. It is my opinion that JEZ-A should not seek out papers focused on “omics” and next-gen methods. While JEZ-A will be open to publishing such work, it should not become the focus of the journal. There are reasons for this precaution. Thanks to new technologies, our ability to acquire data is accelerating at warp speed. However, the appetite for information has exceeded our ability to digest it, and suitable analytical and statistical tools are sorely needed. It is also my opinion there presently is too much emphasis in biology on genomes and populations, bypassing the organism. The unit of selection is not the gene or the genome, but the organism and how the internal milieu and the environment regulate genes. Some will argue about this claim, but there is no doubt that this is where JEZ-A makes a significant contribution. Such analysis at the level of individuals and individual variation is where JEZ-A's strength lies. One of the big challenges in modern biology is understanding how the genotype maps onto the phenotype, and this understanding will depend on an understanding of the intervening levels (e.g., physiology and ecology). Over the last 25 years there has been an exponential increase in the number of new research journals. Some authors who were contributors to JEZ-A migrated to these specialized journals and their students have followed suit. However, there continues to be a place for JEZ-A as a foundation journal in the field and we invite both old friends and new to view the journal as a place to publish their new work. We expect the readers and contributors to see decreased time in review and time to decision. This, in addition to the policy of little or no cost (e.g., absence of page charges and one free color illustration), and the ability to submit a manuscript without rendering references into journal format, makes JEZ-A an attractive outlet for the international community of experimental zoologists. I am delighted to name a new team of Associate Editors of the Journal, all leaders in their respective areas in all senses of the word: Reinhard Dallinger (University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria), Stephen Deban (University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida), Takema Fukatsu (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and University of Tsukuba, Japan), Masahisa Nakamura (Waseda University, Shinjuku, Japan), Randy Nelson (Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio), Ajai K. Srivastav (DDU Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur, India), and Daniel Warner (University of Alabama, Birmingham, Alabama). As followers of the journal can see, some are old and others new. The Advisory Editorial Board will be almost all new. Although we are still building this team, it already consists of extraordinary scientists, including Kentaro Arikawa, Miriam Asheley-Ross, Manny Azizi, Rachel M. Bowden, Gregory Demas, Douglas J. Emlen, David Evans, Susanna French, Ryo Futahashi, John Godwin, Paul D. Heideman, Hans Hofmann, Susumu Hyodo, Kazuo Inaba, Heinz Köhler, Gerhard Krumschnabel, Dietmar Kültz, Tracy Langkilde, Kris Lappin, Bernard Lieb, Takahisa Miyatake, Armin Moczek, Ignacio Moore, Ulrike Müller, James Nagler, Sheila N. Patek, Ravi Prakash, Michael Romero, Kurt Schwenk, Craig Smith, UC Srivastav, Stephen Stürzenbaum, Nobuo Suzuki, Barbara Taborsky, Minoru Tanaka, Peter Thomas, Tobias Uller, and Patricia A. Wright. Together this group is simply outstanding and we have begun working together in shaping the journal in its new directions. I am inspired by their thoughtful attention, knowledge and genuine commitment to experimental zoology, both to the discipline and the journal. I look forward to working with the new editorial team of this journal that has been an extraordinarily important part of scientific publishing history for over 100 years. I am confident this new team will contribute to the existing reputation of our journal and strengthen its position in the scientific community. David Crews Editor-in-Chief, JEZ-A Section Integrative Biology, University of Texas, Austin, Texas