Abstract
It is with enormous pleasure and pride that we write this editorial as we complete volume 5. During these 5 years, Bioelectricity got its first impact factor (2.3). We would have liked a higher factor, but it is nevertheless a solid start. Our current CiteScore is 4.0 (up from 1.6 a year ago).
We have published nine special issues covering a range of topics from plants, microbes to cancer, and we continue to look for more interesting topics to cover. During this process, our editorial board grew, and we are grateful, as ever, to all our members for the hard work they do. Special thanks also go to all our authors for their contributions. Bioelectricity is a truly international journal. Over the 5 years, we have published articles from 30 different countries.
Another achievement has been the formation of a formal association with the International Society for Electroporation-Based Technologies and Treatments (ISEBTT). In fact, Bioelectricity has become the official journal of the society and several of their members are now also on our editorial board including two as associate editors. We would like to see this association get even stronger in the years to come.
What about the bioelectricity field at large? Some remarkable articles have been published during this period and the “Buzz” section (edited by Ann Rajnicek) continues to highlight these. We have also learnt a lot about science and people through the “My Experiments in Bioelectricity” articles written by senior scientists. Both these special sections will continue. We also like to publish periodically meeting reports, so our readers can get to know what else was being said in another part of the world! Of course, Sally Adee's book “We Are Electric” also caused a significant stir in the field and we were delighted to be able to interview her to get a deeper insight into the book.
One word about the value of research, as we are firmly in the post-COVID era. The experience of the COVID vaccine production has shown to the world that investment in research pays! It was the urgency with which governments, companies, and individuals paid for the research that resulted in the vaccines that ultimately saved millions of lives around the world. The same will hold for bioelectricity and its huge promise across so many different areas of our lives and environment. From biomedicine to bioengineering to agriculture, the positive impacts of bioelectricity will be felt worldwide as the technology moves from academic laboratories to encompass practical applications.
Finally, we would like to return to Bioelectricity and emphasize how important the “human element” is to the journal. Every article gets the best possible attention, in space and time, and we are proud of the fact that we are “hands-on” editors involved actively in the processing of the articles and the eventual decision making. We do not send articles back and forth to reviewers waiting passively for a consensus to appear including in borderline situations. This way we endeavor (1) to speed up the review process and (2) to avoid creating too much work for colleagues on all sides.
Also, often, we contact authors directly to expedite the whole process. This philosophy of the journal's editorial management will continue, because we are committed to serving the bioelectricity community. We invite everyone whose work touches on the ionic phenomena of life to join us, as authors, reviewers, or editors.
We look forward to many years of further developments in the bioelectricity field in its broadest sense, and will continue questioning how the journal could promote this and make it happen! The future should be bright and very exciting indeed.
—Mustafa B.A. Djamgoz, PhD, and Michael Levin, PhD