Your journal enters its third decade with the publication of this issue. The first volume, published in 1988, appeared in quarterly issues, but moved to bi-monthly production in 1989, and then monthly release from 1990 through 1992. Two volumes appeared each year during 1989–1992, accounting for the fact that this twenty-first year coincides with volume 25. In 1993, it returned to bi-monthly publication, remaining so for the past 15 years. During this period, other vision-related journals have made their debut, but Visual Neuroscience remains a premier venue for publishing fundamental research in the neurobiology of vision.
Laura Frishman has been at the helm for the past six years, taking the Editorial Office into the Internet era. The greatest development under her Editorship has been the implementation of the Manuscript Central online submission and review system developed by ScholarOne, Inc. This has greatly facilitated the entire process from manuscript submission through production, reducing the time to both acceptance and publication. In addition, the corrected electronic proofs are now available for distribution from the journal website and for indexing through PubMed as soon as they are complete, speeding their availability to the scientific community. The online edition of the journal also permits the posting of supplemental material in association with the published articles.
This new volume also coincides with the departure of Stewart Bloomfield, having served as Associate Editor for the past six years, as well as a number of long-standing members on the Editorial Board. Under Laura's stewardship, they have continued to ensure the timely scholastic review of manuscripts, generating six strong years of articles published within the pages of the journal. Of course, they have not done this alone: various ad-hoc reviewers have also given their time and expertise to the peer-review process, being acknowledged in the final pages of each of those volumes 19 through 24.
This twenty-fifth volume witnesses the addition of three new Associate Editors joining Lynne Kiorpes (New York), who continues as an Associate Editor since 2005. These include Peter Lukasiewicz (St. Louis), Paul Martin (Melbourne), and David Williams (Los Angeles). They, along with a number of new additions to the Editorial Board, will expand the expertise of the editorial team to cover the dimensions of visual neuroscience that overlap with the fields of retinal cell biology and cognitive neuroscience.
This volume also heralds three new publication policies: First, the publisher will no longer assess page charges for lengthy articles. Second, figures can be submitted for publication in color in the online edition of the article at no charge to the authors. And third, for those wishing to have figures appear in color in the print version, the publisher has lowered the charges considerably. The journal will continue to publish primarily research articles, but will consider submissions as Brief Communications and Review Articles, as well as other formats (New Techniques, Perspectives, etc.) on a case-by-case basis.
I said “your journal,” above, because the only thing keeping Visual Neuroscience running is the need for such a specialty journal amongst this community of vision researchers. The current editorial team remains committed to the view that Visual Neuroscience should publish first-class work elucidating the molecular, cellular and systems-level properties and mechanisms underlying vision, subject to peer-review by experts in the field. We hope the above changes in publication policy, the on-line submission and review process, and the steadily decreasing time to publication will make Visual Neuroscience an increasingly attractive venue for your work. For those of you invited to review, please continue to participate, or let us know (promptly, when possible) if you are unavailable or choose to decline. While we expect to continue to shrink the review cycle to a minimum, we do not want to create an environment yielding hurried or ill-considered reviews, and recognize the need for studied deliberation. Thoughtful and constructive peer review is critical to the reputation of the journal, making it an even stronger venue for the submission of the highest quality work.
