2014.08.01
Message from the principal editor of DGD
DGD Editor-in-chief Harukazu Nakamura
This year, we received the grant of scientific research funds for developing information transmission capacity globally. The essential feature of this application is to strengthening the ability of DGB to be the hub Journal of Asia and Oceania.
We have appointed Professor Kathryn Cheah of Hong Kong University as the editor of Asia region and Professor Don Newgreen, University of Melbourne of Oceania region. This would enhance partnerships and create the closer relationship between both regions. They have already started working on the feature article on "Morphogenesis and Organogenesis".
This article would create the most valuable session with speakers of APDBN Symposium together with Japanese, Hong Kong Chinese, Chinese and Australian researchers expanding the understanding of endless topic of developmental biology at 47th Annual Meetings of the Japanese Society of Developmental Biologists.
Some of the accepted papers will be open access by this grant. These papers would be selected by the editor in chief, though self recommendations are also welcome.
The big change is that the printed journal would be closed down from vol.57 2015, and DGD will reborn as the on-line journal. I personally miss losing the printed journals though it can not go against the trend of times and cost reduction. I hope this change will benefit all the members for the better service.
This year's IF was announced at the end of July. The IF has slightly declined to 2.178 compared to the last year's 2.397. In the category of Developmental Biology, the ranking had stayed the same and DGD was ranked 29th place out of 41 journals. In the Category of Cell Biology, DGD was positioned 135th place out of 185 journals. For instance, IF of 2013 is calculated by the average number of cited papers of 2011 2012. We hope that all the members would cite DGD papers as many as possible for the higher rank in 2015.
