Editorial: Welcome to Molecular Endocrinology: Pitfalls and Promises for the Future

Abstract

Iwant to be the first to welcome all of the readers of Molecular Endocrinology to our new era of electroniconly publishing! These are exciting times for our journal, and I am thrilled that I have been given the opportunity to play even a small role in helping to steer the Endocrine Society journals into the next phase of scientific publishing. That said, these are dangerous and complex times for our entire profession, including basic scientists, clinical researchers, clinician educators, and full-time clinicians. The perfect storm is rising, and it is unclear what we should be doing to prepare for it. Due to stagnant budgets and complex spending strategies, the National Institutes of Health is funding R01s in the 8%–10% range with no sign of any changes in the near future. Industry has significantly stripped down its basic, translational, and clinical research ventures due to budget concerns and fear of making long-term investments in new products. With the Affordable Care Act and other changes in health care spending, hospitals and clinical practices have no idea from where their future income will come. Finally, there is talk of reducing fellowship slots in subspecialties to make more room for primary care and hospitalist residency positions. This has the potential of reducing endocrinology fellowship positions at a time when endocrinologists are already an underrepresented commodity. With all these changes, academic endocrinology is taking a huge hit because some of our best and brightest young (and older) minds are opting out of academic careers for fear of the unknown future. To deal with the chaos and uncertainty swirling around us, it is critical that the Endocrine Society play a leadership role in keeping academic endocrinology moving forward. With this in mind, our goal for Molecular Endocrinology is to do our best to support basic scientists doing endocrine-related research. Just as previous editors have emphasized, the new Editorial Board understands that the main purpose of Molecular Endocrinology is to serve as a supportive forum for endocrine researchers to publish and advertise their research. Similarly, Molecular Endocrinology serves as a resource to Society members and others to read about the latest exciting basic research in the field of endocrinology. To best achieve these goals, we are making several exciting changes. First, as mentioned above, Molecular Endocrinology is moving to an online-only format. Benefits for our authors include faster time from submission to publication, flexibility with regard to the number of papers published per month, and more interactive options to link journal articles with related web sites. In addition, the cost of publication will be reduced because color charges will be eliminated. A second change will be the start of a new article type called Rapid Communications. The purpose of this new option is to provide researchers with an opportunity to rapidly publish new and exciting high-impact data. These papers will be shorter (three to four figures), will be reviewed rapidly (within 2 weeks), and, if accepted, will require minimal changes. These papers will be freely available and will often be featured on the Molecular Endocrinology web site as well by the Endocrine Press. More details will follow soon with regard to this exciting new feature offered by Molecular Endocrinology. A third change will be the selection of a monthly featured article. This will substitute for the traditional cover art that will be less meaningful after going to an onlineonly format. We will feature selected articles and authors on the Molecular Endocrinology web site, using photos, figures, interviews, and possibly videos. We hope that this feature will give our authors, particularly the trainees,