The first is to adopt the Graphical Review [link to Graphical Reviews article] format as one of the acceptable formats for articles, particularly arising from symposia and congresses where the participants already have detailed slides from their presentations. The Graphical Review format should make it easier to convert presentations into articles. Some other Elsevier journals already offer this option. We will pioneer this format for PBMB with a Special Issue on Cancer and Evolution to be published during the second half of this year.

The second is to commission a series of articles in the form of retrospective reviews of Historic Classic articles from the first two decades of the journal. The first of those appeared at the end of 2020, as a joint celebration of the award of the Nobel Prize to the discoverers of Hepatitis C virus and a review of two Classic articles on RNA and DNA viruses (Noble, 2020).

More of these reviews of Historic Classics will be rolled out during 2021. They will honour great pioneers in the field from the middle of the last century, while also pointing the way forward on the topics concerned.

Learn more about the upcoming reviews of Historic Classic articles and plans for the journal going forward.