Created: 8th September 1998, last updated: 9th September 1998, © 1998 ABRF

Welcome to the first edition of the ABRF's new hardcopy and electronic publication, the Journal of Biomolecular Techniques! On June 23 the Executive Board approved the merger of the ABRF's newsletter ABRF News, in its 9^th year of production, and the year-old all-electronic Journal of Biomolecular Techniques. The combined journal will retain the name Journal of Biomolecular Techniques and will incorporate the strengths of both hardcopy and electronic publishing under the direction of Editor-In-Chief, Clayton Naeve. Clive Slaughter and Ken Mitchelhill will serve as Executive Editors assisting with the hardcopy and electronic editions respectively. Current members of both editorial boards were invited to continue their participation in the publication of the new JBT. To those of you who published in the all-electronic JBT this past year, rest assured your contributions will not be lost; all currently accepted JBT articles will remain on the JBT Web server and will be reprinted in the quarterly hardcopy journal. Indeed, the first two JBT articles are reprinted in this issue.

The format of the new publication will incorporate features of both parent publications. The journal will continue to publish Methods and Reviews articles and TIPS articles in the same format used in ABRF News. A new type of article will be added to the format to allow the rapid, electronic dissemination of short methods articles called Rapid Communications. These submissions will typically be no longer than 2-3 pages and incorporate 2-3 figures. They will receive expedited review and, on acceptance, be published immediately on the ABRF's Web server. This will allow us to continue exploiting the advantages of electronic publication; however, the same article will also be reprinted in the next quarterly hardcopy issue and will receive a typical journal citation. This process should alleviate any potential concern regarding the longevity or archiving of electronic publications.

Efforts are well underway to move the publication process from a desktop publishing environment to that of a professional publisher, to register the new journal with various indexing services, obtain an ISSN number, etc. It is anticipated that these will be accomplished early in 1999. The financial burden on the organization will be minimized by raising revenues via advertising, the primary source of income for all biomedical journals.

The intent is not to compete with the myriad other journals now being published. Rather, our primary concerns are to move away from labor-intensive desktop publishing and to provide the ABRF and its members with a first-rate, official forum for publication of our research group studies, publication of reviews of developing technologies, and rapid publication of short bioanalytical methods and techniques articles.

Support your association and contribute your next techniques paper to the Journal of Biomolecular Techniques

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