BETHESDA, MD, SEPTEMBER 4, 2013--Behind the acronyms GSA + ASCB = LSE stands a new editorial partnership between the Genetics Society of America (GSA) and the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) to support the online journal, CBE–Life Sciences Education (LSE). Today, the two societies announced the joint editorial partnership in the latest issue of LSE. The journal was started by ASCB in 2002 as Cell Biology Education but changed its name to CBE–Life Sciences Education in 2006 to reflect the breadth of its coverage, which spans topics in education across all life science disciplines. GSA will become a full editorial partner, promoting the journal, soliciting manuscripts, and helping to defray, in part, the costs of operation while ASCB will remain the only publisher. The journal will have a joint editorial board drawn from scientists in both societies as well as from other disciplines. The current editor, Erin Dolan, PhD from the University of Georgia, will continue as LSE Editor-In-Chief.
In a joint editorial published yesterday in the new Fall 2013 issue of LSE, the executive directors of the two societies, Stefano Bertuzzi, PhD, for ASCB, and Adam P. Fagen, PhD, for GSA, say that the journal, which has become known for its data-driven analysis and evidence-based approach to improved teaching of the life sciences at all levels, has never been more important than in today's crisis atmosphere of plummeting budgets, workforce uncertainty, and lagging public knowledge about science. "From K-12 to secondary and higher education and lifelong learning, science education is in desperate need of data-driven reform, reinvestment, and reinvigoration," they write.
Fagen and Bertuzzi continue, "ASCB and GSA believe that there is neither time nor room for flag planting and parochialism. Rather than remaining only in our own silos, we will be more effective together, so we must join forces now."
Additionally, GSA will extend its science education outreach activities through a new peer-reviewed educational resource database ("GSA PREP") and a new educational feature series called "Primers" in its flagship journal GENETICS, aimed at bringing cutting-edge research into the classroom by making the latest "hot" scientific papers accessible to undergraduates and their instructors. The ASCB will still handle the production of LSE along with its flagship journal, Molecular Biology of the Cell. The ASCB's Education Committee and Minorities Affairs Committee run a variety of educational programs at the ASCB Annual Meeting and year round for science teachers and science students.
ABOUT GSA: Founded in 1931, the Genetics Society of America (GSA) is the professional membership organization for scientific researchers, educators, bioengineers, bioinformaticians and others interested in the field of genetics. Its nearly 5,000 members work to advance knowledge in the basic mechanisms of inheritance, from the molecular to the population level. The GSA is dedicated to promoting research in genetics and to facilitating communication among geneticists worldwide through its conferences, including the biennial conference on Model Organisms to Human Biology, an interdisciplinary meeting on current and cutting edge topics in genetics research, as well as annual and biennial meetings that focus on the genetics of particular organisms, including C. elegans, Drosophila, fungi, mice, yeast, and zebrafish. GSA publishes GENETICS, a leading journal in the field since 1916, and G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics, an open-access journal launched in 2011. For more information about GSA, please visit http://www.genetics-gsa.org. Also follow GSA on Facebook at facebook.com/GeneticsGSA and on Twitter @GeneticsGSA.
ABOUT ASCB: The American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) is a professional society of basic biomedical researchers and represents about 9,000 scientists in the United States and over 60 countries around the world. The ASCB Annual Meeting, attended by about 8,000 scientists, is the world's largest scientific meeting in the field of cell biology. For more information about ASCB, please visit http://www.ascb.org. Also follow ASCB on Facebook at facebook.com/AmerSocCellBio and on Twitter @ASCBiology.