CELL Press

Editors at Work

It’s not often that the magnetic words on the office fridge spell out a phrase like "pipettes are powerful." But then the Cell Press office, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is unlike those of most publishing houses. For a start, every editor on staff is a scientist.

"Our editors are PhD trained and most of us have additional post-doctoral training, so we come to this role very much as scientists," says John Pham, who in 2018 became Editor-in-Chief of Cell, the fourth in the journal’s 45-year history.

"The primary job of a scientific editor is to put out a journal that people will want to read and that researchers will be proud to be associated with," he says. "There are lots of things that go into that. Earning trust, building relationships, understanding the landscape of the fields that we cover, and providing exceptional peer review and author service are obviously important."

This was the case in 2012, when Cell published two articles describing properties of molecules involved in phase separation, a process by which components within a cell separate themselves from each other without the assistance of a membrane, rather like oil separating from water. It was the type of work that wasn’t appearing in mainstream journals, and publication of these papers came with risks. It was a very new phenomenon and there were questions about whether the findings being reported, from experiments done in the equivalent of test tubes, would be relevant for processes that occur inside cells.

The editorial team and several reviewers were sceptical but it was Lara Szewczak, a Cell Senior Editor who advocated for them and took the papers through peer review. "The potential of phase separation was huge, with links between proteins that phase separate and neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS and Alzheimer’s," she says. " For editors, there can be a balance between publishing something potentially overly speculative and being willing to take a risk that the information will ultimately benefit the community."

"That started this whole field," says Pham. "One of our editors saw the potential in the idea, published the work, and the journal started to see that there were discussions around this – in fact became a place for those discussions to happen."

The Cell (Press) Effect

This kind of influence is remarkable given Cell’s relative youth. While its peers – Science and Nature – were born in the nineteenth century, Cell started life in 1974, when Benjamin Lewin founded the journal as part of MIT Press. In 1986, he purchased the title and established Cell Press as an independent publisher. In 1999 it was acquired by Elsevier, the information analytics business specializing in science and health and a part of RELX.

Fast forward to today and Cell Press is now home to nearly 50 publications, with more journals in the pipeline. For Anne Kitson, Managing Director at Cell Press and The Lancet, the leading public health medical journal also owned by Elsevier, it’s about creating platforms that give researchers options for how they share their work. "We very much see our mission as supporting scientists in showcasing their research," she says. "And you need venues for that."

For a start, the publisher has been moving into the physical sciences, starting with three new journals. Chem, launched in 2016, focuses on chemistry and its sub-disciplines, Joule, launched in 2017, highlights energy, and Matter, which launches this summer, is Cell Press’s first materials science journal.

More will follow. Additional titles will highlight environmental change and sustainability, medically-oriented research, and data science. They also respond to a world where research is becoming more interdisciplinary. "Cell Press is a great environment for thinking about the bigger questions and connecting all the different elements of science," says Philip Earis, editor-in-chief of Joule.

Another important shift is the move eastwards. China is rapidly becoming a force in the world of research. With generous government funding for science, it’s building world-class research facilities that attract both international scientists and those returning home armed with advanced degrees from world-class institutions.

"Three and a half years ago, we didn’t have a single full-time employee based in China," says Cell Press Publishing Director Peter Lee, who is also Editor-in-Chief of Immunity. "We now have a number of employees based in China and it keeps growing."

With a mission to serve the global scientific community, Cell Press is actively developing channels through which to disseminate research while maintaining the high quality that authors and readers have come to expect from the brand.

And there’s more to influence than just global reach. Cell Press is also actively involved in addressing issues that are important to the scientific community. "In 2016, we launched the STAR Methods format, which, like a recipe, describes the ingredients and processes that enable experiments to be reproduced," says Deborah Sweet, the Vice President of Editorial at Cell Press. "STAR Methods is designed to improve the communication of research methods, an area that we have consistently heard is one of the main barriers to reproducing and building on published work" she explains.

Opportunities Ahead

Deborah Sweet remembers the days when Cell Press moved at a more leisurely pace. A submission arrived in hard copy and was sent out to reviewers by fax. "When we photocopied it and faxed it back to the author, we had to fold over the peer reviews to make sure the reviewer’s fax number didn’t show," she recalls with a smile. But if technology has transformed publishing processes, it’s not the only seismic shift demanding a response from Cell Press.

"There’s a lot of discussion right now about the best way to organise scientific publishing," says Sweet "and at Cell Press we’re always thinking about how we can contribute as effectively as possible."

With a mission to serve the global scientific community, Cell Press is developing as many channels as possible through which to disseminate research. "We want to be in a position to offer authors and readers what they want or need to have." she adds.

Traditionally reliant on subscriptions, with some advertising sales, Cell Press has been at the forefront of moves in the academic world to increase access to research – sometimes providing it free of charge.

For example, Cell Press’s Open Archive, which launched in 2004, allows anyone to access articles 12 months or older without charge. In its fully and hybrid open access journals, such as Cell Reports, iScience, and Current Biology, authors pay article-processing charges and readers access the research for free. And for developing countries, Cell Press provides free and low-cost access through partnerships with universities and development institutions.

But in the world of scholarly publishing, there are tricky trade-offs. While Cell Press wants to make research as accessible as possible for everyone, to continue to publish it must also secure the financial sustainability of the journals.

In addition to costs related to, for example, platforms and hosting, the rigorous process of publishing cutting-edge science requires significant investment. "We’re very selective," says Anne Kitson. "And that selection process is time-consuming and costly."

For those in the scientific publishing world, there is another tough nut to crack: eroding public trust in experts and even science itself. Rebuilding this trust is something about which Cell Press editors speak passionately. "This is really important," says Sweet. "As a publisher we have a responsibility to try and do something about it."

With an audience that is primarily academic, easy solutions are elusive. However, Cell Press is innovating to expand its reach. From Cell Symposia, which bring together editors, speakers and scientists, to blog posts, podcasts and even comics and colouring books, the publisher is constantly looking for new ways to communicate and promote research.

Sweet sees potential in making science more personal, in connecting research to people’s lives so they feel they have a stake in the advances being made on their behalf. "Scientists are really motivated by trying to make the world a better place", she says, "so, it’s about taking science to where people are going to see it."

In 20 years time, no doubt Cell Press will have morphed again. But the core values will remain the same. "We will always want to make a difference in the world of science and scientific publishing" says Sweet "and everything we do sets out with that in mind. The vehicles and approaches may change, but ultimately it will always be about being inspired by exciting science".