Genetics society and cell biologists partner for life sciences education journal

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.

Provided by American Society for Cell Biology