New science — new ways to communicate it

Cell biology has never been more diverse. Cell biologists now increasingly cross the boundaries of traditionally defined fields, they use rapidly changing technology, and they work evermore in interdisciplinary teams. These new ways of doing science require new ways of communicating it. The JCB continuously evaluates and updates its publication formats and guidelines. To provide the best possible avenues to communicate your research and to easily access the exceptional science we publish in each issue, we are introducing several new journal features. Given the importance and impact of technology development on modern cell biology and the increasing number of biotechnology and clinical applications based on basic cell biology, we are introducing a new Methods section. Papers in this section will describe novel methods and substantial improvements of existing methods which will allow cell biologists to explore problems in unprecedented ways. A second area of dramatic growth within cell biology is Systems and Computational biology. These studies are often structured differently from traditional cell biology papers, and require different criteria for evaluation and publication. We are well aware of the unique nature of these studies and we will adjust our traditional publication formats to accommodate their specific needs, such as publication of large datasets. To provide clear guidance on papers in these and all other areas of cell biology we have revised our Instructions to Authors and made them more New science—new ways to communicate it