Editorial 2010
2009; Royal Society; Volume: 6; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1098/rsbl.2009.0975
ISSN1744-957X
Autores Tópico(s)Amphibian and Reptile Biology
ResumoYou have accessMoreSectionsView PDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail Cite this article Charlesworth Brian 2010Editorial 2010Biol. Lett.61–2http://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2009.0975SectionYou have accessEditorialEditorial 2010 (Editor-in-Chief) Brian Charlesworth Brian Charlesworth Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author (Editor-in-Chief) Brian Charlesworth Brian Charlesworth Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author Published:16 December 2009https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2009.0975The year 2009 has been another excellent year for Biology Letters, with an approximately 25 per cent increase in submissions over 2008. Our impact factor has gone up to 3, and we are confident that it will rise again this coming year; we now compare well with the major specialist journals in the main fields that we publish. We continue to attract more than our fair share of attention in the media and in journals such as Nature. Our average speed of acceptance (23.4 days) and time from article submission to online publication (56 days) have once again improved. This represents a major attraction of the journal and is made possible because of the constant efforts of our editorial board members, reviewers, and Fiona Pring and Louise Gardner in the publishing office. The increase in submissions has created a large additional workload for all of these people, to which they have responded magnificently. Since we are keeping the size of the journal constant, the rejection rate has gone up in response, which should lead to an increase in the already high quality of our published papers.The year 2009 was, of course, the Darwin bicentenary and 150th anniversary of The origin of species. Since a large proportion of our papers are on evolutionary topics, we felt that it was especially appropriate for Biology Letters to contribute to the Darwinian festivities. We have published three special features (on brain evolution, molecular evolution, and the evolution of sexual conflict and sex allocation) and five opinion pieces on Darwinian themes. Many thanks are due to the guest editors (Tom Smulders, Lindell Bromham and Tracey Chapman) and authors (Lindell Bromham, John Brookfield, Joan Herbers, John Pannell and Paul Schmid-Hempel) involved. In 2010, the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society, we are publishing a special feature on ‘Control and dynamics of animal movement’, edited by Andy Biewener and Tom Daniel. Our other new feature, in addition to the special features and opinion pieces, is meeting reports. These have been coming in at a satisfyingly high rate, covering a wide range of fields, and I believe will raise the journal's profile, as seen in their regular appearance in our monthly most-downloaded articles.As before, I would like to highlight some papers that I found especially interesting in the 2009 volume. Davison et al. (2009) added a new twist to the classic story of the right/left coiling polymorphism in the snail Lymnaea stagnalis, by showing that mating behaviour is inherited in the same way as chirality, i.e. it is controlled by the maternal genotype. Larsen et al. (2009) showed that a tropical species of dung beetle has evolved to become a predator on millipedes, often decapitating them by using the front of their heads. Reding et al. (2009) showed that the Hawaiian creeper Oreomystis mana, which closely resembles the Kauai creeper Oreomystis bairdi, in fact is related to a very distant group of birds. This is an amazing example of convergent evolution, illustrating once again what Darwin called ‘the power of selection’. Ratcliffe et al. (2009) showed that a single sensory neuron in the dogbane tiger moth provides enough information to allow a decision on whether to produce a defensive sound. Moore et al. (2009) showed that the protein which binds the toxin produced by toads has experienced rapid, adaptive evolution in toads, subsequent to their divergence from related anurans, presumably reflecting adaptations to avoidance of self-poisoning. Finally, Clarke et al. (2009) made the fascinating discovery that a tropical pitcher plant is used as a lavatory by tree shrews. The shrews are attracted by a tasty exudate from the plants. The plant benefits from the nitrogen they donate and has seemingly abandoned insectivory. Needless to say, the front cover of the October issue shows a tree shrew in action!FootnotesFiona Pring would like to take this opportunity to thank Brian for his sterling work and ongoing enthusiasm as Editor of Biology Letters, taking the vast increase in his own workload over the past year in his stride.© 2009 The Royal SocietyReferencesClarke C. M., Bauer U., Lee C. C., Tuen A. A., Rembold K.& Moran J. A.. 2009Tree shrew lavatories: a novel nitrogen sequestration strategy in a tropical pitcher plant. Biol. Lett. 5, 632–635. (doi:10.1098/rsbl.2009.0311). Link, ISI, Google ScholarDavison A., Frend H. T., Moray C., Wheatley H., Searle L. J.& Eichhorn M. P.. 2009Mating behaviour in Lymnaea stagnalis pond snails is a maternally inherited, lateralized trait. Biol. Lett. 5, 20–22. (doi:10.1098/rsbl.2008.0528). Link, ISI, Google ScholarLarsen T. H., Lopera A., Forsyth A.& Génier F.. 2009From coprophagy to predation: a dung beetle that kills millipedes. Biol. Lett. 5, 152–155. (doi:10.1098/rsbl.2008.0654). Link, ISI, Google ScholarMoore D. J., Halliday D. C. T., Rowell D. M., Robinson A. J.& Keogh J. S.. 2009Positive Darwinian selection results in resistance to cardioactive toxins in true toads (Anura: Bufonidae). Biol. Lett. 5, 513–516. (doi:10.1098/rsbl.2009.0281). Link, ISI, Google ScholarRatcliffe J. M., Fullard J. H., Arthur B. J.& Hoy R. R.. 2009Tiger moths and the threat of bats: decision-making based on the activity of a single sensory neuron. Biol. Lett. 5, 368–371. (doi:10.1098/rsbl.2009.0079). Link, ISI, Google ScholarReding D. M., Foster J. T., James H. F., Pratt H. D.& Fleischer R. C.. 2009Convergent evolution of ‘creepers’ in the Hawaiian honeycreeper radiation. Biol. Lett. 5, 221–224. (doi:10.1098/rsbl.2008.0589). Link, ISI, Google Scholar Next Article VIEW FULL TEXT DOWNLOAD PDF FiguresRelatedReferencesDetails This Issue23 February 2010Volume 6Issue 1 Article InformationDOI:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2009.0975PubMed:20015857Published by:Royal SocietyOnline ISSN:1744-957XHistory: Manuscript received24/11/2009Manuscript accepted24/11/2009Published online16/12/2009Published in print23/02/2010 License:© 2009 The Royal Society Citations and impact Large datasets are available through Biology Letters' partnership with Dryad
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