As part of our continued commitment to providing content based services to users and authors, Wiley has launched a trial of ALMs on a number of journals. Partnering with Altmetric, we will be running a six month trial on both subscription and open access journals including Advanced Materials, Angewandte Chemie, BJUI, Brain and Behavior, Methods in Ecology and Evolution and EMBO Molecular Medicine.

 Altmetric tracks social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest and blogs, newspapers, magazines and online reference managers like Mendeley and CiteULike for mentions of the scholarly articles published in the journals.

Altmetric creates and displays a score for each article measuring the quality and quantity of attention that the particular article has received. The Altmetric score is based on three main factors: the number of individuals mentioning a paper, where the mentions occurred (e.g. a newspaper, a tweet) and how often the author of each mention talks about the article.

 Alternative metrics, such as the ALMs provided by Altmetric, help calculate the immediate and specific impact of an individual article rather than just relying on traditional benchmarks such as the journal’s impact factor.  Wiley will be undertaking further pilots before rolling out enhanced metrics across more journals.

For authors, alternative metrics enables them to better understand the social impact of their individual paper in real time and for journal editors, alternative metrics can help to quantify the full extent of their publications’ visibility and reach.

“Our journal publishes articles that are among the most highly accessed and cited in scientific research,” Dr. Peter Gregory, Editor in Chief, Advanced Materials explains. “We want to provide readers with access to our research through all channels, with authors enjoying a prominent social media presence and excellent coverage in the global news and science media. It will be interesting to review the Altmetric data as it becomes available to better quantify journal article impact.”

 1: Article-Level Metrics a SPARC Primer by Greg Tananbaum

Physiological Reports

Mental stress elicits sustained and reproducible increases in skin sympathetic nerve activity by Matthew D. Muller, Charity L. Sauder and Chester A. Ray.
Summary: By activating the sympathetic nervous system, mental stress (MS) may have deleterious effect on the cardiovascular system. However, data regarding skin sympathetic nerve activity (SSNA) during MS are limited. This study demonstrated that MS elicited robust and reproducible increases in SSNA in humans which may be followed over time to observe alterations in the regulation of the autonomic nervous system.

Listen to the inaugural author interview podcast here!

Physiological Reports is a collaboration between The Physiological Society and the American Physiological Society. The journal publishes peer-reviewed research across all areas of basic, translational and clinical physiology and allied disciplines. Articles are immediately open access, complying with funder mandates.
Submit your article to Physiological Reports here >

The journal publishes articles relating to all aspects of human food and nutrition, as well as interdisciplinary research that spans these two fields.  Food Science & Nutrition is an open access, fully peer-reviewed journal providing rapid dissemination of research in all areas of food science and nutrition. 

This issue features an exciting range of articles, including the highlights below, selected by Editor-in-Chief Dr. Y. Martin Lo.

Royal jelly enhances antigen-specific mucosal IgA response
Hikaru Kai, Yuji Motomura, Shiro Saito, Ken Hashimoto, Tomoki Tatefuji, Nobutoki Takamune and Shogo Misumi

Summary: Royal Jelly exhibits mucosal immunomodulatory properties via stimulation of effective uptake of antigens through M cells.

Microbial contribution to spoilage of African breadfruit (Artocarpus communis, Forst) during storage
Olusegun B. Ajayi and Tinuola T. Adebolu

Summary: African breadfruit morphological changes during spoilage. Spoilage organism (bacteria and fungi) were responsible for spoilage.

MGGM is edited by Dr. Maximilian Muenke. For the past two decades, the focus of Dr. Muenke’s research has been on the identification of the underlying causes of craniofacial anomalies. More recently, his lab has identified susceptibility loci for the most common childhood behavioral disorder, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), with further research focused on predicting severity, treatment response, and long-term outcome. Dr. Muenke is also interested in personalized medicine, from understanding rare and common diseases to their treatment and prevention. Our first issue launches with some great papers covering areas of biochemical, cardiac and ocular genetics. Below are Dr. Muenke’s issue highlights:

MT-CYB mutations in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy by Christian M. Hagen, Frederik H. Aidt, Ole Havndrup, Paula L. Hedley, Cathrine Jespersgaard, Morten Jensen, Jørgen K. Kanters, Johanna C. Moolman-Smook, Daniel V. Møller, Henning Bundgaard and Michael Christiansen
Summary: This study is a comprehensive screening of HCM patients for MT-CYB mutations. We find that rare mtDNA variants occur quite frequently in HCM patients and our molecular modeling studies suggest that some of these may be of functional significance. The described variants may contribute to the phenotypic variability of HCM, and may be of a more general significance in relation to mtDNA variants as disease modifiers and susceptibility factors.

 Clinical and mutation analysis of 51 probands with anophthalmia and/or severe microphthalmia from a single center by Christina Gerth-Kahlert, Kathleen Williamson, Morad Ansari, Jacqueline K. Rainger, Volker Hingst, Theodor Zimmermann, Stefani Tech, Rudolf F. Guthoff, Veronica van Heyningen and David R. FitzPatrick
Summary: Mutations in three genes, SOX2, OTX2 and STRA6, account for 75% of the cases of severe bilateral eye malformations in a consecutive series of cases from a single centre. The phenotypic spectrum associated with mutations in each of these genes is wider than previously thought. We also report the first observation of a heterozygous loss-of-function allele of SOX2 that is inherited from an affected parent.

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The latest issue of Ecology and Evolution is now live!

 Taxonome: a software package for linking biological species data by Thomas A. Kluyver and Colin P. Osborne
Summary: Online databases of biological information offer tremendous potential for evolutionary and ecological discoveries, especially if data are combined in novel ways. However, the different names and varied spellings used for many species present major barriers to linking data. Taxonome is a software tool designed to solve this problem by quickly and reproducibly matching biological names to a given reference set. It is available both as a graphical user interface (GUI) for simple interactive use, and as a library for more advanced functionality with programs written in Python. Taxonome also includes functions to standardize distribution information to a well-defined set of regions, such as the TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions. In combination, these tools will help biologists to rapidly synthesize disparate datasets, and to investigate large-scale patterns in species traits.

 Interpretations arising from Wrightian and Malthusian fitness under strong frequency dependent selection by Bin Wu, Chaitanya S. Gokhale, Matthijs van Veelen, Long Wang and Arne  Traulsen
Summary: Fitness is the central concept in evolutionary theory. It measures a phenotype’s ability to survive and reproduce. There are different ways to represent this measure: Malthusian fitness and Wrightian fitness. One can go back and forth between the two, but when we characterize model properties or interpret data, it can be important to distinguish between them. Here, we discuss a recent experiment to show how the interpretation changes if an alternative definition is used.

 Anthropogenic extinction threats and future loss of evolutionary history in reef corals by Danwei Huang and Kaustuv Roy
Summary: Extinction always results in loss of phylogenetic diversity (PD), but phylogenetically selective extinctions have long been thought to disproportionately reduce PD. Recent simulations show that tree shapes also play an important role in determining the magnitude of PD loss, potentially offsetting the effects of clustered extinctions. While patterns of PD loss under different extinction scenarios are becoming well characterized in model phylogenies, analyses of real clades that often have unbalanced tree shapes remain scarce, particularly for marine organisms. Here, we use a fossil-calibrated phylogeny of all living scleractinian reef corals in conjunction with IUCN data on extinction vulnerabilities to quantify how loss of species in different threat categories will affect the PD of this group. Our analyses reveal that predicted PD loss in corals varies substantially among different threats, with extinctions due to bleaching and disease having the largest negative effects on PD. In general, more phylogenetically clustered extinctions lead to larger losses of PD in corals, but there are notable exceptions; extinction of rare corals from distantly-related old and unique lineages can also result in substantial PD loss. Thus our results show that loss of PD in reef corals is dependent on both tree shape and the nature of extinction threats.

Read other top articles in this issue >

Submit your paper to Ecology and Evolution here >

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Browse our growing list of institutions / funders who have an account or partnership with Wiley Open Access.

For further information, pricing and discounts please contact: escheer@wiley.com

We are delighted that Pharmacology Research & Perspectives (PR&P) launched successfully at EB2013. 

PR&P is a new collaboration between the British Pharmacological Society (BPS) and the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET) and is supported by their prestigious journals.

The journal was formally introduced at the ASPET Business Meeting which preceeded the launch reception. James Barrett, the Chair of ASPET’s Board of Publications Trustees introduced the Editor-in-Chief: Michael J. Curtis and advised the audience that the editors and society officers would be available to take questions about the journal at the reception. The ASPET/BPS Opening Reception then followed. PR&P banners were placed around the room including key information about the new journal, and BPS, ASPET and Wiley staff were on hand to distribute leaflets. Delegates enjoyed a steady supply of drinks and a buffet and the event was enjoyed by all. 

Throughout the conference there were a number of smaller events to introduce the journal: ‘Meet-the-editor’ events were held at the BPS and ASPET booths, giving potential authors the opportunity to discuss their paper and how to submit. The journal was also introduced at the ASPET Joint Editorial Boards Dinner, and delegates passed the PR&P banners as they went to sessions and meetings.

For more information about PR&P visit the journal’s website > 
or send an email to the editorial office >
Submit your paper via the journal’s online submission site >
Ensure you don’t miss any PR&P articles when they publish. Sign up for free e-toc alerts >

The first paper to be published in Physiological Reports is: 

Mental stress elicits sustained and reproducible increases in skin sympathetic nerve activity
by Matthew D. Muller, Charity L. Sauder & Chester A. Ray
Prof. Ray introduces his paper: “Psychological stress is an established trigger for adverse cardiovascular events, but the underlying mechanisms are not entirely clear. A better understanding of how the body responds to psychological stress may allow for therapies to improve clinical outcomes. Skin sympathetic nerve activity (SSNA), reflective of sympathetic outflow to the cutaneous vasculature, has not been systematically studied in response to mental stress. Early experiments demonstrated that SSNA responds to arousal stimuli (e.g., sudden touch, loud noise), but quantitative data regarding SSNA responses to mental stress are scarce. Moreover, the reproducibility of SSNA to mental stress has not been examined.

Our results demonstrate that patterns of SSNA responses to standardized bouts of mental arithmetic lasting three minutes are consistent across trials (i.e., hours and days apart) with a large initial arousal response followed by a smaller yet sustained SSNA increase for the remainder of the trial. These results indicate that SSNA responses to mental stress are reproducible in controlled conditions and that changes observed over time would reflect modification of autonomic regulation. The current findings will be valuable in future studies evaluating the effectiveness of interventions (e.g., exercise training, pharmacological therapy) on SSNA responses to stress.”

The paper can be read in full here >

Deputy Editor, Prof. Thomas Kleyman says: “We are very excited about the publication of the first manuscript in Physiological Reports from Matthew Muller, Charity Sauder and Chester Ray at Penn State.  We plan to post a podcast discussion with Chet Ray that will highlight the major findings in this manuscript.” We look forward to receiving more excellent submissions across all areas of basic, translational, and clinical physiology and allied disciplines.

Submit your paper via the journal’s online submission site today >
If you’d like to know when the next papers are published then sign up for free e-toc alerts >

Since opening for submission in October 2012, Energy Science & Engineering has received high quality of papers across the field of energy research. Published in collaboration with SCI (Society of Chemical Industry), ESE is a peer reviewed, open access journal dedicated to fundamental and applied research on energy supply and use. Priority is given to quality research papers that are accessible to a broad readership and discuss sustainable, state-of-the art approaches to shaping the future of energy.

Read all our open access articles online here

  Biodiesel from Grease Interceptor to Gas-Tank
Alyse Mary E. Ragauskas, Yunqiao Pu, Art J. Ragauskas
Summary: The need for sustainable biofuels has initiated a global search for innovative technologies that can sustainably convert nonfood bioresources to liquid transportation fuels. While 2nd generation cellulosic ethanol has begun to address this challenge, other resources including yellow and brown grease are rapidly evolving commercial opportunities that are addressing regional biodiesel needs. This review examines the technical and environmental factors driving the collection of trap FOG (Fats, Oils, and Greases), its chemical composition and technologies currently available and future developments that facilitate the conversion of FOG into biodiesel.

  Next generation biorefineries will solve the food, biofuels, and environmental trilemma in the energy–food–water nexus
Y.-H Percival Zhang
Summary: The future roles of biomass and carbohydrate for meeting needs of food/feed, renewable materials, and transportation fuels (biofuels) remain controversial due to numerous issues, such as increasing food and feed needs, constraints of natural resources (land, water, phosphate, biomass, etc.), and limitations of natural photosynthesis, as well as competing energy conversion pathways and technologies. The goal of this opinion article is to clarify the future roles of biomass and biorefineries using quantitative data other than adjective words

  Lock-in thermography as a tool for quality control of photovoltaic modules
Andreas Vetter, Frank Fecher, Jens Adams, Raymund Schaeffler, Jean-Patrick Theisen, Christoph J. Brabec and Claudia Buerhop
Summary: In this short communication, we present a method which utilizes contactless ILIT (illuminated lock-in thermography) measurement of a photovoltaic (PV) module and image postprocessing in order to calculate the peak power Pmpp of the module and to study the influence of local defects on the module performance. In total, 103 Copper-Indium-Gallium-Diselenide (CIGS) modules were investigated and the results showed a good correlation (mean error less than 6%) between the calculated IR-signal and the measured Pmpp. We performed our study on CIGS modules but the presented approach is not restricted to CIGS modules. The method provides a valuable tool for PV quality control.

Enjoy reading the first issue! Submit your paper here> Sign-up for eToc alerts here>

Shortly after 2pm a great crowd had gathered and the event was opened by Philip Wright, CEO, TPS, Martin Franks, Executive Director, APS and Thomas Kleyman, Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Physiological Reports. They each addressed the crowd and welcomed them. Thomas took the opportunity to invite delegates to ask him questions throughout the event. He was joined by a number of editorial board members who also took questions and encouraged potential authors.

The gathered crowds were delighted to receive Physiological Reports pens, which helpfully included the journal’s URL www.physiologicalreports.org to remind our authors where to find all the information on how to submit a paper! Wiley, TPS and APS staff also handed out hundreds of leaflets which were well received. A similar event is planned for IUPS2013 in Birmingham, UK in the summer.

There was great enthusiasm for the journal at the launch event and throughout EB2013. Several delegates confimed that they had already submitted a paper, or were intending to, which bodes well for some really interesting science in the first issue. Our first few papers are now being refereed and we expect to have some articles published in the next few weeks.

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