BMC Biophysics,BMC EcologyandBMC Endocrine Disordershave all recently been accepted for
indexing by Thomson Reuters and are on course to receive their first Impact
Factors. We are delighted that these
journals have been selected for indexing, joining the many other journals in the
BMCseriesto have anImpact Factor.

BMC Endocrine
Disordershas been tracked from publications in 2009 and is due to receive
its first Impact Factor in 2012. A recentblog
postdiscusses one of the special thematic collections inBMC Ecology, which has likely contributed
to the increased visibility and recognition of the journal.

This is great news too forBMC Biophysics, considering it is less than a year since thejournal re-launchedon
the BioMed Central platform. Since re-launch the journal has recruited a newEditorial Board
consisting of world-renowned experts in the field.

In 2011 we
published many interesting articles, includingonefrom our
Section Editor, Gerhard Gompper, which is an important theoretical contribution
to the field. In it, the authors
introduce andanalyzea
discrete filament-motor protein model of subcellular microtubule self-assembly
in fission yeast, which demonstrates spontaneous generation of a number of
steady states, including spindles, nematics, and asters. We think this study
highlights the power and flexibility of online open access publishing in
biophysics, as the authors were able to directly link the article’s text to
their video figures. View their hypnotic animations of microtubule vorticeshere.

The journal has already had a strong start to 2012 by
publishing an excitingarticleby Qinet al.describing the structural
determination of the EphA4 ligand binding domain, providing the first
experimental and computational evidence that intrinsic dynamics are most likely
to be responsible for the observed high conformational diversity that mediates
binding affinity and specificity. An accompanyingcommentaryby Ruth
Nussinov and Buyong Ma in our flagship biology journalBMC Biologysays: “These snapshots of multiple conformations of
the free EphA4 LDB provide a unique insight into the conformational dynamics of
EphA4 and the Eph-ephrin signaling pathways.”

After such a great start we are looking forward to
what 2012 has in store for these journals and would invite you to submit your
next research article toBMC Biophysics,
BMC EcologyandBMC Endocrine Disorders.

Shane Canning

Journal Development Editor

Simon Harold

执行Editor