Advancing the Vision: New PubMed Indexing, Creative Commons Licensing, and December Highlights

In the two years since the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) published the Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action report, the national momentum to transform undergraduate biology education has driven the Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education (JMBE)’s growth in readership and authorship. Since January 2010, the Journal has more than doubled its registered users and overall submissions have increased by nearly 40%. International presence on the Journal’s Editorial Board is currently at 13%, thanks to Research Editor Kathy M. Takayama’s work to incorporate biology educators on a global scale. The American Society for Microbiology (ASM)’s faculty training programs—such as the ASM/JGI Genomic Sciences Programs and the ASM/ NSF Biology Scholars Program—connect scholars with the Editorial Board and expose them to JMBE’s open access content. After they train and/or present at the annual ASM Conference for Undergraduate Educators (ASMCUE), our readers are poised to submit their work to JMBE. In 2012, 37% of published JMBE authors are alumni of these ASM programs.