Innovation and Insight in Integrative Biology

A key aspect of the aspiration of this journal is to communicate new approaches and new perspectives in understanding molecular life sciences. The aim for new approaches is captured in the request for a statement on Innovation, and similarly the aim for new perspectives is captured in the request for a statement on Insight. As the term ‘Integrative’ is in our journal title, I wish to emphasize here that innovation and insight in the world – whether in the realm of science, technology, business, or art – most often derive from bringing into a field tools and thoughts from other fields, disciplines or areas, in which they are unfamiliar rather than creating “de novo” a tool or thought that has never been imagined in any field.

For reference support, Steve Jobs has been quoted on this point [http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-quotes-2014-4?op=1]: “Creativity is just connecting things.” Resonant with this perspective, Albert Einstein is credited with having said [http://www.einsteinalive.com/quotes/einstein-creativity.htm]: “Creativity is seeing what others see and thinking what no one else has ever thought.” These are not proffered as definitive, but merely suggestive of the point I’d like to make about the goal of Integrative Biology: that any particular facet of an innovative study generating novel insights may be regarded as ‘standard’ in some particular field outside molecular life sciences or even within it – but it is the combination, the bringing together, the integration, of even demonstrably standard approaches or perspectives in a new way that produces those new insights.

In the end, it is the new insights that matter most. Our premise is that with some frequency these will be found by employing tools or thinking that, although existing elsewhere, had not previously been brought to bear on the question at hand – or, probably even better, a new question that had not previously been regarded as interesting or important. We are not seeking to be a “methods” journal, in either measurement or manipulation or modeling of biological systems in terms of molecular and cellular mechanisms. We prefer to be predominantly an “ideas” journal, though emphasizing that demonstration of the validity of new ideas is imperative.

In order to aid our potential authors, we have introduced a list of subjects into our scope documents to highlight some of the areas that we would like to encourage in terms of Innovation and Insight. This list, see below, is by no means exhaustive or exclusive and does not define the scope of Integrative Biology, but we thought it would help to point out areas of significant interest.

Synthetic biology

Systems biology

Computational biology

Mechanobiology

Cellular analytics

Biomolecular/cellular imaging

Tissue engineering

Multi-scale modeling

Microbial ecosystems

Disease mechanisms

To see the full scope of the journal please see http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/guidelines/AuthorGuidelines/JournalPolicy/Journals/IB.asp. We look forward to seeing your contributions in the New Year.

Professor Douglas Lauffenburger

Chair, Integrative Biology

Ford Professor of Bioengineering, MIT, USA

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