Publish Or Perish
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ASPB News THE NEWSLETTER OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PLANT BIOLOGISTS Volume 31, Number 1 January/February 2004 President’s Letter Inside This Issue Publish or Perish Plant Genetics 2003: Mechanisms of Genetic Variation As I sit curled up in front of the fire with the current ASPB has been publishing online since 1998, and print issue of Plant Physiology, I am thinking about the full text of The Plant Cell, back to volume 1 Networking Made publishing not from the point of view of the indi- (1989), is freely available as searchable PDFs in the Simple: The New MAC Database vidual investigator, but from the point of view of a journal’s archive at www.plantcell.org (as well as the publisher. National Library of Medicine’s PubMedCentral). Congress Increases There are many issues facing ASPB as the publish- Plant Physiology is online back to 1993 (www.plant- Funding for Plant Genome Research ing world moves more and more toward electronic physiol.org) and will soon be digitized back to vol- delivery of its journals. As a scholarly, not-for-profit ume 1 (1926). Its archive will also be free to anyone publisher, the Society is joining together with other with Internet access. like-minded organizations such as the Genetics The key to our ongoing success as publishers, of Society of America and Cold Spring Harbor Press in course, will be to continue to publish the best papers a new initiative to reaffirm our commitment to inno- in plant biology and to keep our journals at the cut- vative and independent publishing practices and to ting edge with respect not only to content, but also to wide dissemination of the information contained in content delivery. our journals. Originally drafted by the American Physiological Society, The Endocrine Society, and the New England Journal of Medicine, the “DC Principles” has been signed by ASPB and more than Although electronic conferences are now possible, 45 other not-for-profit publishers representing 109 such a gathering of electrons cannot replace the journals. The document is scheduled for release in excitement of being able to hear, see, and discuss the March. best plant science has to offer at our annual meeting. Most of the signatories have been working for I hope to see many of you at Plant Biology 2004, several years with Stanford University’s HighWire being held this year from July 24 through July 28 at Press to transform traditional print journals into Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort & Convention vibrant, online journals. These publishers have Center, Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Your abstract is invested millions of dollars in online technology and due by March 1 if you would like to have it consid- at the same time have led the charge to make the ered for an oral presentation. The Program information in their journals freely available to those Committee will convene the weekend of March 5 to who cannot pay for it. Through these not-for-profit sort through the abstracts received and set up the publishers, the scientific community and the public minisymposia. have easy online access to nearly 700,000 free full-text articles and the abstracts of over 14 million articles in Mary Lou Guerinot more than 4,500 Medline journals. [email protected] The ASPB News is now available online as well as in print. Members will be alerted by e-mail when a new issue is posted. The ASPB News welcomes member feedback. Contact the editor at [email protected]. ASPB Officers & Staff CONTENTS President Mary Lou Guerinot 603-646-2527 1 President’s Letter President-Elect Roger Hangarter 812-855-5456 Immediate Past President Daniel R. Bush 970-491-2442 3 Plant Genetics 2003: Mechanisms of Secretary Edgar Spalding 608-265-5294 Genetic Variation Treasurer Mark R. Brodl 210-999-7246 Chair, Board of Trustees Louis Sherman 765-494-8106 5 ASPB Members on ISIHighlyCited.com Chair, Publications Committee C. Robertson McClung 603-646-3940 Chair, Women in Plant Biology Committee Mary Tierney 802-656-0434 Minority Affairs Committee Regina McClinton 616-331-2470 6 Networking Made Simple: The New MAC Database Education Committee Lawrence Griffing 979-845-6493 Elected Members Nick Carpita 765-494-4653 Adrienne E. Clarke +61-38-344-5043 7 Education Foundation Director Looks Linda Walling 909-787-4687 at New Opportunities Sectional Representatives Midwestern Steven Rodermel 515-294-8890 8 Rumble in Rockville as Earthquake Northeastern Rakesh Minocha 603-868-7622 Hits DC Area Southern Mel Oliver 806-723-5225 Mid-Atlantic Jonathan Monroe 540-568-6649 8 Ties That Bind—Retirement Finds Western Dina Mandoli 206-543-4335 Rabson in Contact with ASPB Colleagues 9 Bioethics Executive director vacant Executive assistant Donna Gordon, ext. 131 [email protected] 10 Membership Corner Director of finance and administration Susan K. Rosenberry, ext. 111 [email protected] Accounting manager Kim Snell, ext. 141 [email protected] Network administrator Burton Nicodemus, ext. 146 [email protected] 11 Biochemistry Textbook: New Online Webmaster Wendy Sahli, ext. 123 [email protected] Image Library Membership and marketing manager Kelley Noone, ext. 142 [email protected] Subscription and fulfillment assistant Suzanne Moore Cholwek, ext. 141 [email protected] 12 Public Affairs Accounts receivable specialist Stephanie Liu-Kuan, ext. 143 [email protected] Accounts payable specialist Stefanie Shamer, ext. 144 [email protected] 17 Education Forum Administrative assistant Carolyn Freed, ext. 122 [email protected] Director of public affairs Brian M. Hyps, ext. 114 [email protected] 18 Obituary: Lawrence Bogorad Education Foundation assistant Paula Brooks, ext. 116 [email protected] Director of publications Nancy A. Winchester, ext. 117 [email protected] Publications assistant Diane McCauley, ext. 133 [email protected] Deadline for May/June 2004 Managing editor, Plant Physiology George Kendall, ext 118 [email protected] ASPB News: April 5, 2004 Science writer, Plant Physiology Peter Minorsky, 845-878-4570 [email protected] Production manager, Plant Physiology Lisa Pergolizzi [email protected] Manuscript manager, Plant Physiology Leslie (Ash) Csikos, ext. 125 [email protected] Managing editor, The Plant Cell Beth Staehle, ext. 121 [email protected] News and reviews editor, The Plant Cell Nancy Eckardt, 970-495-9918 [email protected] Production manager, The Plant Cell John Long, ext. 119 [email protected] NOTICE: The ASPB News no longer Manuscript manager, The Plant Cell Annette Kessler, ext. 120 [email protected] carries job ads or meeting an- nouncements. Job ads appear online at www.aspb.org/jobbank. The list is updated every Friday. ASPB News ASPB News is distributed to all ASPB members and is published six Meeting notices can be posted at times annually, in odd-numbered months. It is edited and prepared www.aspb.org/meetings. by ASPB staff from material provided by ASPB members and other Headquarters Office interested parties. 15501 Monona Drive Copy deadline is the 5th day of the preceding even-numbered Rockville, MD 20855-2768 USA month (for example, December 5 for January/February publication). Phone: 301-251-0560 Submit copy by e-mail whenever possible; submit all other copy by Fax: 301-279-2996 mail, not by fax. Contact: Nancy A. Winchester, Editor, ASPB News, 15501 Monona Drive, Rockville, MD 20855-2768 USA; [email protected]; 301-251-0560, ext. 117. © 2004 American Society of Plant Biologists Plant Genetics 2003: Mechanisms of Genetic Variation NEW “PARTNERS PROGRAM” MEANS In October 2003, ASPB sponsored its first article presents a brief sampling of the many DISCOUNTS FOR special topics meeting on plant genetics in outstanding presentations given. Abstracts Snowbird, Utah. The meeting’s purpose was for speakers and posters can be accessed at ASPB MEMBERS to stimulate new ideas and approaches for http://www.aspb.org/meetings/pg-2003/. research focusing on mechanisms of genetic As an added benefit of QTL Analysis: Off and Running variation. The meeting included sessions on membership, the Society’s new One of the major themes to emerge from the natural variation and processes of evolution, Partners Program allows ASPB meeting was the realization that analysis of speciation and crop domestication, epige- members to receive discounts quantitative trait loci (QTLs), coupled with netic mechanisms, RNA and protein move- on products and services offered the use of new genomic tools and ment, and genetic mechanisms influencing by an array of vendors. genomewide resources in model systems, is plant form and function. Top scientists rapidly moving to the forefront of plant from around the world came together to functional genetics. The plant science litera- Go to the ASPB members- discuss the different aspects of plant genet- ture is replete with QTL studies that have only page at ics and a variety of species and approaches. remained little more than unidentified and http://www.aspb.org/ Thanks go to organizers Venkatesan often vaguely defined genomic regions for membersonly.cfm Sundaresan (University of California, Davis) for discounts on products years. QTL analysis is now progressing to and Rich Jorgensen (University of Arizona) and services from rapid selection of candidate genes and iden- for developing a schedule packed with excel- tification of individual genes responsible lent speakers and high-quality posters. This Kluwer for major QTL effects in many cases. Sigma-Aldrich Through his description of the isolation of a cryptochrome2 allele, which confers day- Annual Reviews length insensitivity, Maarten Koornneef (Wageningen University, the Netherlands) Current Trends demonstrated the feasibility of cloning indi- Blackwell Plant Sciences vidual QTL through map-based cloning with Publications the use of near-isogenic introgression lines that are developed from naturally occurring STKE (Signal Transduction populations of Arabidopsis. Richard Clark Knowledge Environment) (working with John Doebley at the In late October, Snowbird offered crystal Comparative and Functional clear mountain vistas but no snow.