On December 9, 2020, the last print issue of The Journal of Neuroscience will be published. Notably, the next issue of JNeurosci, which will come out on January 6, 2021, will also mark the 40th anniversary of the first issue of JNeurosci. After 40 years of paper copies, which filled the shelves of the conference rooms and libraries of all the labs I and many, many other neuroscientists have worked in across our careers, we get to reimagine what a journal can look like when freed of the constraints of the printed page.
It is likely that many of you have never read articles in JNeurosci on paper and are used to dipping into articles on your laptop or phone. However, I think many of us who started our careers going to the library to read or photocopy articles in JNeurosci will feel a little nostalgic about this transition. Those of you whose images have been featured on the cover of JNeurosci over the years, many of whom have framed versionson their office walls, may reminisce about holding “your” issue when it arrived by mail. Rest assured, we will continue to feature a cover image every week in each new issue, but authors will have to print out the cover themselves if they want to frame it for display.
Many other journals have preceded us into the online-only world, including our sister journal eNeuro, who was born and grew up online. We are looking forward to finding ways to take advantage of the freedom of the electronic format. Moving away from print opens up new possibilities for presenting data and linking to additional resources.
Like most transitions, the move away from printed copies of JNeurosci will be bittersweet. I look forward to hearing from you about changes that you would like to see that will take advantage of the move online. Send me your ideas to JN_EiC{at}SfN.org or @MarinaP63 on Twitter.
