For multiple years, the previous ASME Journal of Biomechanical Engineering Editors-in-Chief, Dr. Victor Barocas and Dr. Beth Winkelstein, provided a Year in Review editorial, essentially a “state of the union” address about the Journal. In our roles as new editors, we want to continue that tradition; toward that end, we here summarize several developments from both 2020 and 2021.
As readers will know, the ASME Journal of Biomechanical Engineering saw another major editorial transition in 2022. Victor Barocas stepped down at the end of 2021 as the Editor-in-Chief after two full terms. Thao (Vicky) Nguyen was selected by the Bioengineering Division Executive Committee to fill Victor's role at JBME, joining C. Ross Ethier. We extend our sincere thanks once again to Victor and Beth for their remarkable leadership and for their invaluable help during the editorial transition.
The Associate Editors (AEs) of the journal continue to demonstrate tremendous commitment to the community and good science, and it is a pleasure working with them. The Editors-in-Chief would like to thank all the AEs for their hard work and dedication. We salute those AEs who have completed their terms and rotated off over the past several years: Dr. Alberto Figueroa, Dr. Tamara Bush, Dr. Eric Kennedy, Dr. Sarah Kieweg, Dr. Keefe Manning, Dr. Christian Puttlitz, Dr. Nathan Sniadecki, Dr. Sara Wilson, and Dr. Raffaella DeVita. Dr. Katherine Zhang, Dr. Spencer Lake and Dr. John LaDisa have been appointed to a second AE term, and JBME is in the process of appointing and/or renewing new AEs in the areas of gait biomechanics, bone biomechanics, and cell biomechanics and mechanobiology. Persons at Associate Professor or higher rank, or with equivalent industrial positions/experience, are encouraged to contact Vicky and Ross if they are interested in possibly becoming an Associate Editor for JBME.
Darryl Dickerson has been selected as the first Diversity Advocate for JBME. The Diversity Advocates are charged with promoting diversity, equity, and inclusivity at all levels of the Journal, including editors, authors, and readers. In his first year as the Diversity Advocate, Darryl has organized a workshop titled “Diversity and Inclusion in Academic Publishing” to be held at the 2022 SB3C meeting in Maryland. He has also worked with the Editors-in-Chief to identify candidates for AEs from underrepresented groups in engineering. The journal is searching for a second Diversity Advocate. As with Associate Editor positions, persons interested in the Diversity Advocate position are encouraged to contact Vicky and Ross.
Journal of Biomechanical Engineering is also pleased to announce the creation of the Social Media Director position. The Social Media Director will be an AE, who in addition to the traditional AE duties, will work to publicize newly accepted articles and influential classic articles in JBME. The AE has been nominated and is currently going through the ASME approval process.
For 2022, JBME will be publishing two special issues. The first is this issue, the Annual Special Issue, which includes the SB3C 2021 Student Paper, and Society Medal Winners, with Guest Editor Ian Sigal. Our sincere thanks to Ian and his team for coordinating the articles in this issue. The second will be Data-Driven Methods in Biomechanics, with Guest Editors Adrian Buganza Tepole, Jessica Zhang, and Hector Gomez, which will appear in November 2022. Further, Guest Editors Edward Sander and Kyle P. Quinn are organizing a special issue in honor of Victor Barocas and Beth Winkelstein and their long service as Editors-in-Chief of JBME. That special issue is scheduled to be published in April 2023. JBME welcomes proposals for special issues and reviews articles on emerging topics and computational and experimental methods in biomechanics and bioengineering. Persons interested in organizing a special issue are encouraged to contact Ross and Vicky.
Long-time readers may be expecting to hear about the Editors' Choice papers for 2021, as well as about the 2020 and 2021 Skalak paper winners. We are a little delayed with those announcements but will be sharing that information with our community imminently.
In closing, we sincerely thank all the ASME staff, especially Philip DiVietro, Colin McAteer, Beth Darchi, Tamiko Fung, and Jennifer Smith, for their year-round support and work behind the scenes to make the journal strong. We also thank our editorial assistants, Jillian Jantosciak and Layla Nereson, for lightening our load.
Finally, we thank everyone involved in JBME for their tremendous efforts and look forward to next year's continued success.
