Lab on a Chip in 2017

From the Editor-in-Chief

2017 was a strong year for Lab on a Chip and 2018 looks to be even better. Our broader, revised scope that focuses on our desire to publish articles that describe novelties in both the device and application has been well received by the community as reflected in our number of submitted articles remaining high this year. Citations to articles published in the journal are also continuing to perform well. According to Clarivate Analytics' Web of Science, Lab on a Chip articles were cited a total of ∼27 000 times in 2016 and our latest impact factor is 6.045. This strong citation performance has continued in 2017 and we expect this trend into next year. This demonstrates that articles published in the journal are relevant and insightful to the broad spectrum of researchers that makes up our community.

Editorial and Advisory Boards

We are delighted to announce the appointment of a new Associate Editor to the journal's Editorial Board. In January 2018, Professor Manabu Tokeshi (Hokkaido University), will be joining our experienced Associate Editors Petra Dittrich (ETH Zürich), Hang Lu (Georgia Institute of Technology), Jianhua Qin (Dalian Institute for Chemical Physics), Joel Voldman (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Aaron Wheeler (University of Toronto), who coordinate the peer review for a significant proportion of articles submitted to the journal.

We have also expanded our Advisory Board in order to better represent the breadth of interests and diversity of the journal's community. New Advisory Board members include Oscar Ces (Imperial College London), Daniel Irimia (Massachusetts General Hospital), Sunghoon Kwon (Seoul National University), Weihua Li (University of Wollongong), Chwee Teck Lim (National University of Singapore), Nam-Trung Nguyen (Griffith University), David Sinton (University of Toronto), Hongkai Wu (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), Chaoyong James Yang (Xiamen University) and Roland Zengerle (Hahn-Schickard). For a complete list of our Editorial and Advisory Board members, see our website: http://www.rsc.li/loc.

Thematic collections

This summer we launched our first thematic collections which are designed to cover reviews and original research in emerging technologies and applications in a particular topic within the field of miniaturisation. Each thematic collection has one or two “thought leaders”, who are leading names in the field. Our first thematic collection was launched in July on the topic of organ-, body-, and disease-on-a-chip with Michael Shuler (Cornell University) as thought leader. The Editorial by Michael and the articles already in this collection can be read on the journal website (http://www.rsc.li/organonachip). In August 2017 we launched a thematic collection on droplet-based single-cell sequencing with Lab on a Chip Advisory Board member David Weitz (Harvard University) as thought leader. This collection (http://www.rsc.li/drop-sc-seq) contains three Editorials, one by David, one by droplet-based single-cell technologists Allon Klein (Harvard University) and Evan Macosko (Broad Institute) and another by Lab on a Chip Editorial Board member, engineer and business entrepreneur Mark Gilligan (Dolomite). Our final 2017 thematic collection launched in September on the topic of liquid biopsy and is led by thought leaders Stefanie Jeffrey (Stanford University) and Mehmet Toner (Massachusetts General Hospital). Articles published in the collection so far can be read on the journal website (http://www.rsc.li/liquid-biopsy). Submissions to each of these collections are ongoing (with deadlines throughout spring and summer 2018) and accepted articles are collated online in virtual collections, which will be extensively promoted. For more information on how to submit to these collections please see the journal blog (http://www.rsc.li/loc-thematic-collections).

Emerging Investigators

Also this year we launched our Emerging Investigators Series to replace the successful standalone Emerging Investigator themed issues published previously. The new Series aims to showcase the best work in the field of miniaturisation at the micro- and nano-scale, being conducted by early-career researchers. The Series is co-edited by Lab on a Chip Editorial Board members Dino Di Carlo (University of California Los Angeles), Yoon-Kyoung Cho (Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology) and Piotr Garstecki (Institute of Physical Chemistry of Polish Academy of Sciences). To be eligible for the Series, corresponding authors must be within 10 years of completing their PhD and have an independent research career. Accepted papers are collated online in a virtual collection and receive extra promotion including an interview on the journal blog and social media coverage via @LabonaChip. For more details and to read articles published in this collection so far, please see the Lab on a Chip blog (http://www.rsc.li/loc-emerging-investigator).

MicroTAS conference

Our former Editor-in-Chief George Whitesides (Harvard University) kicked off the Annual MicroTAS conference in Savannah in the featured plenary session. He discussed the history, trends, and outlook for the field of lab-on-a-chip. As in past years, we were involved with our regular four competitions at the conference with various partners. In a new collaboration with Dolomite, and with the support of the Chemical and Biological Microsystems Society (CBMS), we presented the 12th Pioneers of Miniaturization Lectureship to Professor Aaron Wheeler (University of Toronto) for his contributions to digital microfluidics. We also presented awards to the winners of the 10th Art in Science Competition in partnership with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the 4th video competition in partnership with Dolomite and the 17th Widmer poster prize. Congratulations to all the winners! For more details on all the competitions, please see the Lab on a Chip blog (http://blogs.rsc.org/lc/2017/11/07/lab-on-a-chip-awards-prestigious-prizes-at-microtas-2017).

Looking forward to 2018

We are looking forward to see how our new initiatives continue to be received by the community and we encourage you to read and submit to our thematic collections or the Emerging Investigator Series. Look out for announcements for new thematic collection topics next year. As always, we welcome your feedback – please do send us any thoughts or comments on the journal's activities at any time.

Professor Abraham Lee, Editor-in-Chief

Dr Sam Keltie, Executive Editor

Dr Maria Southall, Deputy Editor

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