Dr. Cheryl B. Knudson is a professor and chair at East Carolina University. Dr. Knudson did her PhD. from University of Southern California and post doctorate from Tufts University School of Medicine.

Dr. Knudson research interests is in the mechanisms of interaction of the extracellular matrix with cells to regulate cell behavior.

1. What makes an article top quality? 

Response: Easy to read, rationale for experimental design presented clearly, details of how the experiments were performed are present, how the work impact the field is discussed, the information from previously published works (by the authors and by other research groups) is discussed, woven together, insightful, not merely a stack of articles listed in the Discussion or Introduction.

2. Do you think that journals determine research trends?

Response: No -- currently review articles rarely include ideas of what we still need to know.

3. What makes a good position paper?

Response: Maybe such a paper could be provided/editedbased on an NIH public discussion meeting or a review of a scientific conference.

4. What are the qualities you look for in an article?

Response: An interesting experimental approach.Definitive data (e.g., not sloppy gels and unclear images of cells). Rationale for the work presented in the Introduction. An exciting Discussion section that weaves together the new data with previous data from that research team as well as data by other groups.

5. Can you give us a broad indication of the types of themes a scientific journal should cover?

Response: This is the list of topics on the website: Scope and Relevance of the Journal: •Cell Anatomy •Cell Physiology •Cell Signalling& Transduction •Cell Differentiation •Molecular Biology •Immunology •Genetics •Biochemistry •Stem Cell Biology: Research & Application •Application of Bioinformatics, Proteomics & Computational Biology in Cell Science

6. How would you describe the journal’s mission and editorial objectives to our readers?

Response: From the website: “Cell Biology is a scientific discipline which involves study of the basic unit of life, cell. Research work under the domain revolves around the study of cell organelles, physiology, cell-cell interactions, molecular biochemistry, genetics, cell death and reproduction etc.” I might suggest these edits:Cell Biology is a scientific discipline to study the basic unit of life, the cell. Research work revealing the molecular basis of the function of cell organelles, cell-cell interactions, cell signaling pathways on the behavior of cells during differentiation, tissue homeostasis and disease processesare published.

7. If you could be granted dream articles, what would they be on?

Response: (1) how post-translational modification of proteins (by phosphorylation, adding sugars, etc.) alters protein function and cell behavior. (2) how membrane traffic is regulated and consequences of disease processes and dysregulation of membrane traffic (3) how do integrins function in connective tissue cells (not blood or epithelia)

8. Are there any particular areas which you would like to see, or expect to see, collaborate?

Response: See #8 responses

9. How does the research published percolate through to practitioners?

Response: Practitioners who train medical students and/or residents should be a target audience. These practitioners have weekly or monthly Journal Clubs for those trainees. Practitioners need to have an easy way to subscribe to a service wherein they provide key words and favorite journals and then receive a weekly list of “hits” with the citation of publications. They can screen the titles and then read abstracts if they are interested.

10. How can a publisher ensure the authors/readers a rigorous peer review and quality control?

Response: As per my comments to question #10, the title of a paper must be exact and correct and not over-stated. Next, the abstract must be closely revised to fit the final approach/data/conclusions of the final version of the manuscript since busy scientists and practitioners often read only the titles, and then if interested, they will read the abstract. Reading the entire paper will occur for that subset of investigators for whom that paper fits into their research, grant application or review article.

11. What do you see as the merits of journals, as opposed to book series, as a means of scholarly communications?

Response: Journals need to convince university library systems to “subscribe” in order to provide open access to the articles. Such library systems do not need to collect the paper copies of the issues of these journals, as investigators will save pdf versions to read (or print if highly relevant to ongoing work). Book series were good when this strategy was not in place.