Welcome from the editors of The Ohio Journal of Science.

McKee, Jeffrey ; Morrone, Michele

You may notice some changes in this issue of The Ohio Journal of Science; including some new story features. In order to diversify the Journal, we have developed two new columns. The first is called "Letters to a Young Scientist." We adopted this idea from E.O. Wilson's new book of the same name. We contacted Dr. Wilson to make sure that this would be okay and he responded, "I would be proud to see "Letters to a Young Scientist" as a title of the column you mention." The first column is written by the current President of the Academy, Michael Hoggarth. We hope to have 1-2 letters each year from members of the senior academy.

Another new feature is a summary of some of the interesting science news stories in Ohio over the past year. The "Year in Science, 2014" was compiled from statewide news sources as well as contributions from members. This column is not meant to identify the most important or significant events during the past year, rather it is to summarize some notable activities that highlight the contributions that Ohio is making to science. The "Year in Science" column also enhances some of the key objectives of The Ohio Academy of Science in terms of promoting science in the state.

In addition to the changes that you can see, there have been other changes that are not as obvious to readers. This year the peer review process went online, page charges for members were eliminated, and two new editors are on board. After negotiating with several national online manuscript submittal systems, the Academy's CEO located a service coordinated by The Ohio State University. This system, OSU Libraries Digital Publishing, offers an open access platform (Open Journal Systems) for the Journal, from submittal to publication. This economical approach to manage the publishing process allowed the Board of the Academy to eliminate page charges for members. Historically, the Journal has relied on page charges as its major source of production funding. However, with the shift to the online management system and open access publishing, it is no longer necessary to print as many journals. We hope that by eliminating prohibitive page charges we will widen the reach of the Journal.

The other significant change to the Journal is the addition of two new editors. Dr. Michele Morrone is a Professor of Environmental Health Science at Ohio University. She has more than 25 years of experience in environmental education and research in Ohio. As the first Chief of the Office of Environmental Education at the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, she was instrumental in initiating the Ohio EPA Environmental Science and Engineering scholarship program in partnership with the Academy.

Dr. Jeffrey McKee is a Professor of Anthropology at The Ohio State University. He is apaleoanthropologist and paleoecologist who led excavations at the South African fossil sites of Taung and Makapansgat. He specializes in computer modeling and simulations of evolutionary phenomena. Recently he has been studying the relationship of human population density to growing extinction threats on species of mammals and birds, as outlined in his book Sparing Nature. A native Ohioan, McKee has long-championed the promotion of scientific understanding among the public.

Moving forward, our goals for the Journal include continually enhancing the content with items that will benefit members and non-members alike. For example, we have discussed offering a platform for members to share their research successes including publications and grants. We are open to ideas for additional columns and features. We view the Journal as an important tool for disseminating and promoting science in Ohio and welcome your comments and suggestions as we move forward.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jeffrey McKee and Dr. Michele Morrone