Wednesday, June 18, 2008

New look and renewed success for Brain and Language


The journal Brain and Language has a new look. It's not just cover art that's different about the journal though. Editor Steve Small has put in some serious work to restore Brain and Language to its former glory as THE premier journal for publication of research on the neurobiology of language. There was a period a few years back when publication time-lines were prohibitively slow, which led to fewer submissions, and a drop off in quality. If you've reviewed for or submitted to B&L lately though, you'll know that slow turn around is a thing of the past (reviewers are strongly encouraged to submit reviews within two weeks), and quality is back where it should be.

The proof is in the pudding. The latest Thomson-Reuters Scientific Journal Citation Reports show that Brain and Language continues to increase its Impact Factor, which is now at 2.641 -- quite good for a specialized journal. This puts Brain and Language at #91/200 among journals in neuroscience, #16/72 among journals of psychology, and #1 of 55 journals of linguistics.

I notice that the current issue has a paper by Prof. Poeppel (an index of high standards for sure!), and watch for a future special issue guest-edited by yours truly, on (what else) Mirror Neurons and Speech. Should be an interesting and provocative issue.

Definitely put B&L on your list of journals to scan every month. Many thanks to Steve Small for his hard work! Well done Steve!

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