Welcome to Genome Biology and Evolution

About 50 years ago, the field of molecular evolution emerged at the interface of population genetics and molecular biology. The field grew rapidly, vitalized by advances in protein and nucleotide sequencing technology. Today, advances in genomic technologies are revolutionizing our perspectives on evolution once again. All genome data bear witness to the evolutionary process. The growth of the genomics field also spawned many successful journals dedicated to genomics, but none that were specifically dedicated to the study of genome evolution—until now. The fields of molecular evolution and genomics are rapidly merging. The Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution (SMBE) has observed this development over the years, in particular, at the SMBE annual meeting, where genome evolution and population genomics continue to generate highlights within the society and within the field as a whole. As a society, SMBE is in a unique position to promote that merger, owing to the breadth and wealth, within its ranks, of interdisciplinary expertise that the emerging field of evolutionary genomics demands. Motivated by this growth, SMBE long considered the possibility of establishing a new journal devoted to genome evolution to complement its current flagship journal, Molecular Biology and Evolution. Fostering those considerations, Oxford University Press conducted for SMBE a grass-roots survey to investigate the views of the field regarding new publication outlets. The survey drew a resounding response from scientists around the world. The key finding was that scientists in the field of molecular evolution and population genetics were overwhelmingly in favor of seeing a new journal specifically devoted to genome evolution, one in which the scientific advances from 40 years of molecular evolution came to bear upon the investigation of genome data. SMBE's response to that clear mandate is GBE, whose aim is to raise the standards for genome-based evolutionary research. That means that GBE will be selective both in terms of scope and in terms of quality. The benefit thus afforded to its readers will be insight; the benefit afforded to its authors will be prestige. Uniquely, the position of GBE in the current landscape of scientific publishing rests squarely between molecular evolution and genomics. This is also the interface where population genomics is emerging. GBE aims to nurture the highest standard of evolutionary genomic research, with the help of the molecular evolutionary and population genetic expertise that has gathered in and around SMBE over the years. GBE's mission and purpose is to provide the highest quality publication forum as genome technologies continue to change the way that we can observe and ask questions about the evolutionary process. GBE is a society journal, owned wholly by SMBE. As a publishing model, GBE is online only, is open access, and will afford very rapid publication upon acceptance. The SMBE Council appointed the team of Associate Editors, eminent scientists in the field who are willing to support this endeavor with their time, commitment, and scientific expertise. As the fields of genome evolution and population genomics grow, so will GBE.