December 13, 2016
It is no big revelation that publishing is changing. How people prefer to read and access information is in some ways a demographic conundrum and in other ways an expected technology-driven evolution. Recognizing those changing attitudes and in honor of our 15th anniversary year as a publication, for 2017 BPI is planning to both adapt to and further drive business and publishing trends in ways that truly meet the information needs of our readers around the world. We simply didn’t have many of these options 15 years ago!
Here are a few changes in the works — and how they align with industry perspectives:
Some topics, although new to many readers, have matured beyond the need to keep painting them with over-broad brush strokes. So in the coming year(s) we are replacing our supplement series with focused “featured reports” alongside every issue. These will allow us to delve into forward-looking details and examine critical areas of focus. Each will be editorially prepared, organized about a central theme, and contain two or three solicited articles to support points defined in our positioning introductions. Topics for 2017 include single-use technologies, cell therapies, and outsourcing.
By popular demand, and in recognition of the increased collaborative work toward developing products and platforms, we are introducing a new issue theme focused on drug-product development (twice in 2017).
To make room for increased coverage of analytical methods and reflect the lessening separation of development and manufacturing silos, our downstream and manufacturing themes will be combined. You will still see them identified separately in our “focus boxes,” of course! But such flexibility is needed in light of regenerative medicines and continuous processes.
And finally, contributors to our featured reports will be able to continue their discussions through webcasts, development of eBooks, and other elements that either do not fit into a printed magazine or are more logically presented digitally.
As I mentioned last month, prospective authors can access our new guidelines online — www.bioprocessintl.com/about/author-guidelines — which include more specific information about graphics preparation and house style (with the final list of our upcoming themes and subthemes).
This issue’s report on our 2016 BPI Awards results also reflects the importance of new industry mind-sets. The nominations for collaborations in corporate citizenship, especially, revealed some phenomenal approaches. Our Industry Champions have successfully encouraged work and communication across traditional barriers between end users and suppliers, academia and industry, and even among former competitors. And our special issue on bioindustry training programs addresses ways companies can increase the effectiveness of training new employees in a time when corporate training budgets are inadequate by themselves.
I am writing this the morning after the US elections. None of us knows what the future will bring, but our primary goal remains as strong as ever: to help you all support and improve human health and to address the health needs of our increasingly global community.
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