Journal of Cell Science
The Journal of Cell Science (formerly the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science) is a peer-reviewed scientific journal in the field of cell biology. The journal is published by The Company of Biologists. The journal is partnered with Publons, is part of the Review Commons initiative and has two-way integration with bioRxiv. Journal of Cell Science is a hybrid journal and publishes 24 issues a year. Content over 6 months old is free to read. History Foundation and early years The journal was established in 1853 as the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science (Q. J. Microsc. Sci., ). The founding editors were Edwin Lankester and George Busk. The publisher of the early issues was Samuel Highley of Fleet Street, London, with John Churchill and Sons (later J. & A. Churchill) taking over from 1856. The journal's original aims, as described in a preface to the first issue, were not limited to biology, but encompassed all branches of science related to the microscope: Contributors to the first issue include Thomas Henry Huxley, Joseph Lister, William Crawford Williamson, and George Shadbolt. The contents of the early issues are diverse, and include original research articles, translations of papers published in other languages, transactions of the meetings of the Microscopical Society of London (later the Royal Microscopical Society), and book reviews. The journal also published short notes and memoranda, aimed "to gather up fragments of information, which singly might appear to be useless but together are of great importance to science"; the editors encouraged non-specialist submissions to this section, considering that "there are few possessors of a Microscope who have not met with some stray fact or facts which, published in this way, may not lead to important results." The editors also intended "to relieve the graver and more strictly scientific matter of the Journal by lighter contributions, such as will be found useful to the beginner, not uninteresting to the advanced observer, and of interest perhaps to the general reader." Lankester and Busk co-edited the journal until the end of 1868. Lankester continued to edit the journal with his son, Ray Lankester until the end of 1871. Under Ray Lankester and Edwin Goodrich After Edwin Lankester's retirement, Ray Lankester remained an editor, with co-editors including E. Klein, William Archer, Joseph Frank Payne, and W. T. Thiselton Dyer. From 1878 until 1920, he served as the sole editor, amassing a total of over fifty years as an editor of the journal. The journal flourished under his guidance, becoming one of the leading British science journals. His successor, Edwin Stephen Goodrich, served as editor for twenty-five years, from 1920 until his death in 1946. Oxford University Press took over as publishers in 1920. The Company of Biologists and relaunch In 1946 or 1947, George Parker Bidder, then the owner, gave the journal to The Company of Biologists, a company he had founded in 1925 in a successful bid to rescue the failing British Journal of Experimental Biology. Initially, Oxford University Press remained the publishers on behalf