Since its launch in January 2023, Nature Reviews Bioengineering has accepted a total of 68 Reviews and Perspectives, as well as 36 News and Comment pieces, including Editorials, Comments, Research Highlights, Q&As, Viewpoints and Down-to-Business articles. Notably, several of our Reviews and Perspectives came from proposals, which reflects the high quality of submissions we have received. At Nature Reviews Bioengineering, our aim is to cover the full breadth of bioengineering, which is reflected in the many different areas we have published in 2023 (Fig. 1a).

Fig. 1: The first year of Nature Reviews Bioengineering in numbers.
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Simon Bradbrook

a, Subject areas of Review articles published in 2023. b, Affiliation regions of corresponding authors of Review articles published in 2023. c, Outreach by the editorial team.

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“At Nature Reviews Bioengineering, our aim is to cover the full breadth of bioengineering, which is reflected in the many different areas we have published in 2023”

Our commissioning strategy is targeted towards covering the most timely, interesting and relevant bioengineering research around the globe. However, when it comes to the geographical diversity of our authors, there is much room for improvement (Fig. 1b). Most of our corresponding authors are based in the USA, which may reflect the quality of bioengineering research produced in this region. Nevertheless, moving forward, we aim to reach out to a broader authorship and cover diverse topics, including bioengineering research related to global health, such as low-cost, point-of-care imaging and diagnostics, medical devices, plant bioengineering and affordable treatment approaches.

Indeed, we have recognized this need and have already been working towards improving our global representation. To learn about bioengineering research and connect with the scientific community, outreach has been an important pillar for us. We participated in several virtual and in-person conferences, gave publishing talks and Nature Masterclasses, and performed lab visits all over the world for a total of 75 meetings in 13 countries (Fig. 1c). As we move into our second year, we plan to continue engaging face-to-face with the community, as there is hardly a better way to get exposed to state-of-the-art research and to learn from you about the topics we should pursue. Therefore, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.

This has been an exciting first year, and we hope our readers, authors and referees share our enthusiasm. Here is to the diverse, authoritative and stimulating Nature Reviews Bioengineering articles to be published in the future.