Meat and Muscle Biology (MMB) was initiated by the American Meat Science Association as its official scientific journal in October 2016 to provide a broader scope of peer-reviewed meat science and muscle biology research than was then available to the world’s meat science and industry community. The journal’s focus is on edible products from commonly farmed and/or harvested meat animal species and further establishes AMSA as the authoritative resource of factual meat information. The papers provide research information with an immediate practical application or for knowledge in biological aspects of the discipline that will advance its usefulness in the long term. Heading up the scientific editing of the journal are Dr. Elisabeth Huff-Lonergan, Iowa State University, as editor-in-chief, and Dr. Surendranath Suman, from the University of Kentucky, as the associate editor.
MMB is an open-access, peer-reviewed, online-only journal focusing on edible products from commonly farmed and/or harvested meat animal species. Articles are available for reading and downloading at no charge as soon as they are published. The journal considers research submissions on all antemortem and postmortem factors that influence the properties of meat that are marketed for human consumption. This includes meat from domestic mammals, avians, aquaculture species, amphibians, wild-capture mammals and synthetic meat analogs. The scope of topics ranges from production, processing, composition, quality, safety and value of edible products including muscle biology and biochemistry, human nutrition, food safety, sensory evaluation, consumer science, meat analytical procedures and marketing of meat products. MMB aims to become the flagship journal in disseminating the most important and highest-quality knowledge on antemortem and postmortem factors that influence meat properties. Authors can find everything they need to submit articles at http://www.iastatedigitalpress.com/mmb/. The same address can be used to access journal content.
The journal has recently experienced exciting changes. The journal has a new publisher — the Iowa State University Digital Press, which is run by the Iowa State University Library. The ISU Library has a long history of providing digital publishing solutions to clients within and outside of Iowa State University. The journal is now accepting submissions through the new site, as noted above.
Working with ISU Digital Press has several distinct advantages to AMSA as a society. Because we are their first society journal and their flagship journal, they are dedicated to working hard with us to grow the journal to be the premier journal in our field. They are also able to offer several other publishing options for societies and organizations. Because they are part of a university library that is cognizant of the costs of publishing incurred by researchers, they are dedicated to keeping the costs as low as possible. Therefore, their pricing structure has allowed us to significantly reduce the article processing charge (APC) to authors. Our APC for AMSA members is $850. The charge for non-members is $1,000.
Other exciting news is the journal will publish the review articles for the 2020 International Congress of Meat Science and Technology/Reciprocal Meat Conference in a special issue of MMB. Dr. Anna Dilger of the University Illinois is working hard on that issue as a special guest editor. These review articles are typically widely read and highly cited and are a great resource not only for academics, but also for industry scientists. This is a fantastic opportunity for the journal to be showcased to an international audience.
This is a new and exciting era for the MMB journal for AMSA as they continue to uphold the mission of providing high-quality, unbiased scientific information to the industry. I am looking forward to the future of the journal and am highly pleased with how it is going. Thanks to all of you for your continued support of Meat and Muscle Biology, the future of the journal looks great. NP
