By the time Volume 31, Number 1 is launched, all four Associations comprising the JBC consortium—ABCD, AMI, BCA, and HeSCA—will have conducted their respective annual meetings. The meetings are planned with the primary purpose of providing a forum for biocommunicators to share their knowledge through presentations of scholarly papers and displays of creative still and motion media images. Attendees at these meetings experience firsthand interaction with the presenters and image creators; limitless educational and professional growth opportunities abound.

Unfortunately, with institutions cutting travel budgets and independent professionals experiencing growing economic concerns, more and more people are forced to make up budget shortfalls with out-of-pocket funds or choose not to attend. And some individuals, even those with funding, arrive at meetings with ambivalent feelings, as they are concerned that their absence from the workplace may prove detrimental to their job security. These trends are reflected in steadily declining meeting attendance, even when the desire for knowledge and the need to network with colleagues remain strong.

Such trends add credence to the production of the Journal, especially when distributed via the Internet. Papers are easily communicated and images are available for inspection by the readership whenever time permits. Further, this communication method does not demand time away from the job site/responsibilities. And with e-mail access to the authors, questions and comments can be exchanged readily. Plus, Internet links to references and affiliated sites allow immediate, or deferred, opportunities to delve into the subject material—all of them available within comfortable reach of the nearest connected computer.

The new opportunities to be found in this issue include three featured papers: Michael Hughes’ and Craig Luce’s, “Depicting the Anterior Eye in Two and Three Dimensions -- Part One: Cornea and Pupil”; Wendy Hiller Gee’s “Patient Education and Health Literacy in the United States”; and James Perkins’ “A History of Molecular Representation Part 1: 1800 to the 1960s.” Manny Bekier, ABCD’s incoming President, writes about the changing face of biocommunications, and what we should be doing as a consequence, in Viewpoint. Also, SCRIPTOR (Ron Irvine) continues the 25 year retrospective of the Journal of the Biological Photographic Association / Journal of Biological Photography with a review of “gizmos” and “new products”; the Gallery features the exquisite medical illustration award winners from the Association of Medical Illustrators 2004 Salon; and Calendar and Association News will provide updates on the latest in professional events and activities.

And finally, whether you attended one or more of the Associations’ annual meetings, let alone presented a paper, the opportunity for you to submit your work for potential publication in the JBC is one that you really should consider, and the sooner, the better. But, until you have taken advantage of that opportunity, please enjoy this issue’s offerings.

Bob Turner,
Chair, JBC Management Board
bturner@scripps.edu

Produced in the U.S.A. and © 2004/2005 by The Journal of Biocommunication, Inc. All rights reserved. This publication is supported by members’ and public subscriptions and is published online three times each year; a compendium issue is printed once each year.

THE JOURNAL OF BIOCOMMUNICATION is available to all paid members of the ABCD, AMI, BCA, and HeSCA. Other individuals and institutions are invited to subscribe: individuals at $36, libraries or institutions at $45, students at $32 per year.

Address subscription correspondence to:
Subscriptions: Ron Sokolowski
Eastern Business Service
39 Wedgewood Drive, Suite A
Jewett City, CT 06351
(860) 376-8150, fax (860) 376-6621

Direct editorial communications to respective association editors.
Managing Editor: Joanne Shaw
University of California, Irvine
P.O. Box 53202
Irvine, CA 92619-3202
(949) 533-0317

Association of Biomedical Communications Directors (ABCD) Editor: Jackson Townsend
Director of Learning Resources
LSU School of Medicine
1542 Tulane Avenue – Room 703
New Orleans, LA 70112
(504) 568-4840, fax (504) 568-4843

Association of Medical Illustrators (AMI) Co-Editor: Gary Lees
Johns Hopkins University, Art as Applied to Medicine
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
1830 E. Monument, St. Suite 7000
Baltimore, MD 21093
(410) 955-3213

Association of Medical Illustrators (AMI) Co-Editor: Mark Lefkowitz
Biomedical Visuals
132 Oak Hill Dr.
Sharon, MA, 02067
(781) 784-5293

BioCommunications Association (BCA) Editor: Joe Ogrodnick
Entomology, NYS Ag. Experiment Station
Communications Services, NYSAES
632 W. North Street
Geneva, NY 14456
(315) 787-2324, fax (315) 787-2387

The Health and Sciences Communication Association (HeSCA) Editor: Karen Adsit
Walker Teaching Resource Center
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Department 4354
615 McCallie Avenue
Chattanooga, TN 37403
(423) 425-4026, fax (423) 425-4025

Calendar and Association News Editor: Gary Schnitz
The Indiana Hand Center
P.O. Box 80434
8501 Harcourt Road
Indianapolis, IN 46280-0434
(317) 471-4446, fax (317) 471-4404

Management Board: Bob Turner, Chairman (The Scripps Research Institute) • Carol Asimow Gray (UCLA Medical Center) • Lee Potts (Merck Research Laboratories) • Ken Michaels (National Cancer Institute) • Gary Schnitz (Indiana Hand Center) • Gillian Duncan (Rochester, MN) • Bradley Smith (University of Michigan)

Webmaster: Michael Getz (Illumina Interactive, Boston, MA)

Editors: Each member association of The Journal of Biocommunication may select one Editor, whose responsibility it is to secure manuscript material and assure technical accuracy, validity, and usefulness of the Journal's content. Each Editor works with an Editorial Review Board selected by the sponsor association. Members of the Editorial Review Board critique and edit articles, and provide other editorial assistance, at the request of the Editor. The JBC accepts unsolicited materials for consideration. Unsolicited materials may be submitted to the Managing Editor or to any of the Association Editors for consideration. For more information, please see Contributors.

Editorial Review Board: Scott Barrows (Medical Art Associates) • Janis Brown (University of Southern California) • Susan G. Deihl (Virginia Commonwealth University) • Craig Gosling (Indiana University) • Christine Gralapp (Fairfax, Calif.) • Carol Asimow Gray (UCLA Medical Center) • Jamie Guth (Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center) • Winifred Hamilton (Baylor College of Medicine) • Tom Hurtgen (Duke University School of Medicine) • Dale Kennedy (VA Medical Center - Albuquerque, New Mexico) • Lori J. Klein (National Library of Medicine) • Dale Knorr (Naval Medical Center, San Diego, Calif.) • Gregory Lucier (University of Calgary) • Patrick Lynch (Yale University) • Steven Moon (Ohio State University) • Darisse Paquette (Tufts-New England Medical Center) • Stephen Pendry (Iowa State University) • Michael Peres (Rochester Institute of Technology) • Sue Seif (Seif & Associates.) • Bobb Sleezer (Christiana Care Health Services) • Herbert R. Smith, Jr. (Houston, Tex.) • Keith Stenehjem (Mayville State University) • Judy Tyler (National Student Nurses Association) • John Vetter (Pittsburgh, Pa.) • Susan Zimmerman (Wordcraft Communications)

Business Manager: Ron Sokolowski

Production Group: Michael Getz (Illumina Interactive)