Oceanography | September 2022
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ON THE COVER
The concept of biology-inspired engi-
neering has emerged as a powerful tool
to complement traditional engineering
approaches to technology development.
The specific swimming features of jellyfish,
for example, may be used for bio-inspired
ocean exploration. Read more on page 35.
Photo credit: istock.com/VictorHuang
UPCOMING SPECIAL ISSUES
• The New Arctic Ocean
• GEOTRACES
• Near-Inertial Shear and Kinetic Energy in
the North Atlantic Experiment (NISKINE)
• Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory:
50 Years of Innovative Research in
Oceanography
• Building Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
in the Ocean Sciences
• Sea Grant
Over the summer, TOS conducted a survey of its membership, asking questions
about how readers primarily access Oceanography (paper or online), what con-
tent they read the most, what subjects we should cover in the future, and whether
they anticipate publishing an article in Oceanography in the next three years. The
main purpose of the survey was to see if, on the magazine’s 35th anniversary, we
needed to make some adjustments to maintain our readership. With the more
than 100 responses submitted, spanning all career levels, I am pleased to report
that overall, survey respondents seem to be content with our current format, and
they offered many excellent thoughts on topics Oceanography should cover in the
future and areas where we could do better.
While we are still digesting the responses to the survey, one significant miscon-
ception has come to light. Several of the responses to the question, “Do you plan
to publish in Oceanography in the next three years,” suggest that there is a percep-
tion, though we don’t know how widespread, that Oceanography only publishes
scientific articles under the special issue banner, that we don’t accept manuscript
submissions that fall outside of special issue topics. That is not the case. Nearly
every issue contains at least a couple of peer-reviewed articles under the “Regular
Issue Feature” banner as well as other non-special issue, peer-reviewed content
in such categories as Breaking Waves, Ocean Education, DIY Oceanography, and
Hands-On Oceanography. In fact, this issue contains only articles that were sub-
mitted to Oceanography outside of any special issue designation.
In an effort to bring clarity to the sorts of article submissions we hope to receive
and the pathway to submission, this year we overhauled our Author Guidelines
(https://tos.org/oceanography/guidelines). For example, we write that, “Feature
articles can include review papers that summarize the current state of knowledge
of a particular topic, synthesis papers that discuss new findings and how they
significantly revise our thinking about a topic, and more traditional scientific
research papers from across the full spectrum of oceanography and marine tech-
nology.” And subjects for Breaking Waves articles “have the potential to move
the field of oceanography forward or in new directions.” The guidelines contain
information on all of the other categories of articles that we publish as well.
I strongly encourage you to consider submitting a manuscript to our peer-
reviewed, open access journal that is—to quote the Oceanography guidelines
again—“of broad interest to our readership,” which ranges from ocean science
students to emeritus professors and industry professionals. Such articles will
allow TOS to strengthen its commitment to promoting cross-disciplinary com-
munication in the ocean sciences. Act now—don’t wait for a next special issue
that is in your research area!
ARTICLE DOI. https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2022.215
QUARTERDECK
SEEKING OUTSTANDING
FEATURE ARTICLES
FIRST RESULTS OF THE OCEANOGRAPHY SURVEY
Ellen S. Kappel, Editor