Welcome from the new Editor-in-Chief

Abstract

In January 2025, I became the new Editor-in-Chief of Cerebral Cortex. It is a great honor and personal challenge to follow in the footsteps of Professor Paško Rakić, who co-founded Cerebral Cortex in 1991 as a basic neuroscience journal along with his colleague and late wife, Professor Patricia Goldman-Rakić—a brilliant, sophisticated researcher and outstanding personality. As a couple with great synergies, they created a very special Journal, one of the premier venues to publish the best neuroscience research. Pat and Paško led Cerebral Cortex until her sudden death in July 2003. Paško continued to selflessly devote more than two decades of his enormously productive and intense professional life to Cerebral Cortex, considering the Journal his own child.

Those who stand behind creative hard work are often almost invisible. Michelle Pizzuti served as an Editorial Assistant to Paško Rakić for more than twenty years, representing the vital soul of Cerebral Cortex. Many excellent manuscripts went through her skillful hands. For Michelle, it was easy and natural to establish mutual, constructive communication and positive interaction with authors, reviewers, editors, and publishers, in other words, with all indispensable agents of efficient scientific publishing.

Cerebral Cortex was always my favorite Journal due to its very unique spirit. My first paper published in Cerebral Cortex was accepted by Pat Goldman-Rakić in July 2003, and till now I vividly remember (and keep in my archives) her decision letter that had been sent to me by fax.

For the Journal’s future, my intentions are threefold: (i) to maintain and advance the high publication standards and traditions that contribute to the exceptional reputation of Cerebral Cortex in the scientific community, (ii) to follow the principles established by its well-known founders Patricia S. Goldman-Rakić and Paško Rakić, and (iii) to reflect novel trends in scientific publishing that have been crucially altered in recent years.

My previous editorial experience (eg as the Editor-in-Chief of Frontiers in Psychology: Emotion Science), as well as long-standing interdisciplinary experience in the field has substantially shaped my vision for Cerebral Cortex future development. I will endeavor to shorten the time of rigorous reviewing, to create a reward system for peer-reviewing making the whole process more efficient both for editors/reviewers and authors, and, most importantly, to decrease anxiety, fatigue, and pressure on authors, reviewers, and editors by making the whole process more attractive and cautious. By affirming editorial values and committing to scientific integrity, diversity, and transparency, my editorial team will fortify the foundations of the scientific publishing during a time of rapid and crucial change.

In shaping Cerebral Cortex’s Editorial Board and community of reviewers, my desire is to reach a fruitful combination of enthusiastic researchers already established in the field with young, highly motivated colleagues. I am delighted that Cerebral Cortex continues to benefit from vast experience and tremendous contribution of such an eminent neuroscientist as Professor Peter L. Strick (University of Pittsburgh, USA) who jointed Cerebral Cortex as Reviewing/Section Editor by invitation of Pat Goldman-Rakić and Paško Rakić more than twenty years ago. I personally learned a lot (and continue to learn) from Peter greatly appreciating his amazing ability to clarify others’ minds, thoughtful and delicate style of interaction and communication, deep knowledge of the discipline as well as dedication to the Journal.

It is my great pleasure to welcome the new Section Editors Professor Kevin A. Pelphrey (University of Virginia School of Medicine, USA) and Professor Marco Tamietto (University of Turin, Italy), who are well-known experts in the field. They are both supportive and enthusiastic colleagues intending to deeply invest in Cerebral Cortex further development and success.

My goal is to broaden the scope of the Journal and expand its influence and impact. To achieve this goal, the top priority will be to ensure the consistent publication of articles of high quality that advance the knowledge base and to contribute to their accessibility to researchers and clinicians, as well as to a wider readership. Equally important, I will set a focus on diversity, inclusivity, and equity as core values of the Journal. This applies not only to gender, age, and ethnicity, but to geographical representation. I will strive to ensure that the Journal remains truly international by encouraging research groups across the globe to submit and highlighting their work in Cerebral Cortex.

Starting with the February 2025 issue (with a new cover page), Cerebral Cortex will publish a series of invited feature articles on hotly disputed topics from eminent researchers along with commentaries to them from colleagues across the globe. We begin with a review article by Giorgio Vallortigara and his team at the University of Trento, Italy entitled “Is there an innate sense of number in the brain?” together with a set of commentaries from well-known experts in the field Brian Butterworth, UCL, London, UK; Toshiya Matsushima, Hokkaido University, Japan; Iris Berent, Northeastern University, USA; Andreas Nieder, University of Tübingen, Germany; Scarlett Howard, Monash University, Australia; César Don Santos, Federal University of Maranhão, Brasil; and Ben Harvey, Utrecht University, the Netherlands.

Be assured that I possess a steadfast commitment and passion to Cerebral Cortex and its community and will devote to this outstanding journal all my energy, enthusiasm, and experience. Thank you for entrusting Cerebral Cortex to my hands, which will be reliable and caring.

Author contributions

Marina A. Pavlova (Conceptualization, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing).