Mentions in Alexei Sharov´s farewell editorial in Biosemiotics

Alexei Sharov has written a farewell editorial for Biosemiotics, for which he has been an Editor-in-Chief for about 10 years. The editorial is entitled "Following developments of biosemiotics", and includes some passages I really appreciate mentioning me, our joint work, and some initiatives of mine.

Excerpts:

"Many prominent scientists and philosophers in biosemiotics, such as Kalevi Kull, Jesper Hoffmeyer, Donald Favareau, Howard Pattee, Karel Kleisner, Prisca Augustyn, Morten Tønnessen, Anton Markoš, Stanley Salthe, Bruce Weber, Frederik Stjernfelt, Paul Cobley and others, supported the journal and published their articles in the initial years."

"In 2014, Marcello Barbieri transferred most of editorial duties to a new team of editors, that included me, Timo Maran, and Morten Tønnessen, and we took full charge as Editors-in-Chief in 2015. Our first joint editorial titled “Towards Synthesis of Biology and Semiotics” outlined our vision of the state and future of biosemiotics and its representation in this journal. We wrote:

The main idea of biosemiotics is that life and semiosis are coextensive. Here semiosis is understood as a sign process or sign exchange, where signs stand for something else in some respect or capacity. In particular, life has a semiotic nature because it is based on endless interpretation of environmental cues and transfer of life-related functional meanings vertically across generations and horizontally to neighboring organisms. Semiotic processes help organisms to perform their functions, preserve their habits and pursue their agendas through generations (Sharov et al., 2015): 1–2)."

"I am thankful to Morten Tønnessen for suggesting two new activities that helped to invigorate the relations between the journal and readers. First, it was the establishment of the Annual Biosemiotic Achievement Award in 2014 for the novelty and relevance to biosemiotics. And the second was the Biosemiotics Glossary Project, which started with the article on semiotic agency (Tønnessen, 2015), and then continued the discussion with the terms: umwelt, semiotic threshold, and intentionality. An important part of this project is answering questionnaires and statistical analysis of results which reflects the range of opinions within the biosemiotics field."

"Also we published the special issues “Can quantitative approaches develop bio/semiotic theory?” edited by Dan Faltýnek and Ľudmila Lacková, “Agency and (the Built) Environment” by Tim Ireland and Paul Cobley, “Biosemiotics of waste” by Yogi Hendlin, and “Umwelt Theory and Phenomenology” by Carlo Brentari and Morten Tønnessen."

"I enjoyed my work as Editor-in-Chief of Biosemiotics for many reasons. First, biosemiotics has been my major interest and activity for 36 years, although I combined it with my regular jobs in ecology, molecular biology, and bioinformatics. Second, I like helping young authors to improve their manuscripts, as well as interacting with reviewers. And third, my editorial job stimulated reading related publications, and I learned about new discoveries and theories in various fields of biology and the humanities. This knowledge helped me to write a book together with Morten Tønnessen Semiotic agency: Science beyond mechanism (Sharov & Tønnessen, 2021)."

2020 Impact Factor for Biosemiotics

The 2020 Impact factor for Biosemiotics, for which I was lead Editor-in-Chief 2018-2020, was 0.711. This is lower than in the previous years. The 5-year Impact factor is 1.224. 

Biosemiotics had 59.184 downloads in 2020. This is increasing.

Referred to in Yogi Hendlin´s first Biosemiotics editorial

Yogi Hale Hendlin´s editorial in his first issue as Editor-in-Chief of Biosemiotics has just been published, titled "Expanding the reach of Biosemiotics". In the same issue, the journal´s first Target Article with a number of invited Commentaries will also appear. I served as an Editor-in-Chief until the end of last year, after which Yogi took over as Editor-in-Chief.

Excerpts:

Taking up this role of Editor-in-Chief also prompted reflection on all those whose leadership at this journal has developed the discipline into an oasis for robust transdisciplinary dialog. Most immediately prior, I’d like to thank previous Editor-in-Chief Morten Tønnessen for his many years of leadership at the journal, as well as Filip Jaroš, and Timo Maran. Marcello Barbieri, the journal’s first Editor-in-Chief, helped launch Biosemiotics in 2008. And finally, Alexei Sharov, my fellow current Editor-in-Chief, deserves thanks for his steady and indispensable guidance of the journal. 

In the current iteration of Biosemiotics, we have shifted from three Editors-in-Chief to two; but have expanded the journal leadership to include five Associate Editors plus an Intern. We are grateful for all of their contributions towards making this journal run smoothly and to expanding Biosemiotics’ reach and capacity. One reason for the need for this greater capacity is to accommodate the new article type of Target Articles and Commentaries pioneered by Morten Tønnessen. It is my pleasure to work with the Editorial Board of Biosemiotics, the Associate Editors and Intern, and the Members and Executive Board of the International Society for Biosemiotic Studies in continuing their devoted work in this tradition.

Two more meetings plus drop-ins yesterday; 12 meetings this week

Yesterday, on Thursday, I had two scheduled meetings, bringing the week´s total (in my first week as Head of department) up to 12. In addition I have had several drop-in meetings one-on-one with employees.

One of the meetings yesterday was a debrief talk with my Springer Nature contact after the completion of my period as Editor-in-Chief of Biosemiotics at New Year.

New role as Head of department commenced; no longer EiC of Biosemiotics

From today onwards, I am Head of department at University of Stavanger´s Department of social studies, with its around 70 employees and 8-900 students. The tenure is for 4 years (2021-2024).

At the same time, I am now done as Vice-Dean of Research at the university´s Faculty of social sciences. I have also now stepped down as Editor-in-Chief of the Springer Nature journal Biosemiotics, for which I have been a co-Editor-in-Chief 2013-2018 and Lead Editor-in-Chief 2018-2020.

Biosemiotics 13(3) published; last issue with me as an EiC

Biosemiotics 13(3) has now been published, see table of contents and links to articles here. This is the last issue from my 7-year period as an Editor-in-Chief (currently along with Alexei Sharov and Filip Jaros).

EiC meeting

Today I have participated in a Zoom meeting with two Editors-in-Chief colleagues (one current and one forthcoming) in Biosemiotics, discussing organizational matters.

Four meetings

Today I have attended the faculty leadership group meeting, the staff meeting at Department of social studies, a new routinely research administration meeting, and an Editor-in-Chief meeting with our Springer editorial contact addressing strategy and recruitment for the journal Biosemiotics.

Biosemiotics 13(2) published

Biosemiotics 13(2) has appeared - a regular issue with 8 articles - see table of contents here.

Impaft factors for Springers journals in Evolutionary & Developmental Biology

The 2019 Impact factor of Biosemiotics (1.021) is mentioned on Springer´s presentation of the latest impact factors for its journals within Evolutionary & Developmental Biology. Among 12 journals, Biosemiotics ranks as #10. Journal of Mammalian Evolution is #1 with an Impact factor of 2.500.

The 5-year Impact Factor of biosemiotics is 1.331 (2019).

Change in EiC team for Biosemiotics taking effect

As of January 1st 2020, Timo Maran has been replaced by Filip Jaros as an Editor-in-Chief for Biosemiotics, along with Alexei Sharov and myself. Timo, who served as an Editor-in-Chief 2013-2019, will now be an editorial board member. I remain lead Editor-in-Chief, which I have been since the summer of 2018 (Alexei was lead Editor-in-Chief 2013-2018).

Biosemiotics 12(3) published

Biosemiotics volume 12, issue 3 has been published. The volume includes our editorial "Jesper Hoffmeyer´s Biosemiotic Legacy", an obituary for Jesper, an interview with Jesper, and five original research articles.

Virtual issue in honor of Jesper Hoffmeyer published

Biosemiotics has published a virtual issue in honor of Jesper Hoffmeyer. The virtual issue consists of the editorial "Jesper Hoffmeyer´s biosemiotic legacy" and all his Springer Nature publications (6 articles and 8 book chapters), which are freely accessible online for a period of 8 weeks.

Autumn´s 17,5th article writing day

Today I had the autumn´s 17,5th article writing day, with some 5 hours devoted to proof-reading of my chapter "The true value of "doing well" economically"; editing and finish our Biosemiotics editorial on the work of Jesper Hoffmeyer, and writing a little bit on my article "What can be known about future Umwelten"?

Biosemiotics 12(2) published

Biosemiotics 12(2) has now been published (p. 195-356 in this year´s volume). This is likely the last issue to have been edited by me, Alexei Sharov, and Timo Maran (as EiC replacement is in progress).

Biosemiotics 12(1) published

Biosemiotics 12(1) has been published. This is a special issue guest-edited by Karel Kleisner and Timo Maran, titled "Signs and Communication in Mimicry".

The issue also includes the announcement of the winner of the Biosemiotic Achievement Award for 2018, namely Mirko Cerrone´s paper "Umwelt and Ape Language Experiments: On the Role of Iconicity in the Human-Ape Pidgin Language". 

Editorial "Phenomenology and biosemiotics" published as part of Biosemiotics 11(3)

I have been notified by Springer that our editorial "Phenomenology and biosemiotics" has at long last been assigned to a completed journal issue, i.e. Biosemiotics no. 11(3) - the December 2018 issue.

Work hours logged in 2018

In 2018 I logged some 2955,5 work hours. This results in a weekly all-year average of 56,7 hours - the most since 2012 (when I became a father). 

The most significant repriorization concerned quitting elected positions in the Green Party of Norway, bringing time spent on research back to normal, and spending more time on book projects than ever before in the time covered (starting with 2009) - namely 20% of my work hours. I have also spent slightly more time on my role as Editor-in-Chief of Biosemiotics, after I took over as Main EiC this last summer.

Editorial "Phenomenology and biosemiotics" published online

Our Biosemiotics editorial "Phenomenology and Biosemiotics" has now been published online.

Editorial "Phenomenology and Biosemiotics" revised and submitted

We have now revised our editorial "Phenomenology and Biosemiotics". It will now go to production.