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OBJECTIVE LENS
JOHN L. MCKILLIP, PH.D
MANAGING EDITOR, FINE FOCUS

BALL STATE UNIVERSITY

PERSPECTIVE“

OBJECTIVE LENS •

Copyright 2018, Fine Focus. All Rights Reserved.

PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY,



10• FINE FOCUS, VOL. 4(1)

This issue is likely our most substantial yet 
in terms of content volume and variety. 
This issue reflects the dedication of dozens 
of students, faculty, and collaborators who 
have been active in managing Fine Focus, 
all while developing new partnerships with 
universities in the US and Europe over the 
last several months. The primary visible 
outcome of much of this effort is reflected 
in the individual perspectives at the end 
of this issue, written by undergraduates at 
the University of Detroit Mercy, whom we 
have most recently adopted as a Campus 
Ambassador. The STEM outreach described 
in our summer 2017 issue (Fine Focus Vol. 
3(2)) is the means by which these activities 
have been accomplished. This semester has 
been an intense but rewarding experience 
at many levels. The mini-documentary 
film produced by the most recent Fine 
Focus Editorial staff, captures many of these 
students’ personal stories, and will soon 
be available and linked to our website- 
finefocus.org. We hope you find their 
spoken perspectives to be inspiring and 
memorable.

Last autumn, Fine Focus hosted our first 
annual Executive Committee Meeting at 
the Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative 

Inquiry (www.bsu.edu/vbc). Our Executive 
Committee consists of Kyla Adamson, a 
scientist at Eli Lilly & Co., in Indianapolis, 
IN; Emma Kate Fittes, a journalist for the 
Indianapolis Star; Saara-Maria Kallio, 

a Marketing and Salesforce Consultant 
at T-Systems Multimedia Solutions in 
Dresden, Germany; and Indira Komanapalli, 
who holds her Ph.D. in molecular biology 
and has agreed to join our team as a 
fundraising specialist.  During our 2 ½ day 
meeting, we covered a great deal of material, 
and identified a few key priority areas that I 
would like to share with you here.

First, we would like to introduce 
prospective authors to the concept of 
Overleaf, a new platform that will 
allow submitting authors to format their 
manuscripts during submission to Fine 
Focus exactly how they will appear if 
published. This system is user-friendly, 
and will greatly streamline copyediting 
and proofing of the final manuscript after 
acceptance. Our next issue will contain 
additional information and instructions 
on how this new system will be used by 
authors.

Speaking of our web presence, we are in 
the midst of a complete website update to 
bring fresh content and a refined new look 
to the international microbiology research 
community. If this new site is not yet up 
by the time you read this issue, it will be 
within the next few weeks. With assistance 

from Saara Kallio and Emma Kate Fittes, 
we are also updating our marketing plan 
to incorporate aspects of the new Campus 
Ambassador Program (CAP). The CAP 



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will consist of selected universities around 
the world that maintain a strong emphasis 
on undergraduate research. We aim for 
this program to increase our submissions, 
enabling us to produce a more impactful 
journal as we progress. It is important to 
also note that while these partners will 
provide Fine Focus with submissions, they 
will also serve an important role as the 
extension of our global presence and will 
strengthen our domestic network.

Lastly, we organized a plagiarism task 
force over last fall and winter, and now 
have a standardized system in place to use 
for screening incoming manuscripts for 
plagiarism. These checks will be run as part 
of our standard vetting stage prior to each 
new submission going out for double-blind 
peer review.    

We always welcome your suggestions and 
feedback by email at finefocus@bsu.edu

-JLM

OBJECTIVE LENS •