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  As announced earlier this year, the Journal will reprint classic Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC) papers in preparation for the Centennial Celebration in 2005. It is remarkable to look back on the century and recall the discoveries that mark the great advances in biochemistry and to realize the enormous role of the JBC in publishing this pioneering work.

  During the past year, we, with great help from the JBC Associate Editors, have selected papers published in the JBC that we believe represent classic contributions to biochemistry and molecular biology. We also canvassed the JBC Editorial Board and many members of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) who, in addition to nominating their own papers, provided helpful suggestions.

  The selection process has been difficult in large part because the number of papers published in the JBC since 1905 is staggering, over 150,000. In addition, it is particularly difficult to define "classic" and to establish the criteria to be used for selection. First, we selected irrefutable landmark advances in biochemistry and molecular biology such as Arthur Kornberg's DNA replication papers. Second, papers by authors who are themselves "classic" were selected even if their most important work may have been published primarily in other journals. Otto Meyerhof is one example because much of his early work was published in the German literature. We felt, however, that a paper by Meyerhof, although possibly not itself a classic, should be included as representative of a classic body of work and, as such, an integral part of the history of biochemistry. Similarly for Linus Pauling, since most of his classic work was published in the chemical literature.

  We also screened citation data from ISI and selected many papers from this source. The all-time citation champion on protein determinations by Oliver Lowry is certainly a "classic." Lastly, we consulted with many of the living authors to determine whether our judgement concurred with theirs. For most authors we shall publish a single representative paper, but for some we may publish 2-3 papers together in one issue if they represent an indivisible story or a body of work that is so large that a single paper simply does not suffice.

  In spite of a conscientious and thorough effort, we are painfully aware that these selections are very highly subjective and will not please everyone. Undoubtedly, we have included papers that some will feel do not deserve "classic" status, and it is equally certain that other papers, clearly deserving of such recognition, have been inadvertently overlooked. We did our best.

  We plan to publish the classic papers weekly, in the on-line version of the Journal only, in roughly chronological order and expect by 2005 to have reprinted 200-300 papers. We plan also to collect the classics, or a subset of them, in a "JBC Centennial Classics Compendium," which we envision will be useful for teaching purposes.

  We hope readers of the JBC and students of biochemistry enjoy reliving the classic moments in biochemistry as much as we have enjoyed the selection process.

Robert D. Simoni, Robert L. Hill, and Martha Vaughan

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