Miranda Robertson

Robertson was the daughter of S. Anthony (Tony) Barnett, a zoologist specializing in rat behavior at the Australian National University,^[8] author,^[9][10][11] and broadcaster. Her mother was Marjorie Phillips.^[12] Her uncle James Barnett was a yeast biologist.^[13]

Robertson joined Nature in 1970 during John Maddox's first term as Editor.^[14] As a member of the Biology Team and subsequently Biology Editor, she frequently wrote articles for Nature's News and Views series about recent developments in areas including immunology,^{[15][16][17][18]} development,^[19][20][21] the molecular mechanisms of disease,^{[22][23][24][25]} and early efforts in artificial intelligence,^[26] in vitro fertilisation^[27] and gene therapy.^[28] In 1973, when Maddox was replaced by David Davies, Nature instituted systematic peer review of submitted manuscripts.^[3] Under Davies, and subsequently in Maddox's second term, the selectivity of publication decisions dramatically increased.^[29][30] Theoretical biologist Robert May described Robertson as "exceptionally good and well informed" in explaining his willingness to write an unusually large number of News and Views pieces for Nature.^[31] She knew Francis Crick both professionally and through family connections, and wrote about his life and work after his death in 2004.^[32]

In 1976, while still at Nature, Robertson began to work with a team of scientists led by Bruce Alberts and James Watson on a new textbook, Molecular Biology of the Cell, which was published by Garland Science in 1983.^[4] As the developmental editor, she organized a large and diverse network of undergraduates and teachers to provide feedback on chapter drafts.^[4] Reviewers praised the "unobtrusively lucid style" of the book Robertson had edited,^[33] which was called "the most influential cell biology textbook of its time".^[34]

In 1992 Robertson left Nature^[35] and joined Garland Science, where she was involved with new biology textbooks. She worked on the development of Immunobiology by Charles Janeway and Paul Travers,^[36][37] and edited two editions of Introduction to Protein Structure by Carl Branden and John Tooze.^[38] In 1996 Garland Science was acquired by Taylor & Francis.

In 1998 Robertson joined New Science Press as managing director,^[39] where she initiated a series of modular Primers in Biology intended to make teaching easier.^[40] The series included "Protein Structure and Function" by Gregory Petsko and Dagmar Ringe^[41] and "The Cell Cycle: Principles of Control" by David Morgan.^[42] She also co-authored Immunity: The Immune Response to Infectious and Inflammatory Disease with Anthony DeFranco and Richard Locksley.^[43]

In 2008, Robertson moved to New Science Press's sister company, BioMedCentral, the first fully open-access publisher. As editor of Journal of Biology, which later merged with BMC Biology, Robertson in 2009 introduced a number of editorial innovations, including allowing authors to opt out of re-review after responding to reviewers' comments,^[7] arguing that "pit-bull reviewing" did not serve the community well.^[44] This policy was a response to a situation of a highly delayed second review, reported to Robertson by Peter Walter.^[45] Robertson commented that it is "the job of journal editors to promote the dissemination of research results rather than to obstruct it, [and] it is the author who is in the end accountable for the quality and validity of the paper that is published."^[7] Robertson also introduced a checklist for documenting that submitted papers meet reporting standards for reproducibility^[46] and the ability for researchers to pre-register their planned course of research.^[47] Robertson's editorials often focused on open questions^[48] and unacknowledged "dirty secrets", using Sydney Brenner's term "Ockham's Broom" to refer to the practice of sweeping inconvenient facts under the rug.^[49]

In 2017, Robertson announced her retirement from BMC Biology and was succeeded as editor by Mirna Kvajo.^[50]