4 Jun 2026

Journal of Microscopy new special issue: Light Microscopy Core Facility Management Volume 2

The Journal of Microscopy's first Special Issue on Light Microscopy Core Facility Management (Volume 294, Issue 3) sought to support core facility managers by formalizing and sharing experiences across this wide range of adjacent yet essential domains. Published in Spring of 2024, just ahead of ELMI in Liverpool, this special issue has gone on to become the most viewed issue of the Journal.

The second volume of this special issue continues the Journal’s mission of supporting core facility staff while expanding on 'essential adjacent' topics. This second issue reflects the evolving role of core facilities as professional, strategic, and sustainable research environments.

These new facilities are described as FAIRcillities: findable and accessible to a broad range of users, increasingly interoperable across institutions, disciplines, and technologies, and rigorous in their commitment to quality and the practicing the highest standards of imaging science.

The issue was guest edited by Michelle S. Itano (UNC Chapel Hill, NC, USA), Sebastian Munck (VIB / KU Leuven, Belgium), and Kurt I. Anderson (The Francis Crick Institute,London, UK).

The issue features the following papers:

Editorial

Enhanced good practice for core facilities
Michelle S. Itano, Sebastian Munck, Kurt I. Anderson

Expertise is the new infrastructure
Pablo Hernandez-Varas, Chiara Rossi, Erin M. Tranfield, Baubak Bajoghli, Clara Prats, Winnok H. De Vos, Sebastian Munck

A role for core facilities in improving research rigour
Alison J. North, Kurt I. Anderson

Built to be shared: Lessons from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) on funding core facilities
Mark Lagacé, Heidi Bandulet, Natalee Rubec, Olivier Gagnon, Sandra Zohar

Making the invisible visible: A global examination of careers and recognition for Imaging Scientists in core facilities
Kerry Thompson, Johanna Bischof, Yara Reis, Constadina Arvanitis, Olubunmi A. Balogun, Claire M. Brown, Mariana De Niz, Marcela Díaz, Lize Engelbrecht, Eunice Fabian-Morales, Elnaz Fazeli, Georgina Fletcher, Adan Guerrero, Michelle S. Itano, Eleanor Kable, Gregory T. Kitten, Shinya Komoto, Xiaoxiao Ma, Peter John O'Toole, Andreia Pinto, Cora Noemi Pollak, Clara Prats, Joanna W. Pylvänäinen, James Douglas Riches, Jean Salamero, Virginia Silio, Stefan Terjung, Sophie Winter,  Graham Daniel Wright, Lisa Yen, Antje Keppler

People-centred funding as a catalyst for sustainable imaging infrastructure
Yara Reis, Johanna Bischof, Claire M. Brown, Michelle S. Itano, Caron A. Jacobs, Leonel Malacrida, Caterina Strambio-De-Castillia, Adriana A. S. Tavares, Antje Keppler

Strengthening research infrastructure through local networks of light microscopy facilities
Ann Wheeler, Dale A Moulding

The ancient trading hubs of modern science: Bridging the divide between microscopists and data scientists
Yasmin M. Kassim, Uri Manor

Building capacity in imaging data management
Silvia Melina Velasquez, Georgina Fletcher, Jean-Marie Burel, Maddy Parsons, Jason Swedlow, Matthew Hartley, Seema Bagia, Alison Beckett, James H. Crichton, Stephen John Cross, Daniel M. Foulkes, James Grimshaw, Marie Held, Kenneth Ho, Martin Jones, Martin Lee, Marco Marcello, Stefania Marcotti, Robert Markus, Gail McConnell, Steven G. Thomas, Steven J. West, Ann Wheeler, Aybüke Küpcü Yoldaş

Running an electron microscopy core facility
Ilkka Miinalainen, Eija Jokitalo

Practical strategies for marketing a core facility
Austin Tagnani, Alexander Lovely, Adriana Nuñez, Heather Brown-Harding

Stress and conflict management in core facilities—News from an imaging survey
Jan Peychl, Chiara Rossi, Nathalie Aulner, Audrey Salles, Nadia Halidi, Maia Brunstein, Adeline Mallet, Karin Aumayr, Jean-Marc Verbavatz, Thomas Heuser, Rachel Santarella-Mellwig, Aurelien Dauphin, Eef Parthoens, Manuel Gunkel, Martin Fritsch, Sebastian T Bundschuh, Rym Chaabouni, Agnes Uhereczky, Erin M Tranfield, Pablo Hernández Varas, Sebastian Munck, the Core4Life Consortium

3D printing in core facilities – Low pain, high gain
Mohammad Goudarzi, Maximilian Schuster,  rthur Milberger, Manuel Gunkel, Stefan Terjung, Gabriel Krens

Global impact through train-the-trainer (TtT) courses
Mar García-Ferrés, Amy L. Bottomley, Louise Cole, Marcela Díaz, Neftali Flores-Rodriguez, Gleb Grebnev, Adan Guerrero, Caron A. Jacobs, Laurence Lejeune, Xiaoxiao Ma, Leonel Malacrida, Paul J. McMillan, Alison J. North, Cameron J. Nowell, Naomi Okugbeni, María V. Repetto, Alejandra M Ross Beraldi, Andres Hugo Rossi, Lía I. Pietrasanta, Rajan Singh, Claire M. Brown

Remotely accessible optical microscopy education through a wide (and global) lens
Zachary Sanchez, Miguel de Jesus, Moses David, Ali Taheri, Sunday Yinka Olatunji, Mai Rahmoon, Kevin W. Eliceiri, Anita Mahadevan-Jansen, Bryan A. Millis

International microscopy facility benchmarking survey
Alfonso J. Schmidt, Ellie Cho, Nicholas D. Condon, Eleanor Kable, Paul J. McMillan

Global survey of microscopy core facilities
Kirk J. Czymmek, Alexander Scott, Jessica B. Back, Derek Davies, Zhenxi Guo, Masilamani Elangovan, Peter O'Toole

Global survey of Flow Cytometry core facilities 2021
Jessica B Back, Alexander Scott, Zhenxi Guo, Masilamani Elangovan, Kirk J. Czymmek, Peter O'Toole, Derek Davies