The art of the cover

Often, it's difficult to match up our cover artwork with the subjects of our lead articles and special reports. Of necessity, we sometimes turn to pure abstraction. How else to illustrate technical policy articles on subjects such as changing research protocols or informed consent, or abstract ideas like congruence, duality, imbalance, causality? At such times, we have to be pretty creative, and my search for cover art can be long and challenging. In the end, we hope that the reader will make the connection between cover and content. However, at other times, the subject of a lead article or special report overflows with artistic possibilities.