BioMed Central Blog
Human Resources for Health launches a blog
Human
Resources for Health this week launched its own journal blog. Items already posted
include details of a forthcoming special issue, the
first Global Forum on Human
Resources for Health (due to be held early in 2008), and a request for
feedback on some future developments for the journal. In launching the blog, the Editors of Human Resources for
Health hope to be able to provide a forum for further comment and
discussion of items relevant to the journal and its field.
Human Resources for Health is overseen by the Editor-in-Chief, Mario Dal Poz (World Health Organization), and was launched with BioMed Central in 2003. The journal covers all aspects of planning, producing and managing the health workforce - all those who provide health services worldwide.
Posted by Charlotte Hubbard at 20:34 Comments (1)
Forest fires and their impact on CO2 - global press coverage for open access research
A recent article published in Carbon Balance and Management entitled ‘Estimates of CO2 from fires in the United States: implications for carbon management’ has received widespread, global coverage in the media.
The article by Christine Wiedinmyer and Jason Neff focuses on CO2 emissions from fires across the US, how these emissions compare to anthropogenic emissions of CO2 and Net Primary Productivity, and the potential implications for monitoring programs and policy development.
The article was press released by BioMed Central, and has since been highlighted in news coverage around the world including USA Today, Forbes, The Sydney Morning Herald, CBS News, The Times of India and Pollution Online, and more. With the recent forest fires in California, and significant public interest in the effects of carbon emissions on climate, this is a great example of the benefits of open access in making research accessible to all who are interested.
Posted by Charlotte Hubbard at 20:18 Comments (0)
BMC Research Notes - completing the scientific record
BioMed Central is pleased to
announce the forthcoming launch of the newest addition to the BMC series of
journals, BMC Research Notes, which will begin to accept submissions in
early 2008.
Journals
are increasingly concerned with citations and impact factors, and it can be
difficult for researchers and clinicians to publish valuable work that may not
be highly cited. At the same time,
science and medicine are becoming increasingly evidence-based and transparent.
The goal of BMC Research Notes is to provide a home for short publications,
case series, incremental updates to previous work, results of individual
experiments and similar material that currently lack a suitable outlet. The intention is to reduce the loss suffered
by the research community when such results remain unpublished.
In
clinical research, the prospective registration of randomized controlled trials
has become a reality, whilst in the field of genomic research, scientists
deposit large volumes of data into publicly accessible databases for the entire
community to use.
A key objective of BMC Research Notes is to ensure that
associated data files will, wherever possible, be published in standard,
reusable formats and are exposed to ensure that they are searchable and easily
harvested for reuse. We are working with researchers across the full spectrum
of biomedical research to define appropriate recommendations for
domain-specific data file standards, and we aim to provide detailed 'Additional
data file' preparation guidelines, to complement our current detailed figure
preparation guidelines.
BMC Research Notes will publish scientifically
sound research across all fields of biology and medicine, enabling authors to
publish updates to previous research, software tools and databases, data sets,
small-scale clinical studies, and reports of confirmatory or ‘negative’
results. Additionally the journal will
welcome descriptions of incremental improvements to methods that as well as
short correspondence items and hypotheses. Submissions will be fully peer-reviewed,
and will be handled by an international board of academic Associate Editors
spanning all biological and medical disciplines.
We are looking for enthusiastic researchers
who would like to have an editorial involvement with BMC Research Notes. We are particularly keen to hear from
researchers who have a special interest in data sharing and data format
standardization.
Please let us know if you would like to play a role with this important new journal, and do tell us if you know of any other researchers who you feel should be involved.
Posted by Matt Hodgkinson at 16:40 Comments (3)
Parasites & Vectors; a new open access journal now accepting submissions
We are pleased to announce a new, broad-focus journal, Parasites & Vectors. Overseen by Editor-in-Chief Chris Arme, Parasites
& Vectors is an open access,
peer-reviewed online journal dealing with the biology of parasites, parasitic
diseases, intermediate hosts and vectors. Manuscripts addressing broader issues, for example
economics, social sciences and global climate change in relation to parasites,
vectors and disease control, are also welcomed.
Parasites & Vectors expands upon the scope of two former BioMed Central publications, Kinetoplastid Biology and Disease and Filaria Journal, which will cease publication in December 2007, and are no longer accepting submissions. Authors working in these areas are encouraged to submit their work to Parasites & Vectors.
David Molyneux, Editor-in-Chief
of Filaria Journal, and Kevin Tyler, co-Editor-in-Chief of Kinetoplastid
Biology and Disease, have been appointed to the Advisory Board
of Parasites & Vectors, and together with an international Editorial Board, are
working closely with Chris Arme to ensure the success of this new journal. Chris joins Parasites & Vectors after serving for almost 20 years as an Editor of Parasitology.
Posted by Anna Webb at 13:16 Comments (0)