BioMed Central Blog
Recently we have noticed more and more researchers using Twitter as an informal channel to share thoughts on the latest open access research published in our journals. We're always keen to facilitate such discussions, and with that in mind we have recently added 'Post to Twitter' as a convenient option in the right hand toolbar of each BioMed Central journal article.
We've also in the early stages of using Twittter ourselves - you can follow us as BioMedCentral:
So far, our Twitter feed includes blog posts and hot article notifications, along with various short updates and links relating to BioMed Central and open access publishing. Any other suggestions? Let us know!
Posted by Matthew Cockerill at 22:22 Comments (1)
New and improved impact factors for BioMed Central journals in the 2008 JCR
The latest edition of Thomson Reuter's Journal Citation Reports has just been released, with official Impact Factors for a total of 59 BioMed Central journals†. Impact factors are by no means a perfect quality metric, but these journal citation data provide strong evidence of the growing success of BioMed Central's open access journal portfolio.
Highlights include:
- Impressive initial Impact Factors for two key titles in the BMC series:BMC Medicine and BMC Systems Biology
- Initial Impact Factor for Nutrition & Metabolism, placing it in the top 25% of the NUTRITION & DIETETICS category
- Initial Impact Factor of 3.45 for Neural Development
- An increased Impact Factor for BMC Bioinformatics, now ranked #3 of 28 in MATHEMATICAL & COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY.
- An increased Impact Factor for BMC Plant Biology, which is now ranked #14 of 152 in PLANT SCIENCES (one of the top 10 research journals listed in the category)
- An increased Impact Factor of Malaria Journal . The TROPICAL MEDICINE category now has open access journals in both the #1 and #2 spots.
- Excellent performance by BioMed Central's cancer journals: Breast Cancer Research and Molecular Cancer's Impact Factors both increased to above 5.0, while BMC Cancer's Impact Factor is now above 3.0.
- Improved Impact Factors for society-affiliated journals published by BioMed Central: Geochemical Transactions , Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance and Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica
- A significantly increased Impact Factor for Critical Care, ranked #4 of 21 in CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE.
Full Impact Factor listing (new or increased impact factors are shown in bold)
[Read More]Posted by Matthew Cockerill at 21:20 Comments (15)
BMC Medical Genomics publishes over 100 articles
Since launching in January last year,
BMC Medical Genomics has published over 100 articles. The latest original research paper, on growth
factor signalling in drug-insensitive breast cancers has recently been press-released. This is a fantastic start for a new
publication, and in just over a year the journal has published a diverse range of
research covering our wide scope.
Recent research highlights include exciting work by Hai Yan’s group at Duke University and the Vogelstein, Kinzler and Velculescu labs at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions using Digital Karyotyping Microbe Identification to determine the presence of microbial DNA in human tumor samples, and the discovery by Olli Kallioniemi’s group in Turku University of a putative breast cancer tumor-suppressor by a novel combination of array-CGH with non-sense mediated mRNA decay and gene expression data. As well as original research, the journal has also published commentaries and reviews, the latest by Edward Ramos and Charles Rotimi on the positive contribution that medical genomics can have on improving the health of minority groups. Douglas Kell’s overarching systems medicine review of the otherwise highly disparate literature linking inappropriate iron chelation and human disease published at the start of the year is already our most highly-accessed article, with over 5000 accesses in just 5 months.
BMC Medical Genomics, along with BMC Systems Biology, was one of the first journals in the BMC-series to embrace the involvement of Associate Editors in the peer review process. We would like to thank all of our Associate Editors as well as members of our Advisory Board for their help and support since the launch of the journal. Submit your next paper to BMC Medical Genomics to take part in the future success of the journal!
Scott Edmunds PhD
In-house Editor, BMC Medical Genomics
Posted by Scott Edmunds at 16:55 Comments (0)