Since 2006, BioMed Central has been running its annual Research Awards, celebrating the excellence in scientific research that is published in our portfolio of over 200 open access journals. 2012 marks an exciting change to the Research Awards, as it is the first year that the awards have been divided into 15 separate categories, giving a larger number of high quality articles the chance to win in their specific subject discipline. The judging panels consist of experts in the respective fields, including but not limited to members of our Editorial boards. These awards also recognise outstanding individual or institutional efforts made to support open access to research.

The winners have recently been announced and we are delighted to say that authors in the subject-specific BMC-series journals have made a strong showing!

For the General Medicine award we are thrilled that Jian Zou and colleagues have won with their article in BMC Cancer on the effect of coffee consumption on cancer incidence. Their research showed that overall an increase in consumption of 1 cup of coffee per day was associated with a 3% reduced risk of 11 different measured types of cancers. The article was published in March this year and has been accessed over 4000 times already, indicating its key importance to the field and its recognition amongst the community and the wider audience.

Coffee consumption and risk of cancers: a meta-analysis of cohort studies
BMC Cancer 2011, 11:96 (15 March 2011)
Xiaofeng Yu, Zhijun Bao, Jian Zou and Jie Dong

BMC Ecology, with authors Volker Witte, Christoph von Beeren and colleagues, also achieved gold by winning the Plant, Animal Sciences and Veterinary Research award with their article on the chemical mimicry employed by the parasitic silverfish when trying to integrate into and exploit ant communities. The silverfish acquire cuticular hydrocarbon signatures directly from the ants cuticles, making them invisible as parasites and accepted (most of the time) as members of the colony. BMC Ecology is a rapidly growing journal, currently being tracked for an Impact Factor, and we look forward to receiving many more high quality articles such as this.

Acquisition of chemical recognition cues facilitates integration into ant societies
BMC Ecology 2011, 11:30 (1 December 2011)
Christoph von Beeren, Stefan Schulz, Rosli Hashim and Volker Witte

Last but by no means least, Eric B Loucks and his colleagues were the winners in the Public Health category with their fascinating article published in BMC Public Health on the inverse relationship between education and high blood pressure, highlighting that this relationship was more marked in females.

Associations of education with 30 year life course blood pressure trajectories: Framingham Offspring Study
BMC Public Health 2011, 11:139 (28 February 2011)
Eric B Loucks, Michal Abrahamowicz, Yongling Xiao and John W Lynch
 
Big congratulations to all of our winners! The awards will be presented tonight at a prestigious ceremony at the Emirates Stadium in London, and we look forward to congratulating the winners in person on both their achievements, and also their support of BioMed Central and open access publishing.