Posts by Rebecca Fairbairn

BioMed Central Research Award winner 2012

Rebecca Fairbairn on May 2, 2013 at 9:45 am - 0 Comments

Last week we were proud to reveal the winner of the prestigious BioMed Central Research Award 2012, supported by antibodies-online.com, picked from a shortlist consisting of the winners of the ten subject categories, selected by a panel of top scientists and clinicians from the editorial boards of our portfolio of over 250 journals.

The winners are, Geoffrey S Diemer and Kenneth M Stedman, from Portland State University, for their article A novel virus genome discovered in an extreme environment suggests recombination between unrelated groups of RNA and DNA viruses, was published in Biology Direct, that also won the Computational and High-Throughput Studies in Genomics and Systems Biology Category Award.

The article won accolades not only …

Category award winners announced for BioMed Central’s 7th Annual Research Awards

Rebecca Fairbairn on April 18, 2013 at 8:50 am - 0 Comments

Each year BioMed Central’s Annual Research Awards celebrate excellence in scientific research made freely available through open access publishing within our portfolio of biology and medical journals. Now in their 7th year, they are intended to recognize the achievements of particular research teams in ten diverse subject-specific award categories spanning all areas of Biology, Medicine and Health Services Research. We also have an Open Data award recognizing leadership in the sharing of data and a Case Report of the Year Award for the best case report recognized for its originality and significance to clinical practice.We are pleased to announce the winners for the ten subject-specific award categories:

Animal Science, Veterinary Research and Zoology
Cancer sponsored by

antibodies-online.com to sponsor BioMed Central’s overall Research Award

Rebecca Fairbairn on April 17, 2013 at 10:54 am - 0 Comments

BioMed Central welcomes antibodies-online.com , as the overall BioMed Central Research Award Sponsor for the 7th Annual Research Awards. This prestigious award celebrates the very best in open access research across all disciplines published in BioMed Central’s 250 journals for 2012.

antibodies-online.com is the biggest independent distributor for proteomics (eg. ELISA kits, antibodies, proteins) research worldwide serving universities and biotech companies in 53 different countries.

“At antibodies-online we accelerate research. We interact with the research community every day and are happy to sponsor the BioMed Central Overall Research Award winner 2012. The annual BioMed Central Research Awards have become a key event on the open access calendar. The awards program is an excellent …

ABCAM to sponsor BioMed Central’s Cancer Research Award

Rebecca Fairbairn on March 19, 2013 at 12:55 pm - 0 Comments

BioMed Central welcomes ABCAM as the official new sponsor for the Cancer Category Award for our 7th Annual Research Awards , which celebrates outstanding open access research in the field of cancer. This includes all aspects of the prevention, diagnosis, pathophysiology epidemiology and management of these disorders. The Cancer Research Award is one of 10 award categories, the winners of which will be shortlisted for the overall BioMed Central Research Award which carries a prize of £5000.

ABCAM started in 1998 out of a laboratory at the University of Cambridge. It is a web-based antibody company of like-minded scientists. ABCAM’s mission is to enable scientists to discover more with the most comprehensive, honest and up-to-date datasheets, fast …

Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR): the new US open access bill

Rebecca Fairbairn on February 22, 2013 at 9:34 am - 0 Comments

BioMed Central welcomes a significant step forward for open access to publicly funded research in the United States, which came in the form of the bipartisan Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR) that was introduced in Congress on February 14 2013.

Sponsored by Senators Cornyn and Wyden and Representatives Doyle, Yoder and Lofgren, the bill requires that US Government agencies that fund research develop a “public access policy”. As part of these policies articles must be preserved in a digital archive maintained by that agency or in another suitable repository, such as BioMed Central’s Open Repository, that permits free public access and enables productive reuse and long-term preservation. The bill also …

Kuan-Teh Jeang M.D., Ph.D.

Rebecca Fairbairn on January 29, 2013 at 3:50 pm - 20 Comments

All at BioMed Central are shocked and saddened by the news that Kuan-Teh Jeang, M.D., Ph.D. passed away suddenly on the evening of the 27th January 2013.

Teh was a prominent figure in research on the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the human tumor virus HTLV, and published prolifically on the disease-causing mechanisms of both these retroviruses.

He embraced open access publishing at a very early stage, and through his tireless commitment he succeeded in a long-held ambition to make his open access journal, Retrovirology, the highest-ranked and best-regarded specialist journal in the field. He was also an energetic and valued member of several other Editorial Boards including those of our flagship titles BMC Medicine and BMC Biology.

Well beyond these specific …

Winning the 2011 BioMed Central Research Award – what it meant to me by Áine McKnight

Rebecca Fairbairn on January 28, 2013 at 3:05 pm - 0 Comments

There’s just four days left to put your nominations in for BioMed Central’s 7th Annual Research Awards. Nominations close on January 31st 2013.

Over the last six years BioMed Central’s Research Awards have been successfully highlighting the very best research that has been made available through open access publishing, chosen by you and selected by internationally renowned judges.

This year we’ve taken a closer look at our ten category awards and refined subject areas . Each award now allows us to distinguish the articles that deserve recognition across several disciplines.

In addition, special awards will be given to the following categories:
• Case Report of the Year
• Open Data Award, sponsored by LabArchives
…

Experience Open Access Africa 2012

Rebecca Fairbairn on January 28, 2013 at 10:32 am - 0 Comments

Our third Open Access Africa conference was a huge success. It took place at the University of Cape Town, South Africa and thrived with the wealth of expertise based at the University, alongside prominent speakers from around the world.

The conference allowed researchers, librarians, journal editors, funders and other decision makers to come together and share their thoughts and ideas on how open access publishing can support science and medicine in Africa.

The discussions emphasised the need for a clear message about what open access is and the importance of sustainable funding for African journals.

To experience Open Access Africa 2012 and the fundamental issues the conference addressed, please visit the OOA12 website where you will find the presentation …

Open Data Award 2012: get your votes in now!

Rebecca Fairbairn on January 21, 2013 at 10:03 am - 1 Comment

There’s just under two weeks left to put your nominations in for BioMed Central’s 7th Annual Research Awards, including the Open Data Award. This award recognizes researchers who have published in BioMed Central journals and have demonstrated leadership in the sharing, standardization, publication, or re-use of biomedical research data during 2012. Nominations close on January 31st 2013. The award will be judged by prominent figures in open data and open science: John Wilbanks; Peter Murray-Rust; Earl Beutler; Rufus Pollock and Cameron Neylon.

The award is sponsored by LabArchives, a leading Electronic Lab Notebook that is used by scientists throughout the world to store, organize, share, and publish their laboratory data. BioMed Central has partnered …

Embrace “information overload” with Cases Database

Rebecca Fairbairn on December 10, 2012 at 9:40 am - 2 Comments

BioMed Central has launched a new semantically-enriched search tool, Cases Database, which aims to enhance the discovery, filtering and aggregation of medical case reports from many journals. Open access to journal articles published under Creative Commons licenses which permit text mining enable the literature to be reused as a resource for scientific discovery. We are seeking collaborations with other publishers to facilitate text mining and help make case reports a more valuable part of the literature. More than 11,000 cases are available to be freely searched with Cases Database.

Open access publishing continues to grow, and at a rate faster than the overall rate of growth of science publishing. Aside from the increasing support from funders and institutions …