When BMC published its first journals back in 2000, it made high quality research open to anyone who wanted to access and use it. By making open access sustainable, it changed the world of academic publishing. Amongst the first disciplines to successfully embrace open access was genetics and genomics, with BMC launching a number of journals in this important field in its first year.
Today, BMC continues to recognize the importance of genetics and genomics with a number of our community-specific journals celebrating their 20th anniversaries, including BMC Genetics. As we reflect on our long-standing reputation as an open access pioneer, we remain passionate about promoting open science practices and responding to researcher’s needs in this vital field. One aspect that we view as central to this mission is the sharing of research data.
We know that research data often lie hidden until shared via a repository and/or through a research article that uses the data to support conclusions and analyses. We understand that not all valuable research is suited to traditional research articles and are committed to making visible research that would otherwise be hidden away.
As part of this commitment, we are delighted to announce that BMC Genetics will be renamed in 2021 as BMC Genomic Data, with the goal of promoting open science through the sharing of genomic and genetic data.
BMC Genomic Data, built on the firm foundations of BMC Genetics, will welcome submissions of genetic and genomic datasets, descriptions of data and manuscripts that analyse existing or new datasets. By providing a dedicated home for content that may not meet the criteria for a traditional research article, we hope to better serve the evolving needs of the genetics and genomics community.
As a core offering of BMC Genomic Data, we are particularly excited to introduce our new ‘data note’ article type, designed specifically for descriptions of genetic and genomic datasets.
Data notes in the BMC Series were pioneered by BMC Research Notes, following that journal’s relaunch in 2017. The focus of this article type is on making data publishing fast and easy for all researchers through our minimalist article structure, easy-to-follow templates and clear guidance on best practice through the expertise of our Research Data Team. To find out more, please see our guidelines.
Furthermore, as a supporter of the FAIR Data principles, release of data in one or more public, community-recognized repositories will be a condition of publication. Authors will be able to draw on Springer Nature’s Research Data expertise to make it easy to follow best practice in data sharing.
By encouraging the sharing, describing and citing of data, we hope to make BMC Genomic Data a home for genomic and genetic datasets, data-focused research, and key developments in open data in general – going forward we will welcome opinions on how this journal can lead the way in open and reproducible science.
BMC Genomic Data is supported by an international editorial board, bringing with them a wealth of knowledge and expertise in genomic data and all published articles published will undergo rigorous peer review.
We look forward to working with you in advancing data sharing in this important field and offering you a home for all your research, whatever format that may take.
To submit to BMC Genomic Data or find out more please visit the website or read our FAQs.
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