BioMed Central
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| Parent company | Springer Science+Business Media |
|---|---|
| Status | Active |
| Founded | 2000 |
| Founder | Current Science Group |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Distribution | Open access |
| Publication types | Scientific journals |
| Nonfiction topics | Science |
| Official website | www.biomedcentral.com |
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This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. (March 2010) |
BioMed Central (BMC) is a United Kingdom-based, for-profit scientific publisher specialising in open access journal publication. BioMed Central and its sister companies Chemistry Central and PhysMath Central publish over 200 scientific journals. Most BioMed Central journals are now published only online. BioMed Central describes itself as the first and largest open access science publisher. It is owned by Springer Science+Business Media. The Managing Director is Matthew Cockerill.[1][2]
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History [edit]
BioMed Central was founded in 2000 as part of the Current Science Group (now Science Navigation Group, SNG), a nursery of scientific publishing companies. SNG chairman Vitek Tracz developed the concept for the company after NIH director Harold Varmus's PubMed Central concept for open-access publishing was scaled back.[3] The first director of the company was Jan Velterop. In 2002, the company's business model evolved to include article processing charges, and these have since been the primary source of revenue.
Tracz's SNG also publishes The Scientist (a popular science magazine—the daily news section is free access; the remainder is by subscription), Faculty of 1000 (a subscription-only current awareness service highlighting recent biological and medical research), Global DataPoint, Telmap and People's Archive. Other companies that have been part of SNG in the past include Current Medicine Group, which publish medical books, journals, websites and the Images.MD medical image database (both acquired by Springer in 2005), Current Drugs (acquired by Thomson Reuters), and Current Biology and the Current Opinion journals (acquired by Elsevier).
In October 2008, it was announced that BioMed Central, Chemistry Central, and PhysMath Central had been acquired by Springer Science+Business Media, the second largest STM publister.[4]
In 2007 Yale University Libraries stopped subsidizing page charges for affiliates of Yale who are using BioMed Central as the publisher of their works.[5]
In November 2008, BioMed Central became an official supporting organisation of Healthcare Information For All by 2015, a global initiative committed to a future where people are no longer dying for lack of knowledge.
Products [edit]
BioMed Central owns and produces in-house six flagship journals: Journal of Biology, Genome Biology, Genome Medicine, Arthritis Research and Therapy, Breast Cancer Research, and Critical Care. It also produces the BMC series of 65 journals covering the fields of biology and medicine, and including the leading titles BMC Biology and BMC Medicine. Chemistry Central Journal and the PhysMath series of journals are also produced by the company. Most of the other journals published by BioMed Central are owned and produced independently by societies and academic editorial boards, with BioMed Central providing the hosting, publishing platform and marketing.
All journals are published online; some of the flagship journals have in the past also been available as print subscriptions, but currently Arthritis Research and Therapy is the only journal to offer this. Publications in BioMed Central journals are, immediately upon publication, released under the Creative Commons "Attribution" license which grants permission to reuse publications and produce derivative work. The only exceptions to this are the flagship journals, which reserve rights on review and commentary content; those articles are available to purchase on a subscription or on a pay-per-view basis, becoming freely available (but not fully open access)[citation needed] to all after six months.
The company also hosts three biomedical databases: Cases Database, a database of medical case reports;[6] Current Controlled Trials, a database of clinical trials;[7] and Biology Image Library.[8] The company also provides hosting for institutional repositories of publications based on the DSpace platform under the brand Open Repository.[9]
The company resells subscriptions to the review journals of its former sister company, Current Drugs, on its platform. Those journals are now published by Thomson Reuters and are not open-access.
See also [edit]
- BMC journals
- Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association, of which BioMed Central is a founding member
- Trials (journal)
References [edit]
- ^ Butler, D. (2000). Nature 405 (6785): 384–384. doi:10.1038/35013218.
- ^ Hall, D. (1999). "Online research archive will be free to all". Nature 402 (6763): 721–721. doi:10.1038/45366. PMID 10617188.
- ^ "Interview with Vitek Tracz: Essential for Science". Infotoday.com. Retrieved 2012-03-15.
- ^ Suber, Peter (2008-10-07). "Peter Suber, Open Access News". Earlham.edu. Retrieved 2012-03-15.
- ^ Connor, Elizabeth (2008). "Interview with Harold E. Varmus of PLoS". Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries 5 (2): 149–159. doi:10.1080/15424060802064352.
- ^ casesdatabase.com
- ^ "Current Controlled Trials - Clinical Trial Search. ISRCTN numbering scheme. Database of Clinical Trials". Controlled-trials.com. Retrieved 2012-03-15.
- ^ "Biology Image Library". Biology Image Library. Retrieved 2012-03-15.
- ^ "Home". Open Repository. Retrieved 2012-03-15.
Further reading [edit]
- Albanese, Andrew. "BioMed Central Changes Tack." Library Journal, 15 March 2004, 17-18. Accessed July 17, 2005.
- Amber, Dave (4 September 2000). "Scientists, Publishers, Societies—and Turf." The Scientist, 14(17):1.
- BioMed Central. "Why Do Our Authors Submit to BioMed Central Journals?" (2004).
- Butler, Declan (25 May 2000). "BioMed Central Boosted by Editorial Board." Nature, 405(6785):384.
- Chillingworth, Mark (9 August 2004). "BioMed Central Seeks Open Access Advice." Information World Review.
- Cockerill, Matthew (December 16, 1999). "Online Research Archive Will be Free to All." Nature, 402(6763):721-722.
- Delamothe, Tony (June 21, 2003). "Fees Waived for University Researchers Publishing through BioMed Central." BMJ, 326:1350-1351. Verified availability July 17, 2005.
- Galbraith, Kate (July 11, 2003). "British Researchers Get to Publish in 90 Online Medical Journals Free." The Chronicle of Higher Education, 49(44):A28.
- Gavaghan, Helen (June 30, 2003). "Open-Access Publishing Finds Official Favor." The Scientist. Verified availability July 17, 2005.
- Godlee, Fiona (2000). "Peer Review in the E-Environment". Freedom of Information Conference 2000 (London). Retrieved 2005-07-17.
- Loxton, Liz (May 1, 2003). "NHS Information Project Launched." Information World Review.
- MacLeod, Donald (June 17, 2003). "Publish and Be Free." The Guardian. Verified availability July 17, 2005.
- Staff (June 26, 2004). "Open Access Journals Proven to Compete on Quality." Medical News Today.
- Peel, John (February 2000). "BioMed Central." D-Lib Magazine, 6(2). Verified availability July 17, 2005.
- Quint, Barbara (January 7, 2002). "BioMed Central Begins Charging Authors and Their Institutions for Article Publishing." Information Today, 19(2): 37, 39. Verified availability July 17, 2005.
- ——— (September 3, 2001). "BioMed Central Launches 12 New Author-Initiated Research E-Journals." Information Today, 18(9): 24-25. Verified availability July 17, 2005.
- Shearer, Kathleen (January 2002). BioMed Central: An Alternative to Scholarly Publishing (CARL/ABRC Backgrounder Series No. 4). Ottawa: Canadian Association of Research Libraries. Verified availability July 17, 2005.
- Suber, Peter (September 6, 2001). "BioMed Central's Method of FOS." Free Online Scholarship Newsletter.
- Watson, Linda A., Ivan S. Login, and Jeffrey M. Burns (2003). "Exploring New Ways to Publish: A Library-Faculty Partnership." Journal of the Medical Library Association 91(2):245-247. Availability verified July 17, 2005.
- Young, Jeffrey R (January 18, 2002). "Publisher of Free Online Science Journal Charges Authors a "Processing Fee"." The Chronicle of Higher Education, 48(19):A36.
External links [edit]
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