Two New PLoS Journals Launched this Summer
PLoS Computational Biology (www.ploscompbiol.org), launched in June, is a peer-reviewed journal reporting major biological advances achieved through computation. The journal publishes research from one of the most rapidly growing and exciting areas of scientific inquiry. As a collaboration between a scholarly society and an open access publisher, the journal also provides further momentum to the shift towards unrestricted access and use of all scientific and medical literature.
The editor in chief is Dr. Philip E. Bourne, a professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of California San Diego, co-director of the Protein Data Bank and senior advisor to the Life Sciences at the San Diego Supercomputer Center. In the inaugural issue, founding editor Bourne and co-founding editors Steven E. Brenner and Michael B. Eisen explain the vision behind PLoS Computational Biology: "What motivates us to start a new journal at this time? Computation, driven in part by the influx of large amounts of data at all biological scales, has become a central feature of research and discovery in the life sciences…Open access—free availability and unrestricted use –to all articles published in the journal is central to the mission of PLoS Computational Biology, and distinguishes this new journal from most scientific journals which still needlessly restrict access to their contents. Open access revolutionizes the way we use research literature, and takes much inspiration from the field of computational biology itself.”
PLoS news release, June 23, 2005 <http://www.plos.org/news/announce_compbiol.html>
A second journal, PLoS Genetics was released in July. The journal is led by the Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Wayne N. Frankel, a Senior Staff Scientist at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. Frankel writes in an editorial in the inaugural issue:
"On behalf of our editorial team, it is my pleasure to welcome you to PLoS Genetics, a new open-access journal from the Public Library of Science (PLoS). Led by an internationally recognized editorial board with broad knowledge and expertise, PLoS Genetics is a journal that celebrates the research of the greater genetics and genomics community. As you see in this first issue, PLoS Genetics is unique –publishing outstanding articles that reflect the full breadth and interdisciplinary nature of this research, all free to read and to use in your own research and teaching….In 2004, when PLoS asked several of us in the genetics community about a need and desire for an open-access genetics/genomics journal, I replied with a resounding "yes!" And I was not alone –others had the same reaction that the time was right for a new genetics journal of high quality. Certainly the open-access element was key –following in the public-domain spirit of genetics and genomics data release, for example, by the Human Genome Project. And creating such a journal –building on the strong experience and reputation of PLoS Biology– seemed an opportunity not to miss."
PLoS news release, July 25, 2005 <http://www.plos.org/news/announce_genetics.html>
PLoS Genetics, v. 1 issue 1, July 2005 <http://genetics.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.0010021>
