Molecular Life Sciences New Online Publication

Main Category: Biology / Biochemistry
Also Included In: Genetics;  Neurology / Neuroscience;  Cancer / Oncology
Article Date: 18 Jul 2009 - 0:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press has launched a new monthly publication, Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology, that provides comprehensive, systematically structured surveys of research in exciting areas of molecular and cellular biology, genetics, developmental biology, neuroscience, cancer biology, and molecular pathology.

For decades, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has complemented its groundbreaking research with publication of a variety of highly prestigious titles written and edited by leading scientists. These include the journals Genes & Development and Genome Research, the 'bible' of research methods Molecular Cloning, online teaching resources, and numerous other laboratory manuals, monographs, handbooks, journals, and textbooks.

Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology (http://www.cshperspectives.org; ISSN 1943-0264) is the latest, and perhaps most ambitious, addition to this stable. Its depth of coverage is unmatched, spanning the entire spectrum of the molecular life sciences and therefore providing an essential resource for all areas of bioscience research.

According to the journal's Executive Editor, Richard Sever, who has worked on traditional review journals including the Current Opinion and Trends titles, Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology has a new and unique approach. "There are many review articles published each year, but they're usually on one particular aspect of one particular field," he says. "Perspectives is different. We cover subjects by asking experts to consider how best to structure a comprehensive survey of their field, and then commission articles from all the key figures in that field. And we cover everything in bioscience from Alzheimer's to plant biology."

The Perspectives articles are all commissioned as 'collections' by a board of eminent academic editors and gradually accumulate online at the journal's website each month as they are accepted and published. The debut issue features articles commissioned by Elaine Fuchs, Michael Karin, W. James Nelson, and Peter Lawrence and includes contributions from Nobel laureate David Baltimore, molecular motor expert Nobutaka Hirokawa, and developmental biologist Jim Smith. These set the stage for subject collections on symmetry breaking, morphogen gradients, cell junctions, and the immune signaling molecule NF-kB. Next in the pipeline are articles on the origin of life, the p53-family of tumor suppressors, the nucleus, and immune tolerance.

The new publication is produced online in partnership with Stanford University Library's HighWire Press, taking advantage of their new H20 platform. The state-of-the-art website includes HTML and PDF views, high-resolution artwork, and video material, along with a host of novel features such as author updates, commenting options, and Twitter-powered news feeds. The journal will be free for the remainder of 2009, and discounted early-subscriber pricing is now available for 2010.

Source:
Stephanie Novara
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory