BioMed Central launches BMC Systems Biology, a new open access jou=

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**With apologies for cross posting**

08 January 2007

Press release: BioMed Central launches BMC Systems Biology, a new
open access journal

BioMed Central, the leading open access publisher, today
announced the launch of BMC Systems Biology, the first open
access journal focussed solely on the entire emerging subject of
systems biology. A peer-reviewed online journal, BMC Systems
Biology has just published its first articles online at
www.biomedcentral.com/bmcsystbiol.

BMC Systems Biology publishes research articles describing
systems-level analysis of biological events, whether experimental
or theoretical, at the level of molecules, cells or organisms.

BMC Systems Biology is a new journal in the highly successful
BMC-series from BioMed Central, the publisher of journals such as
BMC Bioinformatics and Genome Biology. Like the other journals in
the series, BMC Systems Biology publishes peer-reviewed research,
software, database and methodology articles, all of which are
immediately available without charge to any reader with Internet
access. BMC Systems Biology encourages use of the Systems Biology
Markup Language (SBML) and, like all of the BMC-series, makes XML
of all published articles freely available to download for data
and text-mining.

Dr Theodora Bloom, BioMed Central's Editorial Director for
Biology, said of the journal launch, "BioMed Central has a strong
track record in this area - Genome Biology and BMC Bioinformatics
are amongst the best journals in their fields. This reputation
makes BioMed Central well-placed to launch BMC Systems Biology,
and we have already seen a very positive response from the
research community."

The post-genomic discipline of 'systems biology' is fast growing,
with an exponential increase in PubMed abstracts including the
term systems biology. The approach taken by systems biologists is
qualitatively different to the reductive approach traditional in
many fields, and often involves collaboration between biologists,
physicists and mathematicians. Reflecting the breadth of this new
discipline, BMC Systems Biology aims to publish work ranging in
focus from the analysis of metabolic networks, through neuronal
networks and physiology, all the way up to analyses of
ecosystems.

Chris Sander, Program Chair and Director of the Computational
Biology Center at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New
York, has agreed to serve on BMC Systems Biology's editorial
board. Dr Sander comments, "Systems biology research is beginning
to make significant contributions in linking complete genomic
information and highly quantitative molecular data to the
physiological consequences that emerge from the kinetics and
dynamics of complex cellular systems. The new journal will be an
open-access bridge between active researchers in this exciting
new field of research and the broad scientific community."

BMC Systems Biology's editorial board also includes Laurence
Hurst, Professor of Evolutionary Genetics at the University of
Bath, UK. Professor Hurst welcomes the launch of BMC Systems
Biology, "In systems biology the devil is in the detail and the
details are, to say the least, numerous. An open access outlet
both with unlimited space, be it in the paper or in the vital
supplementary information, and a requirement to provide the
necessary detail, is greatly to be welcomed and BMC Systems
Biology is an important boost for the field." Fellow Editorial
Board member Professor Nikolaus Rajewsky, Head of the Division of
Systems Biology at the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine
in Berlin comments, "Systems biology is developing and expanding
at a rapid pace. It also becomes more and more apparent to many
biologists that a more profound understanding of biological
function can oftentimes only be achieved by integrating disparate
datasets in a systems-wide approach."

Rajewsky continues, "The BMC journals have already proven to be
very attractive to many scientists and readers. These journals
provide open access, do not restrict manuscript length, and do
not insist on publishing only "major" findings, i.e. they do not
force scientists to strive for "sensations". Especially in a new
field, such as systems biology, it is necessary to work on solid
methodology development. Therefore, BMC Systems Biology seems
especially suited to become an important and high impact
journal."

BMC Systems Biology is edited by an in-house team and supported
by an international editorial board. The editorial board is still
being recruited, the following people have already agreed to
serve: Harmen J Bussemaker (USA), James J Collins (USA), Stephen
W Davies (Canada), Michael Elowitz (USA), James E Ferrell Jr.
(USA), Laurence D Hurst (UK), Douglas Lauffenburger (USA),
Nicolas Le Novere (UK), Nikolaus Rajewsky (Germany), Frederick P
Roth (USA), Chris Sander (USA), Pamela Silver (USA), Michael
Tyers (Canada), Rebecca Ward (USA).

BMC Systems Biology (ISSN 1752-0509) is indexed/tracked/covered
by PubMed, BIOSIS, CAS, Scopus, EMBASE and Google Scholar.

Further Information

Contact Grace Baynes (press@biomedcentral.com or +44 20 7631
9988)

About BioMed Central

BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com) is an independent
online publishing house committed to providing immediate access
without charge to the peer-reviewed biological and medical
research it publishes. This commitment is based on the view that
open access to research is essential to the rapid and efficient
communication of science and medicine. BioMed Central currently
publishes over 160 open access journals in biology, medicine and
chemistry, with physics titles in development. In addition to
open-access original research, BioMed Central also publishes
reviews and other subscription-based content.

Grace Baynes
Head of Marketing & Public Relations
BioMed Central
Middlesex House
London W1T 4LB
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