Aims And Scope
microPublication is a new entrant to the emerging genre of rapidly-published research communications. Such journals aim to transform science publication by publishing single, validated results that include novel findings, negative and/or reproduced results, and results that are perceived to lack high impact. Each article of a microPublication journal is peer-reviewed, assigned a DOI, and published online as HTML and PDF. However, we differ from other journals in this space such as Science Matters and BMC Research Notes, in the Biological Sciences for example, in one fundamental way: research results contained in the article are curated and, upon publication, deposited to and integrated in community-directed authoritative databases, e.g., WormBase. As such, microPublication journals short circuit the publication-to-database process, placing new findings directly into information discovery spaces. Seamlessly and behind the scenes, microPublication turns the scientific publishing process into a curatorial one, too.
Criteria For Publication
microPublication journals only accept high-quality data and work. Submitted results must be original work that has not been published elsewhere. Experiments and or analyses must be well-described and appropriately interpreted. Each submission must include a complete description of the result with accompanying reagents, resources, tools, and methodologies that were used in the experiment and any analysis. Results need to be validated through employing appropriate controls and replicates. See author guidelines for specific information about acceptable data. We will publish only those articles that have been through our peer-review system. See our guidelines on peer-review for more information.
Protection of Human and Animal Subjects
Authors must follow guidelines recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors in the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals at http://www.icmje.org:
“When reporting experiments on human subjects, authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008 (5). If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach and demonstrate that the institutional review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study. When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether the institutional and national guide for the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.”
Informed Consent/Privacy and Confidentiality
Authors must follow guidelines recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors in the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals at http://www.icmje.org:
“Patients have a right to privacy that should not be violated without informed consent. Identifying information, including names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that an identifiable patient be shown the manuscript to be published. Authors should disclose to these patients whether any potential identifiable material might be available via the Internet as well as in print after publication. Patient consent should be written and archived with the journal, the authors, or both, as dictated by local regulations or laws.
“Nonessential identifying details should be omitted. Informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt that anonymity can be maintained…If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should provide assurance, and editors should so note, that such alterations do not distort scientific meaning.”
Prior Publication Policy
microPublication does not accept submissions of work that have been published in peer-reviewed journals or repositories. We do not consider publication as an academic thesis, electronic preprint, or abstract as a prior publication.
Readership
microPublication is an open-access journal available to anyone with online access. microPublication Biology in particular, publishes research relevant to all members of the science community interested in the biological sciences.
Publication Support
microPublication is currently supported by funding from the National Library of Medicine and does not charge for publication.
