µP

microPublication Biology

About microPublication

Our Mission

microPublication.org publishes brief, novel findings, negative and/or reproduced results, and results which may lack a broader scientific narrative. Each article is peer reviewed and assigned a DOI. microPublication Biology articles are now discoverable through PMC, PubMed, EuropePMC, Google Scholar, and university library catalogs. Included data are curated and, upon publication, deposited in third party referential databases (when available).

Aims and Scope

microPublication Biology is an open access journal that publishes research in all areas of life sciences. microPublication.org publishes single, validated findings that may be novel, reproduced, negative, lack a broader scientific narrative, or perceived to lack high impact. All published articles are peer-reviewed for scientific rigor and reproducibility. All published article are vetted for adherence to community standards in nomenclature and data reporting.

microPublication aims to advance scholarly communication by short-circuiting the publication-to-database process, placing new findings directly into information discovery spaces upon publication. This is in addition to our articles being findable through general indexers such as PubMed, PubMedCentral and Google Scholar. In addition to being open access, we make data from our articles easier to access, by collaborating collaborations with community-directed authoritative databases e.g., WormBase, FlyBase, PomBase, ZFIN, etc.

microPublication relies on curators of these databases to define copyediting guidelines that meet community nomenclature standards and reporting, cutting down on typos and alerting the databases to newly identified bioentities. The microPublication submission workflow includes database curators, allowing expert annotation and further data vetting after article acceptance. Upon publication, article metadata and curated data are exported to and integrated into these databases. As such, Seamlessly and behind the scenes, microPublication turns the scientific publishing process into a curatorial one.

Criteria for Publication

microPublication journals only accept high-quality data and work. Reported results are original work that has not been published elsewhere. Each submission includes a complete description of the result with accompanying reagents, resources, tools, and methodologies that were used in the experiment and any analysis. Appropriate controls and replicates are expected for all results. We publish only those articles that have been through our peer-review system. See author guidelines for specific information about acceptable data. See our guidelines on peer-review for more information.

Plagiarism Detection

As part of microPublication Biology's commitment to protecting the integrity of the scholarly record, we employ iThenticate to detect plagiarism. iThenticate Similarity Reports provide an overall similarity index for each submission and inform editors on text copied from other sources without attribution. Plagiarized content will not be considered for publication. If plagiarism is identified, we will follow COPE guidelines.

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. 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.”

See our Privacy Notice and the General Data Protection Regulation Notice.

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. As part of our long-term sustainability plan, starting April 2nd, 2022 we will charge $250 per article, upon publication acceptance, to cover costs but not new initiatives. No article will be refused because of an author's inability to pay page charges.

Why microPublish?

microPublication Biology accelerates scientific discovery by making technically sound research results freely open to the public through peer-reviewed publications and integration with other biomedical information via authoritative databases. Our articles provide researchers with credit for their findings through microPublication citations discoverable on PubMed.

What Should You microPublish?

  • Exciting new research findings or reagents you want to rapidly place in the public domain; submitted microPublications can often be reviewed and published in microPublication Biology within a week.
  • Experimental findings that did not fit into the narrative of an existing publication, and instead have remained in your lab notebook/file drawer/computer, ultimately unknown to the scientific community.
  • New experimental findings that you do not anticipate fitting into future publications. Note: if your plans change, these findings can be included as a citable peer-reviewed publication that supports your work.
  • An experimental finding that is viewed as a “negative result”, but is important for the field. For example, a null mutation in an organism that does not result in an obvious mutant phenotype (a wild-type null phenotype). Publication of these “negative results” provides potentially hypothesis-generating genetic information as well as can save other researchers from spending time and money repeating the same analysis.
  • Experimental findings that provide valuable supporting information for a field – successful replication of recently published work, or just as important, cautionary information – unsuccessful replication of published work.
  • Experimental findings included in an existing publication as an “unpublished observation” or ‘data not shown’ and thus not visible to the scientific community and not officially published.
  • Experimental findings derived from small projects, for example undergraduate summer research projects, graduate rotation projects, that stand alone and are not necessarily part of a larger effort.
  • You can include microPublication Biology articles in yourCurriculum Vitae. Note: To avoid confusion with other publications, we recommend that your microPublication articles are included in a separate section with the heading “microPublications”

Who Can microPublish?

microPublication submissions are open to all levels of researchers. Whether you are a Principal Investigator (PI), postdoctoral researcher, a current or recent graduate student, undergraduate, or work in industry, micropublishing provides a route for you to receive credit for your findings and to get those data that do not fit into full-length articles into the public domain. Please note that manuscripts need to be approved for submission by the funding-supported PI or group head. PI approval can be entered through the online data submission form on the microPublication Biology site.

microPublication Biology Editorial Board

  • Diana Chu
    Diana Chu

    San Francisco State University, CA USA

  • Barbara Conradt
    Barbara Conradt

    Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany

  • Monica Driscoll
    Monica Driscoll

    Rutgers University, NJ USA

  • Marie Anne Felix
    Marie Anne Felix

    Institut de Biologie de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure, France

  • Craig Mello
    Craig Mello

    University of Massachusetts Medical School Worcester, MA USA

  • Hitoshi Sawa
    Hitoshi Sawa

    National Institute of Genetics, Japan

  • Jordan Ward
    Jordan Ward

    University of California Santa Cruz, CA USA

  • Brian Oliver
    Brian Oliver

    National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Bethesda, MD USA

Alumni

  • Andy Golden
    Andy Golden

    National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Bethesda, MD USA

  • Patricia Kuwabara
    Patricia Kuwabara

    University of Bristol, UK

Core Editorial Team

  • Paul Sternberg
    Paul Sternberg

    Editor-In-Chief

    California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA

  • Tim Schedl
    Tim Schedl

    Science Officer C elegans

    Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO USA

  • Daniela Raciti
    Daniela Raciti

    Executive Editor

    California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA

  • Karen Yook
    Karen Yook

    Executive Editor

    California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA

  • Todd Harris

    Technology and Operations Manager

    Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Toronto Canada

  • Nicholas Stiffler
    Nicholas Stiffler

    Core Developer

    California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA

  • Cecilia Nakamura
    Cecilia Nakamura

    Billing

    California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA

Editorial Staff

  • Thom Kaufman
    Thom Kaufman

    Science Officer D. melanogaster

    Indiana University, Bloomington, IN USA

  • Brian Oliver
    Brian Oliver

    Science Officer D. melanogaster

    National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Bethesda, MD USA

  • Kami Ahmad
    Kami Ahmad

    Science Officer D. melanogaster

    Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA

  • Steven Marygold
    Steven Marygold

    Managing Editor D. melanogaster

    University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

  • Jing Yang
    Jing Yang

    Science Officer Xenopus

    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL USA

  • Christina James-Zorn
    Christina James-Zorn

    Managing Editor Xenopus

    Cincinnati Childrens, Cincinnati, OH USA

  • Jaehyoung Cho
    Jaehyoung Cho

    Managing Editor C. elegans

    California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA

  • Gary Schindelman
    Gary Schindelman

    Managing Editor C. elegans

    California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA

  • Cathy Savage-Dunn
    Cathy Savage-Dunn

    Science Officer C. elegans

    Queens College at the City University of New York, Flushing, NY, USA

  • Yishi Jin
    Yishi Jin

    Science Officer C. elegans

    University of California, San Diego, CA USA

  • Cheryl Van Buskirk
    Cheryl Van Buskirk

    Science Officer C. elegans

    California State University, Northridge, CA, USA

  • Lina Dahlberg
    Lina Dahlberg

    Science Officer C. elegans, undergraduate research experience

    Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, USA

  • Matt Marcello
    Matt Marcello

    Science Officer C. elegans, undergraduate research experience

    PACE University, New York, NY, USA

  • Christian Froekjaer Jensen
    Christian Froekjaer Jensen

    Science Officer C. elegans

    KAUST, Saudi Arabia

  • Alon Zaslaver
    Alon Zaslaver

    Science Officer C. elegans

    Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

  • Yen-Ping Hsueh
    Yen-Ping Hsueh

    Science Officer C. elegans

    Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

  • Chiou-Fen Chuang
    Chiou-Fen Chuang

    Science Officer C. elegans, Fungi

    University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

  • Bhagwati Gupta
    Bhagwati Gupta

    Science Officer C. elegans

    McMaster University Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

  • Leonore Reiser
    Leonore Reiser

    Managing Editor Arabidopsis

    Phoenix Bioinformatics, Fremont, CA USA

  • Iain Searle
    Iain Searle

    Science Officer Arabidopsis

    The University of Adelaide, Adelaide Australia

  • Nick Kaplinsky
    Nick Kaplinsky

    Science Officer Arabidopsis

    Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA USA

  • Charles Hoffman
    Charles Hoffman

    Science Officer S. pombe

    Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA USA

  • Sarah Lambert
    Sarah Lambert

    Science Officer S. pombe

    Curie Institute, Paris, France

  • Sarah Sabatinos
    Sarah Sabatinos

    Science Officer S. pombe

    Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

  • Monte Westerfield
    Monte Westerfield

    Science Officer Zebrafish

    University of Oregon, Eugene, OR USA

  • Petra Fey
    Petra Fey

    Managing Editor Dictyostelium

    Northwestern University, Chicago, IL USA

  • Rex Chisholm
    Rex Chisholm

    Science Officer Dictyostelium

    Northwestern University, Chicago, IL USA

  • Lukas Mueller
    Lukas Mueller

    Science Officer Solanaceae

    Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

  • Ann Kirchmaier
    Ann Kirchmaier

    Science Officer S. cerevisiae

    Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

  • Stacia Engel
    Stacia Engel

    Managing Editor S. cerevisiae

    Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA USA

  • Carson Andorf
    Carson Andorf

    Science Officer Maize

    MaizeGDB, USDA-ARS

  • Joel Sussman
    Joel Sussman

    Science Officer Structural Biology

    Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

  • Jaime Prilusky
    Jaime Prilusky

    Proteopedia Editor Structural Biology

    Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

  • Jacqueline Campbell
    Jacqueline Campbell

    Science Officer Soybean

    SoyBase, USDA-ARS

  • Evelina Basenko
    Evelina Basenko

    Science Officer Fungi

    University of Liverpool, Liverpool, England, United Kingdom

  • Ksenija Gasic
    Ksenija Gasic

    Science Officer Rosaceae

    Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA

  • Susana Wadgymar
    Susana Wadgymar

    Science Officer Ecology and Evolution

    Davidson College, Davidson, NC USA

  • Stacy Farina
    Stacy Farina

    Science Officer Ecology and Evolution

    Howard University, Washington, DC USA

  • Robert J Williamson
    Robert J Williamson

    Science Officer Ecology and Evolution

    Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute, IN USA

  • Margaret Metz
    Margaret Metz

    Science Officer Ecology and Evolution

    Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR USA

  • Santiago Salinas
    Santiago Salinas

    Science Officer Ecology and Evolution

    Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, MI USA

Alumni

  • Sarah Torres
    Sarah Torres

    Publishing Editor

    California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA

  • Andy Golden
    Andy Golden

    Science Officer C. elegans

    The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Bethesda, MD USA

  • Lisa Harper
    Lisa Harper

    Managing Editor Maize

    MaizeGDB, USDA-ARS

microPublication Biology is published by

1200 E. California Blvd. MC 1-43 Pasadena, CA 91125

The microPublication project is supported by

The National Institute of Health -- Grant #: 1U01LM012672-01

microPublication Biology:ISSN: 2578-9430