Another incremental step has been achieved for the adoption of the practice of data citation; this week, Nature Biotechnology has included one of our dataset DOIs in their references for the first time.

Lead by researchers at the University of Oxford, a group of more than 30 scientific organizations around the globe, have worked to produce a common standard that will make possible the consistent description of enormous and radically different databases compiled in fields ranging from genetics to stem cell science, to environmental studies.

Today marks the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year, and as we enter the supposedly auspicious year of the Dragon now is a good opportunity to look towards developments in the nascent field of data publication over the upcoming year. This week marked important announcements of new and improved data publication platforms.

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The Human Variome Project (HVP) Beijing Meeting has officially ended (though a number of delegates will be busy tomorrow at the Advisory Council meeting). The energy and commitment towards better understanding and treatment of heritable diseases displayed by both the speakers and participants was great to see. Peter Taschner’s talk on the Leiden Open (source) Variation Database (LOVD) system was very well received, and a number of

I recently returned from the InCoB/ISCB-Asia meeting. The meeting officially ended a couple of days ago but I am still digesting the good food, the good  conversations and the good science, all of which I know will be with me a good while.  In the interest of avoiding a copious monograph, I’ll try to stick to a few personal high points.

Another busy week for the GigaScience team, with the release of a new-look database, more datasets, and a number of talks and announcements at BGI’s annual International Conference of Genomics in Shenzhen.

After many months on the road visiting conferences it’s nice when one comes to you. This weekend marks BGI’s annual big bash: the 6th International Conference on Genomics, this year held in the mock-Swiss splendor of the Shenzhen OCT East resort.

This week marks another success for the fledgling practice of data citation, with two datasets from our GigaScience database published in Nature Biotechnology . The genomes sequenced by our colleagues at the BGI for the Cynomolgus and Chinese rhesus macaques were initially released DOIs at our launch in July, and were amongst the first (at the time) unpublished genomes released in this way.

GigaScience was on hand to witness plenty of lively discussion last week at the annual American Society of Human Genetics jamboree: the International Conference of Human Genetics in Montreal. As always, the meeting had a strong medical genetics presence but the rapid growth and uptake of genomics technologies in the field produced much fascinating work on display this year.

We at GigaScience always appreciate good press, and on top of the welcome coverage on blogs (e.g. this in Annals of Botany) and twitter, we are pleased with the profile of the journal in this months Bio-IT world (especially coming on top of the coverage of our database in the previous issue). The article is a nice introduction to the editors, editorial policies, and hopes for the journal, and is useful reading for those who’d