Sidra-BMC event boosts biomedical research publishing

A symposium organised jointly by Sidra Medical Research Centre and BioMed Central (BMC) mulled trends in research and on open access publishing here Thursday. BMC editors presented global trends in scholarly publishing at the one-day symposium called ‘Trends in Biomedical Research and Scholarly Publishing’ held at Four Seasons Hotel Doha. The Sidra Symposia Series event is significant since only 1.5% research papers published every year come from the Middle East, organisers said. Sidra’s Chief Research Officer Dr. Francesco Marincola said, “Sidra supports scientists in Qatar and the region to share their research around the world. Joint effort is central to success in any scientific work and research publications are a vehicle for this.” BMC Executive Vice President Deborah Kahn said, “Sidra and BioMed Central aim to make excellent research visible and accessible to all scientists. “We are delighted to jointly host this symposium. Our editors have a wealth of expertise in science, medicine, and scientific research publishing. We are glad to share and discuss this with the delegates.” “Research helps develop knowledge-based economy. So, Sidra and institutions like Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, Qatar Biomedical Research Institute, open source journal QScience, and BMC colleagues support Arab scientists’ growing research work,” said Dr. Marincola. Sidra is building a research programme to support local and regional scientific research in partnership with international institutions to build a hub of biomedical research. BMC is a leading open access journal publisher with over 260 titles.