Two OA journals from Chile join BioMed Central and SpringerOpen portfolio

Biological Research and Revista Chilena de Historia Natural are the official journals of Sociedad de Biología de Chile. Biological Research joins BioMed Central’s portfolio and Revista Chilena de Historia Natural is part of SpringerOpen.

Originally named Archives of Experimental Biology and Medicine, the journal Biological Research was founded by Dr. Jorge Mardones in 1964. For almost half a century since then, Biological Research has been dedicated to publishing molecular, cellular and physiological life sciences along with concerns arising in the scientific community and issues around research in Chile and America. As a result of its success, Biological Research has been ranked second in terms of Impact Factor out of all Chilean journals.

Revista Chilena de Historia Natural was founded in 1897 by Professor Carlos E. Porter and has been committed to publishing original research dealing with past and present phenomena covering areas such as, botany and zoology, physiological and behavioural ecology, population biology, community and ecosystem ecology, biogeography, and evolution.

Sociedad de Biología de Chile remains the owner of both journals, but the processes of submission, peer review, publication and distribution will be conducted online via BioMed Central and SpringerOpen.

Biological Research’s Editor-in-Chief, Dr Manuel J. Santos, is an associate Professor in the Faculty of Biological Sciences and Medicine at the Pontificia Catholic University of Chile. Over the span of his career, Dr Santos has published more than 70 peer reviewed papers with research focusing on the biogenesis of cellular organelles, particularly peroxisomes.

A pioneer in this field, his research led him to discover a new type of human genetic disease, the peroxisomal biogenesis disorders, which include Zellweger Syndrome. More recently his research has centered on studying the role of peroxisomes in Alzheimer’s disease, and he also works in the field of bioethics.

Revista Chilena de Historia Natural’s Editor-in-Chief, F. Patricio Ojeda, is a professor in the Department of Ecology at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile. His research is focused mainly on the marine environment.

Deborah Kahn, Executive Vice President for Publishing at BioMed Central says: “We are very proud to be publishing such a highly esteemed journal, our first from Chile. The move to BioMed Central, an international open access publisher, means the research will be disseminated to a broader group of readers and we are looking forward to the future successes of both journals.”

Jacco Flipsen, Editorial Director, Life Sciences at Springer says: “We are equally excited to publishRevista Chilena de Historia Natural with this well established society through our SpringerOpen platform. The journal complements our portfolio in biodiversity and conservation, which we are keen to develop in an open access environment.”

Rosalba Lagos, President of the Society of Biology of Chile says: “One of the missions of the Society of Biology of Chile is to promote and develop the biological sciences through the publication of international journals. In this regard, our journals Biological Research (BR, founded in 1964 asArchivos de Biología y Medicina Experimentales) and Revista Chilena de Historia Natural (RCHN, founded in 1897) have been maintained during this time in a competitive way. Now we enter in another phase, and with the association to the Springer (RCHN) and BioMed Central (BR) open access platforms we expect to increase the visibility and citations.”