Sensorship? Are there too many stem cell research journals?

[Kaye]

This is beginning to look like an all out assault on information being released.


Stem Cells Differentiate And Proliferate; So Do Stem Cell Journals
Main Category: Stem Cell Research
Article Date: 19 Aug 2010 - 5:00 PDT

Are there too many stem cell research journals?

This question has been posed by Drs. Paul Sanberg and Cesar Borlongan of the Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair at the University of South Florida. Their article appears in the current issue of Stem Cell Reviews and Reports.

Both Sanberg and Borlongan are concerned about the quality of the science being published in the proliferating stem cell journals.

"Because stem cells have the ability to differentiate and proliferate, there has been a great increase in research into stem cell-based regenerative medicine over the last decade," said Sanberg. "Paralleling this trend in research is a similar differentiation and proliferation of stem cell journals."

The authors suggest that the proliferation of stem cell journals may be related to the current trend of publishing 'open access' and on-line journals and their article includes a review of stem cell journals, noting their initial circulation year and impact factors.

"Stem cell research is one of the most enterprising areas of medical science, so it is not surprising that entrepreneurial publishers have developed numerous publication outlets," said Borlongan.

The authors concluded that whether a further proliferation of stem cell journals continues or does not depends on whether the stem cell field "differentiates" into a "more mature research arena." They recommend that potential authors follow Good Publications Practices when choosing where to place their work, including assessing the publisher, editorial board membership, manuscript review process, associated organizations, and, in particular, the scientific soundness of studies published by relatively new stem cell journals.

"The development of a more mature stem cell research arena will hinge on the quality of stem cell science peer review," concluded Sanberg.

Source:
Randolph Fillmore
University of South Florida (USF Health)

[Kaye]

"The development of a more mature stem cell research arena will hinge on the quality of stem cell science peer review," concluded Sanberg.

I'm not interested in his "research arena," I need treatment now. No one seems to be interested in treating the patients.

[barbara]

If you aren't on the A-list of scientists, you may find it hard to get published in some journals. I think this is why there is a proliferation of research publications because there is so much research going on there aren't enough outlets for publications for scientists that aren't in the "in" crowd. This type of cliquishness exists amongst scientists, I'm sure. I will ask our main research PhD., Dr. Young, to comment.
If there was a publication to review actual treatments given in the U.S., it would be an annual affair with a few pages max.

[Jeannine]

Kaye

they don't care about helping us. Their main goal is job preservation. He;; - they place more emphasis on the grant money than they do the quality of education at these universities. A shame when you think of the financial sacrifice being made by parents and students to get a college education.

[barbara]

Actually, the article is correct in one sense. Some of the published work coming out is pure crap. And that comes from prestigious journals like Science, Nature, ane Cell, What the stem cell community needs is GOOD peer review of articles before they are published. And that peer review process would ask the authors whether they ran the appropriate controls, whether they characerized their cells ahead of time before they performed their experiments, whether they were working with a mixed population of cells or a purified population of cells, what were the percentage of positive results, was their research hypothesis driven, etc.
Then and only then will you get good results - which should also whittle down those journals not publishing good science.

Dr. Young