Matthew Cockerill has been named the new publisher of BioMed Central, succeeding Jan Velterop who stepped down in April. From today's press release:
Matthew Cockerill has been involved with BioMed Central since its launch in 1999, serving first as Technical Director and later as Director of Operations. Prior to BioMed Central, he played a major role in the creation of BioMedNet, a pioneering web site for biologists, which incorporated the Trends and the Current Opinion review journals. He has a PhD in Biochemistry, which he obtained working under the guidance of Tim Hunt at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. He also has a long-standing interest in the use of technology to structure and manage biological and medical knowledge. Cockerill said that his appointment has come at an exciting time for the company: "BioMed Central has made extraordinary progress in recent months. Open access is never out of the headlines, and BioMed Central is publishing more peer-reviewed research than ever before. The latest impact factors have shown that open access journals can more than hold their own against traditional journals, and with widespread support from institutions, funders, and scientists, it is clear that open access publishing is here to stay."...Vitek Tracz, Chairman of the Current Science Group commented: "I am excited by Matthew's new role as Publisher of BioMed Central. We have now worked together for some years and my admiration for the breath of his talents and the depth of his grasp of the complex issues facing science publishing today has grown and grown. I feel confident that we now have the right team led by the right person to face with confidence the exciting challenges ahead, which amount to no less than re-inventing the role of science publisher as a true partner of research scientists and medical practitioners."
Posted by
Peter Suber at 9/14/2005 08:08:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
