A new scientific journal linked to a genetic database: towards a novel publication modality.

Human Genomics and Proteomics (HGP) is a new genomics and systems biology journal that is affiliated with an international, open access database. In addition to publishing original research articles and review articles, the journal will also include short descriptions of genetic datasets pertaining to population/ethnic-specific mutation frequencies. HGP is the first scientific journal from SAGE-Hindawi Access to Research, a partnership designed to create a family of open access journals between the publishers SAGE and Hindawi.

HGP is an international, peer-reviewed journal, providing a forum for discussion of research on human genomics and proteomics, systems biology, and various aspects of personalized medicine. The journal will publish high-quality original research articles and review articles comprising research on human genomics and proteomics, or innovative methodological and bioinformatics/resource papers that enable the practice of personalized medicine. In particular, HGP's main focus will be on pharmacogenetics/genomics, nutrigenomics, and metabolomics, proteomics, pharmacoproteomics, and systems biology. Furthermore, the journal will feature articles on the identification of the molecular genetic basis of inherited disorders and the available technology for their diagnosis at the DNA level, bioinformatics tools and databases, and finally molecular diagnostics-related issues.

A unique feature of HGP will be the affiliation with FINDbase (http://www.findbase.org/), a public, population-specific genetic database that charts causative mutation frequencies and their associated disorders in several countries around the world [1]. As the first journal with an affiliated database in this discipline, HGP offers a unique opportunity to authors to open up access to their research on the characterization of causative mutation and/or biomarker frequency spectra to the widest possible community. In addition to original research and review articles, HGP will accept submissions of genetic datasets, pertaining to the spectrum of causative mutations or biomarkers, for example, pharmacogenetic, forensic markers, in various populations and ethnic groups. These submissions will also be peer-reviewed and, if accepted, will be featured in the journal as a Mutation and Biomarker Dataset with links to the full dataset in FINDbase.

As a modern research journal, we will not only ensure that the subjects we cover are of great interest to scientists in the fields of human genomics, proteomics, and personalized medicine but also remain alert for new trends. Also, in order to complement our strengths in human genomics and proteomics research community, we aim to affiliate with a major human genetics society. This way, HGP will not only provide a forum for researchers of the postgenomic era, but will also increase the chances of human variation data capture and provide a centralized system for population-specific data storage and retrieval [2].

Furthermore, HGP's stated goal is to provide authors with fair and rapid peer review and prompt publication. In an effort to facilitate seamless and rapid international scientific communication in this fast-paced field, HGP offers a state-of-the-art web-based submission and peer-review tool, allowing decision-making on submitted manuscripts within 6–8 weeks, and rapid electronic publication on average of 6 weeks upon acceptance. The online submission and peer-review system is accessible from our home page: http://www.sage-hindawi.com/journals/hgp/. Online help is just a click away. All submissions are kept strictly confidential. Referees' accessing to the manuscripts is through the system's web server, and they share their comments on a convenient, standardized, and secure web form. The refereeing process is managed by an internationally renowned editorial team consisting of world-leading experts recognized for their contributions in the fields of human genomics and proteomics.

We envisage that HGP will provide the proof of principle for closely related efforts towards developing other “database-journals.” Also, the HGP-FINDbase affiliation can serve as a nonprofit model for sustainable database funding, in a field that currently suffers significantly from the lack of sustainable long-term funding opportunities for genetic database projects [3, 4]. The editorial team of HGP and the publishers SAGE-Hindawi are proud to provide this new discussion forum to the human genomics and proteomics research community, and we encourage authors, referees, and readers to take advantage of it.

George P. Patrinos Emanuel F. Petricoin