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| 1 | +--- |
| 2 | +author: inutano |
| 3 | +date: 2025-09-30 |
| 4 | +draft: false |
| 5 | +category: |
| 6 | + - community |
| 7 | +tag: |
| 8 | + - community |
| 9 | +cover: |
| 10 | + image: /wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Gigascience.png |
| 11 | + alt: "GigaScience Logo" |
| 12 | + |
| 13 | +title: "GigaScience: 15 years of great open science publishing & the end of an era?" |
| 14 | +url: /2025/09/30/2025-09-30-gigascience/ |
| 15 | +--- |
| 16 | + |
| 17 | +To begin something is difficult; to keep something going is a different challenge. |
| 18 | +Even when it is the right thing to do, if it does not yield economic benefit in the short term, it may be difficult to sustain. |
| 19 | +Open science, including open-source software development and open data, is precisely such an example. |
| 20 | +Everyone agrees these are of great importance, |
| 21 | +yet when confronted with the immediate demands of an academic career or the short-term profit of a company, |
| 22 | +putting in the extra work to make all of the code and data publicly accessible and reusable may not be a priority. |
| 23 | +That is why individuals and organizations that not only embrace these principles but also persist with them over long periods are worthy of being recognized. |
| 24 | +They act not merely for themselves, but for the whole of human society. |
| 25 | + |
| 26 | + |
| 27 | +One of these organizations is the [GigaScience journal](https://academic.oup.com/gigascience). |
| 28 | +Since its founding, GigaScience has been at the forefront of open data science. |
| 29 | +Its initiative to build its own data repository, to assign curators, and to archive the data underlying accepted articles was truly pioneering, and other journals followed. |
| 30 | +Unlike traditional journals operated solely by editorial boards, GigaScience is, in effect, equivalent to establishing a full-fledged data center. |
| 31 | + |
| 32 | +The recent news concerning GigaScience’s owners, BGI, laying off the entire editorial, |
| 33 | +software and curation team in Hong Kong on short notice, has filled us with both surprise and deep disappointment. |
| 34 | +They are the very people who established the journal’s identity and direction and made it an essential journal in biomedical informatics. |
| 35 | +Departing Editor in Chief Scott Edmunds wrote a passionate article sharing a retrospective on |
| 36 | +[15 years of innovation at GigaScience](https://doi.org/10.59350/hzfr4-z0881) [1]. |
| 37 | + |
| 38 | +GigaScience’s work is not only about selecting manuscripts, |
| 39 | +but also about validating the underlying data and recording the necessary metadata for preservation. |
| 40 | +These time-consuming steps might appear to exceed what an ordinary editorial office is supposed to do. |
| 41 | +Yet, if we reflect upon the true role of research articles, that of sharing the latest scientific results, |
| 42 | +we must admit that it is the conventional journal that has become outdated. |
| 43 | +The age of handwritten letters and printed texts has passed; now is the age of computation. |
| 44 | +The work that GigaScience does to make sure that not just publications, |
| 45 | +but the data they are reporting on, is truly what the scientific community has long needed. |
| 46 | + |
| 47 | +GigaScience has been a longtime sponsor of the Bioinformatics Open Source Conference (BOSC). |
| 48 | +Members of its editorial office have participated in BOSC and the encompassing Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB) conference for many years, |
| 49 | +at times giving talks and serving in discussion panels |
| 50 | +(for example, Scott was on the [2025 Data Sustainability panel](https://www.open-bio.org/events/bosc-2025/panel/)). |
| 51 | +Beyond their financial contributions and their support and hard work on behalf of open science, the people at GigaScience are our friends. |
| 52 | + |
| 53 | +We sincerely hope that under its new management, |
| 54 | +the assets that were so painstakingly constructed will be preserved and further developed for years to come. |
| 55 | +And to those talented and brilliant members who were let go — |
| 56 | +Scott, Nicole, Chris, Peter, Mary Ann, Bastien, and Ken — |
| 57 | +we wish you bright and fortunate opportunities ahead. |
| 58 | +From our hearts, we hope that we may once again see you at scientific meetings, |
| 59 | +still burning with a passionate commitment to open science and open publication. |
| 60 | + |
| 61 | +Reference: |
| 62 | + |
| 63 | +> Edmunds, S. (2025, September 17). And it's goodbye from me. GigaBlog. https://doi.org/10.59350/hzfr4-z0881 |
| 64 | +
|
| 65 | +Signed by the following, many of whom are or have been members of the BOSC organizing committee or Open Bioinformatics Foundation, |
| 66 | +including board members. You can add your name via a pull request: |
| 67 | + |
| 68 | +* Tazro Ohta |
| 69 | +* Nomi Harris |
| 70 | +* Peter Cock |
| 71 | +* Mónica Muñoz Torres |
| 72 | +* Chris Fields |
| 73 | +* Bastian Greshake Tzovaras |
| 74 | +* Deepak Unni |
| 75 | +* Hervé Ménager |
| 76 | +* Hilmar Lapp |
| 77 | + |
| 78 | +Post-publication signatories (alphabetical, please |
| 79 | +[make a pull request](https://github.com/OBF/OBF.github.io/edit/main/content/posts/2025-09-30-gigascience.md) |
| 80 | +by the end of October if you wish to add your name): |
| 81 | + |
| 82 | + |
| 83 | + |
| 84 | + |
| 85 | + |
| 86 | + |
| 87 | + |
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