IOS Press relaunches StemBook

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, December 17, 2018 – IOS Press, an international publisher providing content for scientific, technical and medical communities, is proud to announce the relaunch and revitalization of StemBook, an online open access forum and discussion platform for the stem cell research community. It features a collection of content covering a range of topics related to stem cell biology written by top researchers in the field. The stembook.org site is being refreshed with new content that will be expanded and updated regularly. Enhanced functionality will also be introduced soon.

IOS Press acquired StemBook in 2017. The project was originally conceived and launched in 2008 by a distinguished Editorial Board under the guidance of founding editor Douglas A. Melton, PhD, Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Harvard, MA, USA, and other key innovators from the stem cell research community. It was developed in collaboration with several enterprises including the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and Harvard’s Initiative in Innovative Computing.

StemBook is designed to provide just-in-time information as well as a wealth of foundational knowledge to stem cell researchers and researchers in other specialties. Together with the newly launched StemJournal, it is one of the core components of StemHub, a new portal currently under development by IOS Press.

“StemBook’s mission has been and will remain to provide an interactive nexus and knowledge resource that offers opportunities for learning, interaction, synergy and community building across this highly interdisciplinary scientific domain. It is our intention to foster its continuing growth to serve the evolving needs of this burgeoning field,” commented IOS Press Founder and Director Einar Fredriksson.

StemBook Editor Chad A. Cowan, PhD, Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and the Publisher are working closely together to expand the current Editorial Board, add new content and update previously published content to keep pace with developments in this fast-moving field.

“The Editorial Board and I are extremely excited about the ongoing development of StemBook and the prospect of guiding its new content and features,” noted Dr. Cowan. “We are confident that StemBook will continue to serve, support and advance the field through the publication of review articles and protocols that are cutting-edge and comprehensive.”

StemBook offers the following content:

CHAPTERS

Both invited and noncommissioned reviews submitted to StemJournal are republished as chapters in StemBook. All submitted reviews undergo a stringent peer-review process. These chapters are indexed by PubMed and the content is available on the NCBI Bookshelf.

PROTOCOLS

StemBook publishes validated protocols in collaboration with Stem Cell COREdinates that encompass various methods to generate, edit and differentiate induced pluripotent stem cells into various lineages. New protocols, both commissioned and unsolicited, submitted for peer review and accepted for publication in StemJournal, are archived in StemBook under the appropriate topic in the Protocols section.

OTHER CONTENT

News, commentaries and meeting announcements of interest to stem cell researchers are also published in StemBook, including:

• Journal Stream – weekly curated selections from the very latest stem cell literature
• Forums – discussions with and profiles of researchers and laboratories
• Resources – laboratory resources, funding sources, etc.

Sections comprising StemBook are being expanded so that they reflect the breadth and depth of research in the field and mirror the sections covered in StemJournal: Cancer stem cells; cell maturation and aging; cellular and nuclear reprogramming; computational biology and data science; disease modeling and drug discovery; ectoderm specification and differentiation; endoderm specification and differentiation; genetics and epigenetics; genomics, proteomics and omics; germ cell and somatic stem cell biology in reproduction; imaging; mesoderm specification and differentiation; neural stem cells and development; niche biology, homing and migration; pluripotency; stem cell differentiation; stem cell homeostasis and function; stem cell renewal; stem cell immunology; tissue-specific stem cells; therapeutic prospects and clinical trials; tissue engineering, biomaterials and manufacturing; and research policies and ethical considerations.

With the launch of StemJournal, an open access forum for communicating outstanding research in stem cell biology, and the relaunch of StemBook, IOS Press has opened new, dynamic channels for scientific contributions from the many fields of research on stem cells. It also paves the way for developing a much larger hub.

###