Publish your supplements

Publishing a supplement to one of BioMed Central’s journals is a very effective means of disseminating scientific findings and conference material to the relevant target audience. Most of BioMed Central’s journals will consider the following types of supplement for publication:

  • Proceedings (full papers or meeting abstracts)
  • Research collections
  • Review collections

All full length article supplements to BioMed Central's journals are:

  • Peer reviewed
  • Free to access online eliminating barriers of registration/payment to view articles
  • Listed in PubMed, Google Scholar and other citation databases increasing visibility via major reference resources
  • Archived in PubMed Central guaranteeing the permanency of publication on the Internet

Abstract supplements are listed in PubMed by supplement title only.

Editorial policy

Supplements must be independent, balanced and of scientific educational interest, and are accepted subject to the approval of the journal’s Editor(s)-in-Chief (see “Acceptance” below).

Articles are subject to full peer review and standard journal editorial policies (available via the relevant journal’s website) apply. Submissions must be prepared according to BioMed Central’s Instructions for Authors (Supplements).

All articles and conference abstracts must be original; further information about BioMed Central’s duplicate publication guidelines can be found here.

Supplement Editors

Supplement Editor(s) are to be appointed in all cases and appointments are subject to the approval of the Editor(s)-in-Chief. Supplement Editors must remain impartial and are required to provide competing interests statements.

Peer review

Depending on the nature of the publication and at the discretion of the journal’s Editor(s)-in-Chief, peer review may be administered by BioMed Central or by the organizing group for the supplement. Organizing groups will be expected to run the peer-review process in accordance with the journal’s guidelines for peer review, and copies of reviews are held by the journal to ensure that rigorous standards of peer review are maintained.

In all cases, articles submitted to commercially sponsored publications will be peer reviewed by the journal according to its standard policies.

Editorial control of supplement content is retained by the Editor(s)-in-Chief at all times. The Editor(s)-in-Chief may request changes or corrections, or reject or withdraw articles or conference abstracts where they do not meet journal standards.

Copyright

Copyright on individual articles and conference abstracts published in BioMed Central’s journals and their supplements is deemed to follow the journal’s standard copyright rules. For fully open access journals copyright is retained by the authors, and BioMed Central holds a license to publish unless otherwise stated on the article itself. BioMed Central’s Copyright and License Agreement is identical to Creative Commons 2.0.

For subscription journals, any research articles are published in open access; and other types of article are published according to BioMed Central's copyright policy.

Charges

Charges for publication apply in all cases, and will vary according to the number of articles/conference abstracts submitted, their length and complexity, and the services to be provided by BioMed Central.

Article-processing charges do not apply; instead, a single publication fee is quoted for the supplement. For this reason BioMed Central is unable to offer waivers of article-processing charges for full length article submissions to supplements. However, the maximum charge per article submitted as part of a non-commercial supplement will not usually exceed the journal’s standard article-processing charge.

Acceptance

The provisional acceptance of a supplement into a journal is subject to the approval of its Editor(s)-in-Chief. In order to reach a decision about suitability, as much of the following information as possible should be provided:

  • About the proposed supplement:
    • if the proposed supplement originates from a conference, please provide the conference title, dates, program, location, web address, expected number of delegates and any other relevant details
    • if the collection is not related to a conference, please provide a detailed outline including proposed title, topics and authors
  • Details of how the supplement will be funded
  • The type(s) of articles to be submitted (reviews, research, full length article proceedings, short papers, conference abstracts, etc)
  • The estimated number of articles/conference abstracts to be submitted for publication
  • The approximate length of each article/conference abstract in words
  • The expected date of submission of articles/conference abstracts to BioMed Central
  • A sample copy of previously published proceedings/collections (if available)
  • The name of the journal that would publish the proposed supplement
  • Peer review (full length article supplements): if you propose that your organizing group should run the peer-review process, please provide a detailed description of the process to be undertaken
  • Names of proposed Supplement Editors (note that BioMed Central may appoint additional Supplement Editors) and names of review committees where available

For conference abstract collections, the following information is also requested:

  • Confirmation that all abstracts will have undergone review and selection to ensure a suitable quality for publication
  • Confirmation that all authors agree to publication of their abstract in the relevant journal

BioMed Central aims to provide a decision about suitability within two weeks of an initial request.

Production

All supplements will be published as both a full text version and a fully formatted PDF version on the journal's website.

Conference organizers should be aware that in order to keep publication costs down BioMed Central will expect that much of the administration will be handled by the conference organizers.

For full length articles this will involve:

  • Ensuring that all submissions are rigorously peer reviewed according to agreed standards, and that copies of all reviewers' comments and related correspondence are deposited with BioMed Central
  • Distributing BioMed Central's instructions for authors and relevant copyright agreement
  • Collecting the articles and submitting these as a batch by agreement with BioMed Central
  • Providing BioMed Central with evidence that all authors have agreed to our copyright and license agreement
  • Ensuring that authors have checked the full text version of each article
  • Providing any corrections that may be necessary to BioMed Central
  • Checking and confirming that corrections have been completed satisfactorily
Proceedings – conference abstracts

Conference abstracts must be prepared in English and should normally be a maximum of 400 words long (although extended abstracts can be accommodated), clearly and concisely written, and structured where appropriate.

BioMed Central will supply formatting guidelines and will request changes are made by the organizers where necessary. Abstracts will be reproduced as submitted by the organizers and will not be edited or proof-read. If serious errors or omissions are found, however, BioMed Central will alert the organizers. An editing service is available if required and a quotation can be provided on request. Organizers are required to check the online full text version of abstracts prior to publication.

Further information

For further information, please contact us by emailing supplements@biomedcentral.com

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