A new journal for genetic resources
The GenRes Bridge project welcomes the publication of a new journal — Genetic Resources — dedicated to the genetic resources community. The first issue was published in August 2020 and is available online.
GenRes Bridge was instrumental in giving life to the journal, which was first proposed by the European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic Resources (ECPGR) specifically to bring together information on plant, animal and forest genetic resources.Lorenzo Maggioni, ECPGR Secretary, first suggested the journal as a revival for the Plant Genetic Resources Newsletter, published by FAO and Bioversity International.
“After the demise of PGR Newsletter in 2009, I frequently received requests from network members who wanted a place apart from cutting edge scientific journals in which to publish articles of interest to the genetic resources community,” Maggioni recalled. “Discovering that other genetic resources networks saw a similar need and were willing to join forces, brought a sense of relief and excitement.”
To get the project under way, Maggioni and ECPGR launched a survey to obtain a better picture of the landscape for publishing on genetic resources. Almost 300 people from around 40 countries responded, confirming the need for a journal that would publish methods and results on conservation, evaluation and documentation of genetic resources for plants, animals and forest trees. Other domains, such as microbes, are also expressing interest.
Given this support from the community, ECPGR hired Sandra Goritschnig as the journal’s Managing Editor. She is involved in all aspects of production, as she says, “from creating the website and templates, providing guidance and assistance to authors, editors and reviewers until the final copyediting and production of accepted manuscripts”.
Genetic Resources is the result, an agile, free of charge, inclusive publication that is at the same time prestigious and authoritative.
“The publication of the first issue is a rewarding first step that is full of potential to improve, and to serve and provide a voice for the genetic resources community,” Maggioni said.
“It has been extremely rewarding,” Goritschnig said, “to see the journal become a reality and grow, and I always feel excited when my email inbox announces another submission. We are struggling a bit with building our reviewers database, and I am extremely grateful to all the scientists out there who are prepared to provide their expertise in reviewing manuscripts.”
The first issue contains an Editorial from the European Genetic Resources Secretariats (ECPGR, ERFP and EUFORGEN), who are also partners in GenRes Bridge, as well as an invited review spearheaded by the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture at FAO on current knowledge of genetic resources for food and agriculture, in which they highlight open questions and gaps that require future research. The many other original articles and short communications provide examples of the diversity of topics that Genetic Resources is interested in publishing. These include policy issues on access and benefit sharing, data analysis for strategy development, molecular markers and genebank improvements.
“With the support of our stakeholders in the different areas of genetic resources,” says Sandra Goritschnig, “I believe that this journal will be established as a valuable platform to share useful knowledge for the management, conservation and use of genetic resources, which are so important to preserve the world’s biodiversity.”
Genetic Resources looks forward to receiving your submissions.
