Glencoe Software and The Journal of Cell Biology Pioneer Publishing of Genome-Wide Screens

SEATTLE, Sept. 7, 2011 — The Journal of Cell Biology (JCB), The Rockefeller University Press and Glencoe Software are pleased to announce their next enhancement to the JCB DataViewer, the world’s first system for sharing and archiving published scientific image data. Starting today, data from genome-wide high-content screens (HCS) can be published online, directly associated with papers published in JCB. HCS data are increasingly used to determine the effects of systematic disruption of all genes that govern a specific cell biological process. The approach is valuable because it allows scientists to uncover new and unexpected factors involved in physiology and disease and thus helps identify new targets for drug therapy. While these screens are now widely used, venues for sharing the data generated by them and publishing those data in their entirety are limited. The JCB DataViewer now makes these very large datasets readily available via a standard browser interface and easily mined for information through interactive tools developed for this application.

First released in December 2008, the JCB DataViewer has been under continuous development to support new data types and to provide new functionality for its users. This new version of the JCB DataViewer allows authors to archive and share HCS data and allows the scientific community to interactively browse and, for the first time, download original screen data to their own computers for more detailed analysis.
Public distribution of these datasets creates opportunities for further discovery by scientists beyond those that performed the original experiments.

The JCB DataViewer currently contains original image data (multi-dimensional image data taken directly from a microscope imaging platform) associated with 195 manuscripts published in JCB, and the image data submission rate by authors is steadily increasing. Publication of HCS data will substantially increase the size of datasets hosted within the JCB DataViewer, but Glencoe Software, Inc. and JCB welcome and are prepared for the growth of this resource. Liz Williams, Executive Editor of JCB, said, “With the publication of our first four HCS datasets, JCB is very excited to be taking this next step in the development of new publishing tools to promote data sharing and discovery in the field of cell biology.” Mike Rossner, Director of The Rockefeller University Press, added, “This update to the JCB DataViewer represents a significant advance in our continuing effort to promote data integrity and data sharing, and to enhance the presentation of image data associated with JCB papers.”

The JCB DataViewer is based on open source software built by the Open Microscopy Environment (OME). Founded in 2000, OME builds and releases specifications and software tools for scientific image data and its tools are used throughout the academic and commercial communities. Glencoe Software, Inc. has used OME’s resources to build the JCB DataViewer and is a proud member of the OME Consortium.

Jason Swedlow, President of Glencoe Software, Inc., and co-founder of OME, said, “OME and Glencoe Software are excited to be a part of this important development and milestone in scientific publishing. OME’s infrastructure has many possible applications, and the whole OME team is proud of the work enabling access and sharing of HCS image data in science.”

Glencoe Software, Inc. is a member of the OME Consortium and provides commercial access to and customization of OME resources. With increasing proliferation and complexity of research image datasets and the need for secure sharing, analysis, and visualization, Glencoe Software is well-placed to deliver secure, scalable solutions based on an open-source, community-driven foundation. The JCB DataViewer hosts supplemental image data associated with articles published in The Journal of Cell Biology. JCB is published by The Rockefeller University Press, which also publishes The Journal of Experimental Medicine and The Journal of General Physiology. All editorial decisions on manuscripts submitted to the Press journals are made by active scientists in conjunction with in-house scientific editors. All published content is available for free six months after publication. Authors retain copyright to their publications, and third parties may reuse the content under a Creative Commons license.