The latest news and updates from BioMed Central

BioMed Central Update Share this update      BioMed Central in the news Man’s best friend is getting smaller Over the last 28 years, pet owners in Australia have favoured smaller pedigree dogs with shorter and wider heads. Research published in Canine Genetics and Epidemiologysuggested that the popularity of dogs with short, wide heads could be used to predict the prevalence of diseases typically associated with this head shape, such as the pug and bulldog, as these breeds commonly suffer from breathing difficulties, skin and eye conditions, and digestive disorders. This was a global news story, widely reported in regional and national news outlets in Australia, such as Sydney Morning Herald; The Huffington Post; and The Canberra Times. It was also picked up by the mainstream press in the UK, reported by The Guardian, The Timesand Daily Mail; and covered online by Asia Today and seoul.co.kr in Korea. Potential effects of fertility treatments on breast density and cancer risk Infertility and hormonal fertility treatments may influence the amount of dense tissue in the breast, a risk factor for breast cancer, according to a study involving 43,313 women. The findings published in Breast Cancer Research suggested that infertile women might have an increased breast cancer risk. This was reported by Onkologie in Sweden; Daily Mail and Medical News Today in UK; Chennai Online and The Times of India in India;ABC in Spain; Big News Network in United Arab Emirates; MedSci in China; SciMex in Australia; and Life Zette and Image Technology Newsin US. Multiple sclerosis clinical trials – fighting for a cure To support the Multiple Sclerosis Trust’s Awareness Week 2016, the ISRCTN registry is exploring what’s new in the world of multiple sclerosis-related clinical trials, and taking a look at some of the innovative studies in the registry. A new BioMed Central policy for trial registration In this blog we discuss the dilemma faced by editors when receiving submissions reporting a clinical trial that was not registered prospectively, and introduce a new BioMed Central policy for increasing transparency when a trial was registered after participant recruitment has begun. Community News Amsterdam Call for Action on Open Science Participants of the Amsterdam conference on ‘Open Science – From Vision to Action’, hosted by the Netherlands’ EU presidency have produced a “Call for Action on Open Science”. The document outlines action plans for the EU’s primary goals for publicly-funded scientific research: all new publications to be OA by 2020 and data to be open as default. All BioMed Central research is of course open access, and free at point of publication. How much do you know about DNA? We celebrated National DNA Day on 25 April, to recognize the anniversary of the successful completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003 and the discovery of DNA’s double helix in 1953. The goal of this special day is to offer students, teachers, and the public an opportunity to learn about the latest advances in genomic research, and how those advances might impact all of our lives. Take our quiz to see how much you know! Journal news OpenTrials: what, why and how?   Ben Goldacre and Jonathan Gray recently published an article in Trials introducing a new project called OpenTrials. But what is it, and how will it be used? In this guest blog, Ben Goldacre explains more. New Pneumonia journal launches first content In April Pneumonia officially published its first articles as part of the BioMed Central suite of journals. In this blog, Editor-in-Chief Professor Allan Cripps highlights the importance of raising awareness about pneumonia and provides background to the formation of the journal. An APC waiver is available for authors without funds for APCs submitting to Pneumonia until the end of 2017, with the code PNEU17. BioMed Central on the Road ACSO Chicago, USA, 03.06.2016 International Society of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity (ISBNPA) Cape Town, South Africa, 08.06.2016 ISSN 13th Annual Conference and Expo Florida, USA, 09.06.2016 European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) Vienna, Austria, 11.06.2016 American Society for Microbiology Boston, USA, 16.06.2016 37th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Inflammation and Regeneration Kyoto, Japan, 16.06.2016 Academy Health's ARM Boston, USA, 26.06.2016 Supplements Environmental Health Environmental Health published research articles from the Healthy Polis Workshop 2014 BMC Health Services Research BMC Health Services Research published abstracts from the conference ‘Researching Complex Interventions in Health: The State of the Art’ Critical Care Critical Care published abstracts from the 36th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine BMC Infectious Diseases Published research articles from the 11th Edition of the Scientific Days of the National Institute for Infectious Diseases "Prof. Dr. Matei Balș" BMC Proceedings BMC Proceedings published abstract proceedings of the 7th Biannual International Symposium on Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma 2015 Journal of Foot and Ankle Research Journal of Foot and Ankle Research published abstracts from The College of Podiatry Annual Conference 2015 Best wishes, The BMC Update Team