Abstract
The text below summarizes the position that the Editors of Microbiology plan to adopt on this important issue. Publication of this draft proposal has been prompted by the accompanying letter from the Microarray Gene Expression Data (MGED) Society, which specifically addresses the issue of microarray data. The Editors of Microbiology feel that the same principles apply to other types of genome-wide studies and this issue was considered by Editors of Microbiology and members of the Editorial Board at meetings in April 2004. Microbiology will continue to provide a platform for publication of any type of data that significantly increases our understanding of microbes. But this must be done in a way to preserve the quality of the scientific process and allow open movement of information between researchers. It therefore is endeavouring to define a workable process for deposition of and access to the data on which conclusions are based when it is impossible to publish complete data sets in each paper. If you have any comments please contact either of us at the email addresses below. Tim is the more expert in this area but, as Editor-in-Chief, Chris is happy to receive general comments as well.
Premise
Genome-based studies of microbial metabolic and regulatory processes are producing and will continue to produce papers that include large data sets. The large data sets obtained from genome-wide transcript, proteomics or metabolite profiles are raising new issues for journals, editors, reviewers and authors to consider as this work is reviewed and published.