Bite-size research: BMC Research Notes goes back to its roots.

Since it first launched in 2008, BMC Research Notes has been a place where researchers can publish short notes and observations, research outputs which are useful for the community but which can end up hidden in the lab notebook or as a footnote in a dataset. In order to re-affirm the importance of publishing these kinds of outputs, the journal is renewing its focus on publishing note articles as well as other potentially dark data such as short null results. Publishing these articles is useful for many researchers, therefore we are also expanding the scope to all scientific and clinical disciplines including health sciences, life sciences, physical sciences, mathematics and all engineering disciplines. With this refocusing of BMC Research Notes back to its original vision, BioMed Central is offering a home for short communications to make dark data and single observations widely available to the global research community.

Simple decision-tree tool to facilitate author identification of reporting guidelines during submission: a before-after study.

BACKGROUND: There is evidence that direct journal endorsement of reporting guidelines can lead to important improvements in the quality and reliability of the published research. However, over the last 20 years, there has been a proliferation of reporting guidelines for different study designs, making it impractical for a journal to explicitly endorse them all. The objective of this study was to investigate whether a decision tree tool made available during the submission process facilitates author identification of the relevant reporting guideline. METHODS: This was a prospective 14-week before-after study across four speciality medical research journals. During the submission process, authors were prompted to follow the relevant reporting guideline from the EQUATOR Network and asked to confirm that they followed the guideline ('before'). After 7 weeks, this prompt was updated to include a direct link to the decision-tree tool and an additional prompt for those authors who stated that 'no guidelines were applicable' ('after'). For each article submitted, the authors' response, what guideline they followed (if any) and what reporting guideline they should have followed (including none relevant) were recorded. RESULTS: Overall, 590 manuscripts were included in this analysis-300 in the before cohort and 290 in the after. There were relevant reporting guidelines for 75% of manuscripts in each group; STROBE was the most commonly applicable reporting guideline, relevant for 35% (n = 106) and 37% (n = 106) of manuscripts, respectively. Use of the tool was associated with an 8.4% improvement in the number of authors correctly identifying the relevant reporting guideline for their study (p < 0.0001), a 14% reduction in the number of authors incorrectly stating that there were no relevant reporting guidelines (p < 0.0001), and a 1.7% reduction in authors choosing a guideline (p = 0.10). However, the 'after' cohort also saw a significant increase in the number of authors stating that there were relevant reporting guidelines for their study, but not specifying which (34 vs 29%; p = 0.04). CONCLUSION: This study suggests that use of a decision-tree tool during submission of a manuscript is associated with improved author identification of the relevant reporting guidelines for their study type; however, the majority of authors still failed to correctly identify the relevant guidelines.

Cleome, a genus closely related to Arabidopsis, contains species spanning a developmental progression from C(3) to C(4) photosynthesis.

C(4) photosynthesis involves alterations to leaf development, cell biology and biochemistry. Different lineages of C(4) plants use varying mechanisms to generate the C(4) pathway. Although the biochemistry of C(4) photosynthesis was described around 20 years ago, the phylogenetic distance between Arabidopsis and the traditional C(4) models has not facilitated the transfer of knowledge from Arabidopsis research to understanding C(4) systems. We show that Cleome, a genus closely related to Arabidopsis, contains species spanning a developmental progression from C(3) to C(4) photosynthesis. The majority of species we assessed are C(3) plants but have increased venation in leaves. Three C(3) species have both increased venation and enlarged bundle sheath cells, and there is also a tendency to accumulate proteins and transcripts needed for C(4) photosynthesis. Cleome gynandra shows all the characteristics needed for efficient C(4) photosynthesis, including alterations to leaf biochemistry, cell biology and development, and belongs to the NAD-dependent malic enzyme subtype. Combined with its phylogenetic proximity to Arabidopsis, the developmental progression from C(3) to C(4) photosynthesis within the genus provides a potentially excellent new model to increase our understanding of C(4) photosynthesis, and provide insights into its evolution.