Second call (and webinar) for GigaByte’s vectors of human disease series
UPDATE: The deadline for the call has been extended until the 30th June. TDR, GBIF and GigaScience Press have renewed their partnership for a special journal issue focused on publishing new datasets that present biodiversity data for research on vectors of human diseases
TDR, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases hosted at the World Health Organization (WHO), GBIF and GigaScience Press have announced a second call for authors to submit Data Release papers on vectors of human disease for inclusion in a thematic series published in GigaByte Journal.
This second call builds on the first part of the series, which mobilized more than 500,000 occurrence records and 675,000 specimens from more than 50 countries. For an outline of the initial results of this targeted approach to sharing data and its importance for controlling vector-borne diseases and improving public health we and many of the contributing authors to the series have just published an umbrella paper in GigaScience. Surveying and getting insight from the authors we outline the make up of this first phase of submissions, what has been presented, and what has been learned from the process of publishing them in this manner.
Vector-borne diseases account for about one quarter of all infectious diseases. Although there has been significant progress for malaria, with a recent decrease in malaria morbidity and mortality rates, this progress is currently halting. Other diseases, such as those caused by arboviruses like dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever and more recently Zika, are expanding, with an increased number of cases and fatalities.
The necessity for developing new vector control strategies, approaches and tools was recognized through the Global Vector Control Response approved by the World Health Assembly in 2017. Among the mutually agreed objectives between GBIF and TDR is to work on a repository of data related to vectors and support design and identification of sources and contacts for data mobilization campaigns to improve data coverage to help research on human health. Within the framework of this collaboration, GigaByte is pleased to support a second issue on data papers on vectors.
As a reminder the data papers submitted should describe datasets with the following criteria:
- Data has clear relevance for research on vectors of human vector-borne diseases
- Dataset contains more than 5,000 records that are new to GBIF.org in 2022-23, along with high-quality data and metadata
- Data is dedicated to the public domain under an open CC0 designation
The call for manuscripts will be open until 30 June 2023 (updated from 30th April).
Due to generous support from TDR and the WHO article processing fee will be waived for 15 papers, provided that the publications are accepted and meet the above criteria.
To learn more about publishing data in this manner you can watch the GBIF webinar on “Data papers: Bringing data to light” on 8th November at 10am CET/UTC+1.
This will feature presentations from three open-data publishers—Pensoft Publishers, the Journal of Limnology and ourselves—to discuss three current open calls for submissions of data papers that use GBIF to the target mobilization of data from Northern Eurasia, species that inhabit or depend on freshwater, and our vectors of human disease examples. Demonstrating the mainstreaming of this concept, and that over the past decade, GBIF has worked with journal publishers to support and promote the preparation of data papers, with nearly 400 data papers to date that describe FAIR and open datasets freely accessible through its global infrastructure. Register here, and you can also watch the previous GBIF and GigaByte webinar and Q&A on the first call of the disease vectors series.
Further Reading
Edmunds SC et al. Publishing data to support the fight against human vector-borne diseases. Gigascience. 2022 Nov 3;11:giac114. doi:10.1093/gigascience/giac114
Vectors of human disease series. GigaByte. 2022. https://doi.org/10.46471/GIGABYTE_SERIES_0002
