PLoS Currents: Muscular Dystrophy – open for submissions

PLoS Currents: Muscular Dystrophy – open for submissions

By Liz Allen
Posted: August 9, 2011



We’re pleased to announce that another new section of PLoS Currents, on the topic of Muscular Dystrophy, is open for submissions.

We invited Dominic Wells (Professor in Translational Medicine, Royal Veterinary College, London) from our editorial board to share his thoughts about this important new site and his reasons for taking part. Below he issues a challenge to this research community to use this new forum to increase the speed of advances in the understanding and treatment of DMD and related muscular dystrophies.

“I am delighted to have been asked to act as one of the Editors of PLoS Currents: Muscular Dystrophy. This is a new forum, produced with support from Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy, for the rapid communication of hypotheses and experimental results.

The attractive elements of this publishing approach are obvious: publication will be rapid (the aim is to achieve a one week turnaround and ideally as fast as 24 hours); manuscript preparation will be simple (currently using the Google Knol web based platform); quality will be assured by a panel of internationally recognized reviewers; articles will be date-stamped, citable and immediately indexed in PubMed; unlike print and other web-based journals there will be no page charges and all content will be open access. Contributions can be updated and a trail of previous versions will be archived.

I suspect like many other potential authors, I had concerns when initially presented with this idea. Would this result in the publication of poor quality science and would people publish in a forum that did not have an impact factor, given the undue importance placed on the latter by promotion boards and funding agencies? After careful consideration, I believe these are not major problems. Given the light touch peer review system the published work should be seen as preliminary although we will take care to check there are no obvious methodological errors, ethical or legal concerns. Publication in PLoS Currents: Muscular Dystrophy will not bar a more complete or definitive version of the work from being published later in other members of the PLoS family of journals and possibly other long-established journals.

What type of content will be suitable for PLoS Currents: Muscular Dystrophy? The main criteria will be that the work is clearly related to Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) and associated disorders that affect similar cellular processes. I expect a wide range of contributions from complete and comprehensive manuscripts through to interesting preliminary experiments; from exciting advances in potential therapies to no less important “negative” results; and from hypotheses to improved methodology. As a consequence, this will prevent a number of different laboratories repeating the same unsuccessful work, will generate an increased set of experimental data from which to develop new ideas and will allow the rapid spread of improved techniques and testable hypotheses.

I take this opportunity to challenge the muscular dystrophy research community to use this forum to increase the speed of advances in our understanding and treatment of DMD and related muscular dystrophies”.

PLoS Currents: Muscular Dystrophy is currently accepting submissions, please see the Author Guide and you are welcome to email your questions or submissions.




One Response to PLoS Currents: Muscular Dystrophy – open for submissions

Terry Colella says:

August 10, 2011 at 1:16 am

I am pleased that a publication will help to communicate research news and recent findings to those working in the field of Muscular Dystrophy. I am disappointed with the focus being so heavily on Duchenne’s and “related Muscular Dystrophies” (almost said as a after thought) My son is impacted by Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy (or FSHD) a form currently felt to be the most common form of MD, affecting more than 35,000 people in the USA, yet very under researched & underfunded!! I would encourage your publication to focus on all the Dystrophies equally, encouraging research on any one of these conditions could potentially lead to answers in the other “related Muscular Dystrophies.”

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Sonsu Kim says:

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

January 27, 2012 at 5:47 pm

I’m pleased to read your announcement seeking to find how to cure concerning with DMD and related muscular dystrophies. I’m not a doctor but one of Korean Buddhist monk. I have already developed and experienced how to cure these disease with traditional oriental medical technique using acupuncture needle and qigong and I have make it post on my blog “WMDROC/World Muscular Dystrophy Removing- Out Center. ” DMD is easiest to cure it than another types, but Uliche type is more ten times worst to cure it than another types. I want to teach and transfer you my knowledge and technique with practical trial if you want to do it. Otherwise I have to do it anywhere they need it in order to conquer any kind of MD or Cancers.

If you are interest to find out how to cure MD, Please check up the posts on my blog “WMDROC” fist and give me any information for proceeding ahead.

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