Biology Open: The story so far…

It is hard to believe that, with the arrival of 2015, Biology Open (BiO) begins its fourth year of publication. We’d like to take this moment to look back on what we have learned since the first issue was published by The Company of Biologists in January 2012. BiO was launched with the aim of reducing the ‘pain to publish’ that many authors experience. By publishing all papers that address a valid scientific question, are technically sound, and where the conclusions are adequately supported by the data, BiO provides a welcoming home for solid, well-executed research papers. We have helped authors to avoid additional rounds of submission and review for papers described as ‘‘interesting, but no new mechanistic insight’’ or ‘‘interesting, but an insufficient advance’’ and saved them countless hours of additional experiments thought up by reviewers simply to increase the ever-elusive ‘‘impact’’ of the work. Since its launch, BiO has published more than 450 freely accessible articles.