---
author:
- affiliation:
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name: BGI Group (China)
contributor_roles: []
family: Edmunds
given: Scott
url: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6444-1436
blog:
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description: Data driven blogging from the GigaScience editors
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title: GigaBlog
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container: GigaBlog
date: '2020-09-04T00:00:00+00:00'
date_updated: '2026-08-30T12:32:06+00:00'
guid: http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/?p=3457
identifier: https://doi.org/10.59350/2mk34-k7g94
image: http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GigaEditorial-1-232x300.jpg
images:
- alt: GigaScience Press launches
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- alt: GigaByte Launch
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keywords:
- Publishing
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lang: en
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
rid: 5s073-a3863
rights: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
summary: ' GigaScience has spawned a new smaller and more agile sibling: GigaByte,
and is the first journal to come from our new GigaScience Press. '
title: 'Giga Gets Bigger: GigaByte kickstarts GigaScience Press'
url: https://wayback.archive-it.org/22098/2025-05-01T17:13:42Z/http:/gigasciencejournal.com/blog/gigabyte-kickstarts-gigascience-press
version: v1
---
*{.alignright
.wp-image-3473 loading="lazy" decoding="async"
srcset="http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/page-1-300x251.jpeg 300w, http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/page-1-768x644.jpeg 768w, http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/page-1.jpeg 940w"
sizes="(max-width: 196px) 100vw, 196px" width="196"
height="164"}GigaScience has spawned a new smaller and more agile
sibling: GigaByte, and is the first journal to come from our new
[GigaScience Press](http://gigasciencepress.com/). This bigger and
better GigaScience family has lead to some changes in GigaScience, and
we are pleased to make some important announcements about the team.*
Coming shortly [after our 8th
birthday](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/conferences-go-viral/),
[GigaScience Press](http://gigasciencepress.com/) and [River Valley
Technologies](https://rivervalleytechnologies.com/) are proud to
announce the launch of our new journal
*[GigaByte](https://gigabytejournal.com/):* an online open-access, open
data journal that allows rapid publication using new custom-built,
end-to-end publishing technology. This shake-up of our tech platform
enables accepted manuscripts to be converted to an online and PDF-ready
article within a day. The editorial side also adds speed by focusing on
publishing short-format data and software centric articles, which
greatly reduces researcher writing time, and a questionnaire-style
review process to speed peer review. The published articles go beyond
providing only a stagnant PDF: the online articles incorporate dynamic
features that allow readers to directly interact with the research being
presented--- turning it into a [living
document](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltlZ4HdJ1qY).
Taken together, *GigaByte* is designed specifically for publishing work
done in rapidly changing research that is well-served by available
embedded content. *GigaByte* provides exactly what is needed to release
findings, data, and methods crucial to tackle urgent challenges. A
perfect example for this is research on the COVID-19 crisis, where
constant updates of the latest data and methodological approaches are
urgently needed, while providing a balance with peer review and
transparency to combat the \"infodemic\" (see our recent
[post](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/scientometric-trends-for-coronaviruses/)
and [paper](https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giaa085) on the skewed
research trends of coronavirus research that lowering the friction of
communication and sharing should help improve).
The editorial office is now actively seeking submission of original
research for the first two article types: [*Data
Release*](https://gigabytejournal.com/data-release-description) and
[*Technical
Release*](https://gigabytejournal.com/technical-release-description)
articles, which focus, respectively on datasets and
software/computational workflow papers. Assessment will focus on whether
the data and tools are of general use in broad or specialist
communities, that the work is scientifically sound, and that all
associated Research Objects (raw and analysed data, software, source
code, etc.) are open, accessible, and follow our usual best (FAIR)
practices for sharing.
The launch of the *GigaByte* website
([gigabytejournal.com](https://gigabytejournal.com/)) includes an
[editorial](https://gigabytejournal.com/articles/1) and two examples of
articles presenting the type of work the journal looks to publish. The
[first article](https://gigabytejournal.com/articles/2) is the genome
sequence of the banjo frog, and you can see a [video
abstract](https://youtu.be/WB_8NHkrKXQ) from the first author Qiye Li.
This work is part of the [Genome10K community of
scientists](https://genome10k.soe.ucsc.edu/), which have been working to
sequence and release the genomes of 10,000 species across the vertebrate
tree of life. This type of paper is perfect for the research groups that
work on individual projects within large consortia as they rarely
receive the appropriate credit for the work they\'ve done. This is due
to the desire by the consortium to write an extensive complex paper that
has a focus on the overall findings, rather than the many individual
contributions. For the community at large, this also means that the
data from each individual dataset and sub-project is held back until a
main paper is published and is not presented in the detail needed when
describing complicated endeavours.
Dr. Guojie Zhang, the lead PI, of the Banjo Frog genome article says,
\"*For the genomic research field, most journals value more on the
ultimate output of the assembled genomes and only consider reference
genomes that meet certain quality metrics. I think the new journal opens
the opportunity for data at various quality metrics, as they will still
be useful for different applications. GigaByte provides a platform for
consortiums to share the data timely and acknowledge the data generation
group.*\"
The [second article](https://gigabytejournal.com/articles/3) showcased
in the launch of the *GigaByte* website presents digitised and enlarged
museum specimens that were 3D printed for interactive exhibits at the
National Museum in Bloemfontein, South Africa.
In describing the data and re-use potential, the digitised versions of
these interactive museum exhibits are equally interactive for *GigaByte*
readers. The articles include an embedded sketchfab window (see [our
first efforts with
these](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/sketchfab-3d-fossil-seabed/))
that allow the reader to inspect the model and interact with it through
their browser. There are also links that allow readers to download and
3D print their own versions.
Lead author Anton du Plessis says of the publishing concept: \"*The main
hurdle to sharing this data is the sheer size. I publish many papers but
seldom can share the CT data with it. With GigaByte we will be able to
share much more.*\"
**(Dawning of a) New Era**\
{.alignright
.size-medium .wp-image-3468 loading="lazy" decoding="async"
srcset="http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GigaEditorial-1-232x300.jpg 232w, http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GigaEditorial-1.jpg 674w"
sizes="(max-width: 232px) 100vw, 232px" width="232" height="300"}The
launch of GigaScience Press has led to a shake up in how the GigaScience
team is structured, with our Editor in Chief Laurie Goodman taking up
the reins as our new Publishing Director. Our Executive Editor running
the journal since launch, Scott Edmunds takes over as Editor in Chief of
*GigaScience* and Chief Editor of GigaByte. With Nicole Nogoy becoming
Executive Editor, Hans Zauner Editor, and Hongling Zhou Assistant
Editor. We welcome some new additions to the GigaScience Press Technical
Team, with Ken Cho joining us as Systems Programmer Analyst, and Rija
Ménagé becoming a full time Senior Software Engineer, all under the
supervision of Head of IT [Peter
Li](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/author/peter/).
We\'ve recruited an all new [Editorial and Advisory
Board](https://gigabytejournal.com/editorial-board) for the journal,
spanning a broad scope as well as geography. We\'d like to welcome them
to the GigaScience family and thank them and our first authors for their
confidence in us. We\'d also like to thank [River Valley
Technologies](https://rivervalleytechnologies.com/) for building such a
game changing platform that finally allows us to do things we\'ve been
wanting to do since this project started nearly a decade ago.
The GigaByte Editors encourage potential authors to contact them at
to discuss specific needs in your
research communities for promoting large-data access, sharing, use,
reuse, and reader interaction that *GigaByte* can provide. Submit now to
take advantage of free Article Processing Charges until early-2021.
Manuscripts can be submitted at
{.aligncenter
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sizes="(max-width: 571px) 100vw, 571px" width="571" height="327"}
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Press](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/gigabyte-kickstarts-gigascience-press/){rel="nofollow"}
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