California Stem Cell Agency Fires Up New Print/Online Endeavor

California's $3 billion stem cell research program this month launched the “Proceedings of the California Stem Cell Agency” in partnership with a scientific journal that it spawned in 2011.

The journal is Stem Cells Translational Medicine, which was initiated at the behest of the Golden State's stem cell agency. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine or CIRM, as the agency is known, subsidized the new journal for three years with $600,000 paid to AlphaMed of Durham, N.C. (See here, here, here and here.)

The move by the state agency came as reliance on traditional scientific journals for publication of research findings has encountered heavy criticism in recent years for wasting billions of dollars and costing lives.

Ellen Feigal, CIRM photo

Ellen Feigal, senior vice president for research and development for the California agency, and Natalie DeWitt, CIRM's special projects officer, wrote in the latest edition of the journal that the “Proceedings” would consist of a “monthly series (in the journal) of commentaries, articles, interviews, webinars, forums, and concise reviews on a wide range of topics in regenerative medicine.”

The agency executives said,

“Under our direction as series co-editors, the Proceedings will create a dynamic forum for the broad international community of scientists, policymakers, and stakeholders engaged in stem cell research.”

Natalie DeWitt, CIRM photo

The kickoff article dealt with the sharing of clinical trial data, which, Feigal and DeWitt wrote, is “a thorny issue that continues to spur worldwide debate and one for which the regenerative medicine community can shape the discussion at an early stage.”

They said,

“Forthcoming Proceedings will include articles such as policy and scientific considerations surrounding the creation of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) banks; the global regulatory environment for developing stem cell-based therapies; and reports from various focused workshops, such as on bottlenecks in research on Parkinson's disease and ocular disorders, as well as progress in research to generate blood and liver tissues.”

The Proceedings' first offering was authored by Feigal and DeWitt along with CIRM staffers Geoff Lomax and Maria Millan. It said that more information sharing would speed research among scientists but that sharing would need to be “de-risked” by developing standards that protect proprietary information.

The article also discussed, in two dense paragraphs, a need to provide some provide some sort of cash incentive for sharing data. The authors wrote,

“Consideration should be given to mechanisms for rewarding the deposit of data. For example, performance metrics for monetizing the deposit of high-quality data should be considered. Like an investigator's publication record, such a system could be weighted in peer review and progress reporting. Monetization should also be evaluated from the perspective of system quality and sustainability. If quality data can serve to reduce sponsor costs, then reasonable fees or royalties may be appropriate.

“Contract research organizations have ex tensive experience and expertise in data generation, analysis, and management, but funding constraints may not allow them to participate in data sharing. Again, reimbursement mechanisms may bridge this gap.”

The journal provides free online access to individuals but institutional subscriptions can exceed $1,000 a year.

More Media Attention on California's Stem Cell Journal Venture

The state of California's modest foray into scientific publishing is drawing attention in a couple of science publications.

Both "The Scientist" and "Nature Medicine" recently carried items dealing with the $600,000 venture by the California stem cell agency in partnership with a North Carolina business, AlphaMed Press of Durham.

Nature published the more fulsome piece that predated action by CIRM's governing board last week. The article by Michelle Pflumm carried the headline, "Government-funded journal seen by some as waste of grant money."

Pflumm cited critics John M. Simpson, stem cell project director for Consumer Watchdog of Santa Monica, Ca., and Martin Frank, executive director of the American Physiological Society, which publishes 14 journals.

Simpson said,

"They need to demonstrate a need, and I don't think they have done that."

Frank said government dollars are better spent for research. He said,

"We are not flush with money today."

Pflumm also quoted Arnold Kriegstein, director of the stem cell program at UC San Francisco, as praising the move. He said,

"What I find most novel is the idea that there would be negative results published. I think that's the big attraction and the big element that seems to be missing for what's out there currently."

UC San Francisco has received $112 million from CIRM. The dean of its medical school sits on the CIRM governing board.

Pflumm's article noted the plethora of existing stem cell-focused journals, as many as 18 by one count.

The Scientist magazine carried only a brief mention of the journal. It said,

"The scientific community welcomes two new scientific journals to the peer-reviewed landscape—Nature Publishing Group’s Nature Climate Change and Stem Cells Translational Medicine, an open-access title launched by the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). Nature Climate Change will make its official debut next month, but has been publishing free content (about 12 papers or commentaries per month) since January on its website. Stem Cells Translational Medicine is the first foray into the publishing world for California’s state-funded stem cell agency, and the first print installment is slated for publication next January, with some online articles going up in December. You can check out an iPad preview of the journal here."

That link is to a document uploaded to the Internet by the California Stem Cell Report.

California to Partner with AlphaMed on Stem Cell Research Journal

A $600,000 venture into scientific publishing with a North Carolina firm today received the go-ahead from the governing board of the California stem cell agency.

Anthony Atala

The endeavor with AlphaMed Press of Durham, N.C., is expected to focus on translational aspects of stem cell research. The research journal would operate independently of CIRM and have a $1 million annual budget. CIRM would contribute $200,000 of that for each of three years.

Some members of the CIRM board expressed a desire for assurances that the journal would publish "negative" findings, which they said some journals are loath to do. Director Philip Pizzo, dean of the Stanford School of Medicine, said commercial interests have actively moved to suppress the publication of negative findings. Pizzo had high praise, however, for the new journal's editor, Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

A CIRM staff memo said that the AlphaMed had agreed to publish negative results, but the matter is expected to be brought up at the May CIRM board meeting. That raises the possibility that a final contract with AlphaMed may be delayed, although that issue was not discussed at the board meeting.

CIRM President Alan Trounson said AlphaMed currently has an office in Palo Alto and plans to expand it.

California Stem Cell Agency Ventures into Publishing

The California stem cell agency appears ready to partner with the AlphaMed Press of North Carolina to start a new scientific journal dealing with stem cell research and efforts to translate the findings into clinical treatments.

CIRM's venture into publishing comes amid a proliferation of new journals devoted to stem cell research.

CIRM plans to commit $600,000 over a three-year period to kick off the new publication, which would be edited by Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

In a memo to the CIRM board, agency president Alan Trounson said competing proposals from Elsevier, one of the larger scientific publishers in the world, and the International Society for Stem Cell Research, were not as good as that offered by AlphaMed, which has published the "Stem Cells" journal for 29 years.

Trounson is currently listed on the AlphaMed web site as a member of its editorial board. Don Gibbons, chief communications officer for CIRM, said in January, however, that Trounson had resigned from the panel.

In an email, Gibbons said,

"Alan has been an editorial board member at 'Cell Stem Cell' and 'Stem Cell.' His role was to peer review articles submitted for publication. He did not receive compensation, expense reimbursement, travel, or any other form of payment from either publisher. There is no conflict of interest under CIRM or state rules. When these two publishers submitted proposals, however, Alan decided to (and did) resign from the editorial boards."

AlphaMed's editorial board also includes a number of CIRM grant recipients.

In an acknowledgement of the difficult scientific publishing environment, Trounson plans to change the original terms of the RFP to stipulate that the journal be self-sustaining in five years instead of three.

Stem cell journals have proliferated in recent years, according to an article Aug. 7, 2010, in "Stem Cell Reviews and Reports." In the piece, Paul Sanberg and Cesar Borlongan, both with the medical school at the University of South Florida, reported on what they called a "rapidly evolving field." They said 18 journals now exist directly focusing on stem cell research and another 16 have "relevant overlaps to stem cell research." They noted that their count is not "exhaustive."

Sanberg and Borlongan wrote,

"With new journal proliferation comes competition. It has recently come to light that publishing stem cell studies has been fierce and sometimes hostile, with allegations of biased reviewers blocking competitors’ novel findings, leading to significant delay in publication or outright rejection (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8490291.stm). New stem cell journals and traditional journals must amend their policies to allow more transparent review and editorial decision handling of stem cell and similar cutting edge research. Stem cell research is one of the most entrepreneurial areas of medical science. It is therefore not surprising that entrepreneurial publishers have developed numerous publication outlets for this rapidly expanding field. Ultimately, whether this stem cell journal proliferation continues, and aids the field of stem cells to 'differentiate' into a more mature research arena, will depend on the quality of peer review and science of stem cells."

Trounson's memo to the board did not address the issues raised in the Sanberg-Borlongan article.

He said the new, open-access journal would have full editorial independence, would publish "negative data" and periodic commentaries from CIRM that have been "appropriately" peer reviewed. Funds for the project are included in this year's CIRM budget. Trounson earlier said that new journal would help to accelerate the “the entire field as knowledge is aggregated and shared more readily” and encourage collaboration between stem cell biologists, clinicians and engineers.

The main office for AlphaMed is in Durham, N.C., although it has an office in California, according to Trounson.

Although CIRM is barred from funding research outside of California, CIRM's Gibbons said,

"Nothing in our statute prevents us from contracting for other services outside of California."

Trounson's memo said the first articles will go online this December with the print publication in January.

His memo appears to be principally an information item for the CIRM board on Thursday. It did not specify what action, if any, was needed by the board to execute the agreement with AlphaMed.

Here are links to the proposals by the three competing organizations.

Three Bidders Seek California State Funds for Online Stem Cell Journal

The California stem cell agency is about ready to jump into the publishing business.

The $3 billion, taxpayer-financed enterprise on Monday received three responses to its proposal to spend $600,000 over the next three years to start a new, online stem cell research journal. The enterprises seeking the seed money are AlphaMed Press of Durham, N.C., the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) of Deerfield, Ill., and the information conglomerate Elsevier, which is based in Amsterdam.

CIRM wants to kick off a new peer-reviewed, open-access journal to accelerate “the entire field as knowledge is aggregated and shared more readily” and encourage collaboration between stem cell biologists, clinicians and engineers, according to CIRM's plan. (See the RFP below and CIRM President Alan Trounson's proposal here.)

The journal would focus on translational aspects of stem cell science, stem cell-based regenerative medicine and tissue engineering, stem cell-based predictive toxicology and cancer stem cell investigation. The journal would be independent of CIRM but the agency would, “with agreement from the editors,” provide “periodic short articles on translational stem cell research.”

The CIRM seed money would amount to $200,000 a year for three years with the journal becoming self-sustaining at the end of the period. Preference will go to publishers "committed to California-based editorial offices." The award date is scheduled for Jan. 24.

Of the three bidders, the ISSCR seems to have the least publishing experience. It is an international organization of stem cell scientists. The ISSCR web site does not list any publications other than the organization's newsletter. CIRM sponsored its convention last year in San Francisco. Trounson served on its board of directors in 2008.

AlphaMed publishes Stem Cells, which it says “is the oldest journal in the fast-paced area of stem cells and regenerative medicine." The organization added, "Not only is it the first journal to be devoted to this promising research, it remains at the top tier of peer-reviewed monthly journals for this discipline.” Trounson sits on Stem Cells' editorial board.

Elsevier touts “a global community of 7,000 journal editors, 70,000 editorial board members, 300,000 reviewers and 600,000 authors.” It has a publishing tradition that stretches back to 1580 and has been embroiled in the controversy concerning the debate over open access to the research in its publications.

Elsevier publishes Cell Stem Cell and Stem Cell Research, whose editorial board also includes Trounson.

The Public Library of Science, whose international headquarters are within walking distance of CIRM in San Francisco, did not submit a bid. The organization is “a nonprofit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a public resource.” It has a roster of publications ranging from biology to neglected tropical diseases.

We have asked CIRM for copies of the bids submitted by the three groups. We will bring them to you when we receive them.

Here is the CIRM RFP.CIRM RFP for Online Stem Cell Journal