Why a new journal? Why now?

The C. elegans field has grown tremendously in the past few years and has reached a size where it becomes difficult to keep track of the field. Observations made in an apparently unconnected area of research often can have unexpected implications for one’s own research. Worm aims to provide a forum for the worm community to promote research, ideas, and technical advances of interest to the entire community. It can also serve as a starting point for all other scientists who would like to keep up-to-date on worm research relevant for their particular area of interest.

Why publish in Worm?

The biological sciences are undergoing revolutionary changes triggered by technical advances and a wealth of information coming from genome-scale experiments. Many researchers find themselves falling between two stools because their latest research now bridges traditional fields. Worm encourages submission of manuscripts from all areas of research including research not fitting within the narrow scope of topic-related journals. If comments like "Your manuscript falls outside the scope of our journal" or "Your manuscript is not of sufficient interest to the readers of our [narrowly focused] journal" sound familiar, you should consider sending your manuscript to Worm instead. We encourage direct submission of manuscripts rejected elsewhere with reviewer's comments included for quick assessment and potentially rapid acceptance. If you have interesting results, but are in doubt whether this is sufficient for a full research paper or the results are mainly about C. elegans - you might want to send it to Worm. We encourage submissions of short reports and articles whose initial audience might be primarily the worm community itself. Informal inquiries are welcome. Please contact the Editor-in-Chief.