At the bleeding edge - is bioinformatics a place for STM publishers?

What is the future role of the STM publisher in biomedical database publishing? Scientific progress and the commercialization of new massively parallel technologies for data production, mining, retrieval and visualization have created a marketplace with a monetary value that could far exceed that of conventional STM journal and book publishing. Huge databases are now central to the efficient functioning of academic biomedical research, to the processes of drug discovery and development in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, and in the delivery of effective healthcare. But with the emphasis on usability and interoperability, as well as access, the sheer volume and complexity of these data and their attendant technologies has brought the traditional copyright-subscription model to its knees.

In a market already populated by myriad government-funded projects and investment-backed software players, STM publishers bold enough to consider bioinformatics as having a strategic role in their portfolios need to tread carefully.

This report provides an overview of some of the major trends of the moment and puts forward some ideas and suggestions to guide future decision making and opportunity mapping. The main conclusions are:

• there are specific opportunities forming in healthcare and in the commercial pharmabiotech sector where the requirements for scalability, standards and interoperability are well understood;

• the increasing intersection between information technology and personal genomic data may in the medium term generate much broader opportunities in healthcare;

• the academic and government sectors will continue to develop open access resources without a clear top-down plan for how these should be resourced or interconnected for the future;

• the lack of a clear focus for leadership and the absence of a compelling strategic consensus on benefits and goals will leave few points of entry for STM publishers.