The Company of Biologists is a UK-based charity and not-for-profit publisher that was established in 1925 by

George Parker Bidder III George Parker Bidder (21 May 1863 – 31 December 1954) was a British marine biologist who primarily studied sponges. He was the President of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, Marine Biological Association (MBA) from 1939 ...

with the aim of promoting research and study across all branches of biology. The company publishes currently five

scientific journals In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. Content Articles in scientific journals are mostly written by active scientists such as s ...

: ''

Development Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development hell, when a project is stuck in development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting *Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped * Photograph ...

Disease Models & Mechanisms ''Disease Models & Mechanisms'' (DMM) is a monthly peer-reviewed Open Access biomedical journal published by The Company of Biologists that launched in 2008. DMM is partnered with Publons, is part of the Review Commons initiative and has two-way i ...

Journal of Cell Science The ''Journal of Cell Science'' (formerly the ''Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science'') is a peer-reviewed scientific journal in the field of cell biology. The journal is published by The Company of Biologists. The journal is partnered with P ...

Journal of Experimental Biology ''Journal of Experimental Biology'' (formerly ''The British Journal of Experimental Biology)'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal in the field of comparative physiology and integrative biology. It is published by The Company of Biologists. Th ...

, and

Biology Open ''Biology Open'' (BiO) is an online-only peer-reviewed Open Access scientific journal published by The Company of Biologists. It was launched in 2011 and publishes research across the breadth of the biological and biomedical sciences. ''Biology O ...

''. As part of its charitable giving, the company awards grants and travelling fellowships to biologists as well as running a series of workshops. The company's current chairman is Professor Matthew Freeman, FRS.

Brief history

George Parker Bidder III, a prominent zoologist working in Europe during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, founded the Company of Biologists in 1925 in a bid to rescue the ailing journal ''The British Journal of Experimental Biology'' (now ''

The Journal of Experimental Biology ''Journal of Experimental Biology'' (formerly ''The British Journal of Experimental Biology)'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal in the field of comparative physiology and integrative biology. It is published by The Company of Biologists. The ...

''), which was founded in 1923 by

Julian Huxley Sir Julian Sorell Huxley (22 June 1887 – 14 February 1975) was an English evolutionary biologist, eugenicist, and internationalist. He was a proponent of natural selection, and a leading figure in the mid-twentieth century modern synthesis. ...

Lancelot Hogben Lancelot Thomas Hogben FRS FRSE (9 December 1895 – 22 August 1975) was a British experimental zoologist and medical statistician. He developed the African clawed frog ''(Xenopus laevis)'' as a model organism for biological research in his ear ...

and Frances A. E. Crew. Bidder felt that the journal was crucial for this emerging area of biology so turned to friends and colleagues, selling them £5 shares in his newly formed Company of Biologists. Such was the company’s success that, in 1946, Bidder gifted the ''

Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science The ''Journal of Cell Science'' (formerly the ''Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science'') is a peer-reviewed scientific journal in the field of cell biology. The journal is published by The Company of Biologists. The journal is partnered wit ...

'' to them, which was later relaunched as ''

''. In 1952 the company became a registered charity and a year later, in 1953, it accepted the gift of a third journal, the ''Journal of Embryology and Experimental Morphology'' (relaunched in 1987 as ''

''). In August 2008 ''

'' was launched to reflect the increasing importance of model organisms in the understanding of human disease; it is an

open access journal Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...

. In autumn 2011, the company launched a fifth journal, ''

'', an online only,

open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...

that publishes original research across all aspects of the biological sciences. The company’s charitable status has the condition that none of the directors receive any remuneration for their services, so directors give their time and expertise as part of their contribution to the scientific community.

The company seal

The company seal features two Egyptian symbols that also appeared in the company’s previous logo. The well-known

ankh Progressive ankylosis protein homolog (ANK ilosis H omolog) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''ANKH'' gene. This gene encodes a multipass transmembrane protein that is expressed in joints and other tissues and controls pyrophosphate ...

is the Egyptian hieroglyph for life – an appropriate symbol for an organization dedicated to supporting the life sciences. The feather represents the goddess

Maat Maat or Maʽat ( Egyptian: mꜣꜥt /ˈmuʀʕat/, Coptic: ⲙⲉⲓ) refers to the ancient Egyptian concepts of truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice. Ma'at was also the goddess who personified these concepts, and regul ...

and is generally seen as the symbol for truth, balance and order – Maat weighed souls against her feather to determine whether they would reach the paradise of the afterlife.

Charitable activities

The company provides grants to many scientific societies, large and small. These societies, in turn, use part of the funding to provide travel grants to support postgraduates and junior postdoctoral fellows who wish to attend their conferences. Each of the company’s journals provides travelling fellowships to postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows and these are put towards the cost of collaborative visits to other research laboratories. The company also invites direct applications from postgraduate and postdoctoral fellows for travel grants towards the cost of attendance at research conferences, workshops or for skill-acquiring visits to other research labs. As participants in the United Nation’s Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative (

HINARI Hinari Access to Research for Health Programme was set up by the World Health Organization and major publishers to enable developing countries to access collections of biomedical and health literature. There are up to 15,000 e-journals and up to ...

) and OARE initiatives, the company makes all its online articles freely available to users in developing countries In 2010, the company launched its series of workshops intended to champion the novel techniques and innovations that will underpin the post-genomic revolution.

Community sites

The Company of Biologists supports three online biological communities: * the Node: the community site for and by developmental biologists * preLights: the preprint highlights service run by the biological community * FocalPlane: the community site for microscopists and biologists alike

External links

*
Workshops

{{DEFAULTSORT:Company Of Biologists Biology organisations based in the United Kingdom Learned societies of the United Kingdom 1925 establishments in the United Kingdom Non-profit academic publishers Organizations established in 1925

Brief history

The company seal

Charitable activities

Community sites

Further reading

External links