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As we launch the new Nanotoxicology Collection on F1000Research, Jack Brook takes a look at the importance of the field and highlights how researchers stand to benefit from this interdisciplinary publishing hub. Keep reading for insights on the challenges the Collection will address and the types of studies we’re looking to publish.

Nanotoxicology is a relatively new field of research concerning the study of the toxicity of nanomaterials and their applications. It aims to evaluate potentially harmful effects in parallel with the development of applications. The use of nanotechnology has the potential to lead to seismic breakthroughs in fuel cells, vaccines, batteries, and construction materials, to name just a few. Nanomedicine, which concerns the medical application of nanoparticles and nanodevices, is also expected to have a revolutionary impact on health care.

Despite the excitement surrounding nanotechnology, essential research on the safety of nanomaterials to humans and the environment is still lacking. This is in part due to the enormous variety of nanomaterials and their dynamic nature. As a result, the potential risks and hazards associated with the development of nanostructured materials are not yet fully understood. Studies have already shown possible links between nanoparticle exposure and lung damage, for example.

Nanotoxicology has been pushing the boundaries of knowledge for over ten years. As the field becomes and increasingly big-data-driven, open access publication linked to protocols, datasets, and methods will facilitate further mechanistic understanding of nanomaterials interactions with the environment and implications for human health.

— Iseult Lynch (University of Birmingham, UK), Nanotoxicology Collection Advisor

A new hub for nanotoxicology research

In launching the Nanotoxicology Collection alongside a group of expert advisors, we will address key issues in the field and help to facilitate a path to safe and sustainable nanotechnology. This means promoting a safe and sustainable-by-design approach early in the innovation process, as well as a coherent system of governance to address nanomaterial safety concerns.

Interdisciplinary challenges in nanotoxicology research can be met by increased knowledge sharing and collaboration between scientific disciplines. What’s more, an improved culture of data sharing would also be highly beneficial to researchers working in the field, given the wealth of existing data that can be applied and built upon to develop predictive models and move towards in silico nanotoxicology and nanoinformatics.

Bridging the gap between nanotoxicology and related fields

Nanotoxicology is a truly interdisciplinary field, using research, data, and methods across chemistry, biology, immunology, pharmacology, and computer science. This makes the need to improve knowledge sharing across communities even more acute. The Nanotoxicology Collection aims to bridge these divides and encourage collaboration between often disparate research communities.

At F1000Research, we provide a framework for collaboration through our open access publishing model, transparent peer review, and open data policy. Our platform provides an ideal venue for scientists to disseminate their research in an interdisciplinary manner. Publications can be easily tagged across multiple Gateways and Collections, meaning research is circulated across different communities and the knowledge gap is reduced.

In the spirit of interdisciplinarity, the Nanotoxicology Collection will be looking to collaborate and interact with existing F1000Research Gateways, such as NC3Rs and Chemical Information Science, to accelerate research in these intersectional spaces. Important areas of research that cut across disciplines, for example, can form the basis of joint calls for papers between Gateways and the Collection.

Building a culture of data sharing

A central ambition of the Nanotoxicology Collection will be to address the limited reuse of accumulated existing data. Ensuring research data is findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) is essential to achieving this goal moving forward and is vital in the safety assessments of new nanomaterials.

At F1000Research, we have our own open data policy in place and we also endorse the FAIR Data Principles. As such, when you choose to publish research with us and make data openly available, this helps others to replicate your study and avoid unnecessary duplication. Moreover, authors themselves benefit from the open sharing of data, which has been shown to improve reuse and collaboration as well as to increase citations, giving credit and recognition to the creators of the data.

In addition to our data policies, we also support the publication of Data Notes. Data Notes are an article type which promote the reuse of research data and increasing the visibility of useful datasets. By providing more context around nanotoxicology data, researchers can make that data easier to understand, (re)use, and share with others.

Why publish in the Nanotoxicology Collection?

The Nanotoxicology Collection offers several other key benefits to researchers.

Firstly, authors can make use of the dynamic, ‘living’ articles, made possible by the F1000Research versioning system. This feature is particularly useful in nanotoxicology research for Method Articles, where incremental changes to a method can be quickly reflected in an update to the most recently published version. As a result, authors don’t have to publish an entirely new article for an incremental change and that vital information is quickly available to the research community.

Additionally, several of our article types, such as Methods and Study Protocols, are particularly useful for researchers working in nanotoxicology where many methods and test guidelines were initially developed for soluble chemicals. These need modification and re-validation for use with nanomaterials.

Moreover, we will actively encourage the publication of no adverse effect studies (also called negative results). These studies will counteract the biases introduced into meta-analyses from only publishing studies demonstrating adverse effects. Such a practice leads to datasets that represent only a part of the knowledge available and tasks model with predicting what they haven’t seen. Publishing no adverse effect research ensures that authors can easily disseminate this vital data and it can be read by fellow researchers.

Understanding the toxicity of nanomaterials, and enabling real-world application of models, methods, and results to assess toxicity, is crucial to allow for the safe and sustainable development of nanotechnology.

— Penny Nymark, (Karolinska Institute, Sweden), Nanotoxicology Collection Advisor

Submit your research today

Ultimately, the Nanotoxicology Collection will provide a useful resource for the nanotoxicology and nanosafety community. We hope that researchers will play a vital role in helping to shape the Collection moving forward and appreciate the benefits of an open science approach to nanotoxicology.

The Nanotoxicology Collection is now live and open for submissions. If you have any questions, please do get in touch.