Editing BioMed Central (section)

== History ==
BioMed Central was founded in 2000 as part of the Current Science Group (now Science Navigation Group, SNG), a nursery of scientific publishing companies. SNG chairman [[Vitek Tracz]] developed the concept for the company after NIH director [[Harold Varmus]]'s [[PubMed Central]] concept for open-access publishing was scaled back.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.infotoday.com/it/jan05/poynder.shtml |title=Interview with Vitek Tracz: Essential for Science |publisher=Infotoday.com |access-date=2012-03-15 |archive-date=2015-09-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924034919/http://www.infotoday.com/it/jan05/poynder.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> The first director of the company was [[Jan Velterop]]. [[Chemistry Central]] was established in 2006 and the [[PhysMath Central]] journal imprint in 2007.

In 2002, the company introduced [[article processing charge]]s,<ref>{{cite web|last1=Quint|first1=Barbara|title=BioMed Central Begins Charging Authors and Their Institutions for Article Publishing|url=http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/nbreader.asp?ArticleID=17276|website=Information Today|access-date=2018-02-01|date=7 January 2002|archive-date=2018-02-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180203005647/http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/nbreader.asp?ArticleID=17276|url-status=live}}</ref> and these have since been the primary source of revenue. In 2007, [[Yale University Libraries]] stopped subsidizing BioMed Central article processing charges for Yale researchers.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.chronicle.com/article/Yale-Libraries-Pull-Out-of/39365|title=Yale Libraries Pull Out of BioMed Central Over Cost of Publication|date=2007-08-09|work=The Chronicle of Higher Education|access-date=2019-02-27|language=en-US|issn=0009-5982}}</ref>

In October 2008, it was announced that BioMed Central (along with Chemistry Central and PhysMath Central) had been acquired by [[Springer Science+Business Media]], the second largest STM publisher.<ref>{{cite web |last=Suber |first=Peter |url=http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2008/10/springer-buys-biomed-central.html |title=Peter Suber, Open Access News |publisher=Earlham.edu |date=2008-10-07 |access-date=2012-03-15 |archive-date=2012-01-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120113032230/http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2008/10/springer-buys-biomed-central.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> The Chemistry Central and PhysMath Central brands have since been retired.

In November 2008, BioMed Central became an official supporting organisation of [[Healthcare Information For All]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hifa2015.org/hifa2015-forum/hifa2015-email-forum-summaries/healthcare-providers/health-care/malnutrition/what-hifa2015-members-say/hifa2015-supporting-organisations/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20141208171319/http://www.hifa2015.org/hifa2015-forum/hifa2015-email-forum-summaries/healthcare-providers/health-care/malnutrition/what-hifa2015-members-say/hifa2015-supporting-organisations/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=2014-12-08 |title=HIFA Supporting Organisations |publisher=HIFA2015 }}</ref>

Following the merger of BMC into [[Springer Nature]], BMC journals were gradually converted to the general Springer Nature software. The software migration meant the loss of several features, often related to [[open science]] requirements, like the ability to download a machine-readable version of the paper (in XML format), direct download of PDF files and the ability to read articles without [[HTTP cookie|cookies]].<ref>{{citation |last1=Willighagen, Egon|title=Conflict of Interest. Or why I am stepping down as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cheminformatics.|url=https://zenodo.org/record/4926031|date=2021-06-11|doi=10.5281/ZENODO.4926031}}</ref>