Genome Notes from the Tree of Life programme

Wellcome Open Research, in collaboration with the Wellcome Sanger Institute, are working on a project to publishing the genome sequences from The Tree of Life programme.

We are inviting all genomics researchers to join our community reviewer group to assess the genome sequences of thousands of species and help make these sequences discoverable and reusable for all. 

Together, Wellcome Open Research and the Wellcome Sanger Institute are developing new technology to provide a quicker, automated route to publication of genome sequences through Genome Notes published in the Tree of Life Gateway.

Keep reading as here, we’ll explain everything you need to know about the Tree of Life, including: 

• Details of the project 
• How our innovative peer review model works 
• The benefits of becoming a reviewer 
• How to sign up to the peer reviewer pool 

An innovative and streamlined publishing approach

The Tree of Life programme takes a streamlined approach to contextualizing genome sequences, through a new article type called a Genome Note to produce and publish content automatically, at speed.  

Formulated ‘straight from the sequencer’, data descriptions of sequenced genomes are at the heart of this innovative publishing approach, supported with a combination of automated and community review.  

This approach will efficiently deliver all genomic information directly from the Wellcome Sanger Institute to Wellcome Open Research, allowing the Genome Notes to be rapidly produced and published in the Tree of Life Gateway at scale. 

Genome Notes will undergo an innovative quality control process, with the sequences being subject to automated review and community review.

Automated review: Each Genome Note will have a review summarizing the genome completeness. This is data generated at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and will be part of the received Genome Note metadata. The review will show key genome completeness metrics and provide a link to more data for the readers. This type of review is based on the sequencing data, and will be available to view alongside the article after publication.  

 
Community review: Genomics experts continue the peer review process by undertaking community review for the published Genome Notes. They will verify the automated review and assess how complete the genome sequence is. This community review will not be as burdensome as a traditional review and will rely on a set of questions. Reviewers can also provide their opinion and further context if they see fit. 

To support the rapid publication process, we are creating a pool of peer reviewers to review Genome Note submissions on the Wellcome Open Research platform. Community reviewers will be asked to verify the genome completeness metrics and assess if all the genomic data is made available. 

Wellcome Open Research has an open peer review model, meaning that peer reviewers’ names are visible on the article, along with their full peer review reports. The required review is not as demanding as the usual peer review process: there will be clear binary assessment criteria to aid rapid peer review of the publications.  

By joining our community reviewer pool you will be supporting a key aim of the project: disseminating the sequences as quickly as possible to allow them to be used by others.