WormBook: the online review of Caenorhabditis elegans biology

TLDR

WormBook is an open‑access, online collection of peer‑reviewed chapters covering nearly every aspect of Caenorhabditis elegans biology, having expanded from 12 to over 100 chapters since its 2005 launch and serving as a companion to the WormBase database. It is designed to rapidly incorporate new discoveries and to provide a generic publishing platform that can be adapted to other research communities. Chapters interlink genes, proteins, and cells to WormBase pages, cross‑reference other WormBook topics, and embed links to PubMed abstracts and full‑text references, while the online format permits inclusion of movies and complex images.

Abstract

WormBook (Author Webpage) is an open-access, online collection of original, peer-reviewed chapters on the biology of Caenorhabditis elegans and related nematodes. Since WormBook was launched in June 2005 with 12 chapters, it has grown to over 100 chapters, covering nearly every aspect of C.elegans research, from Cell Biology and Neurobiology to Evolution and Ecology. WormBook also serves as the text companion to WormBase, the C.elegans model organism database. Objects such as genes, proteins and cells are linked to the relevant pages in WormBase, providing easily accessible background information. Additionally, WormBook chapters contain links to other relevant topics in WormBook, and the in-text citations are linked to their abstracts in PubMed and full-text references, if available. Since WormBook is online, its chapters are able to contain movies and complex images that would not be possible in a print version. WormBook is designed to keep up with the rapid pace of discovery in the field of C.elegans research and continues to grow. WormBook represents a generic publishing infrastructure that is easily adaptable to other research communities to facilitate the dissemination of knowledge in the field.