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Editorial

Welcome to the first issue of Genomics, Society and Policy, a peer-reviewed open access online journal examining social aspects of developments in Genomics and implications for policy. In a fast moving field such as Genomics, discussions of social and policy aspects frequently need to take place at an early stage. The length of time to paper publication sometimes counts against appropriate and timely impact of debate. Hence we believe that an online journal is particularly valuable in this field.

GSP has been developed within the ESRC Genomics Network in the UK. The Network was established by the UK Economic and Social Research Council in 2002 and consists of CESAGen (ESRC Centre for Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics: a Lancaster-Cardiff collaboration), Egenis (ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society, Exeter), Innogen (ESRC Centre for Social and Economic Research on Innovation in Genomics, Edinburgh), the ESRC Genomics Survey (Surrey) and the ESRC Genomics Policy and Research Forum (Edinburgh). In developing this journal, we have formed a partnership with the Dutch Centre for Society and Genomics, leading to the editorial collaboration. We are delighted to have formed links also with the network of Genetics Knowledge Parks funded by the Department of Health in the UK; and that we have persuaded key figures internationally to join the editorial board.

We are grateful to the Wellcome Trust who funded some of the early development work on the journal, to the ESRC, to all colleagues who have supported this initiative in its early stages especially Michael Parker at Ethox, and to all the contributors to the first issue, which presents a collection of papers on the special theme of'Human Tissue, Epidemiology and Ethics'.

GSP will appear three times a year and we welcome submissions on any aspects of Genomics, Society and Policy. We hope to hear from you.

Ruth Chadwick