Keynote address: Scientific publishing in a technological age

The scientific publishing landscape is changing rapidly and publishers, authors and readers are working hard to adapt. Advances in research technologies are generating increasing amounts of data that require commensurate advances in accessibility, analysis and visualization. Although digital technologies provide possible solutions to allow publishers to fully participate in this revolution and add new capabilities, it has proven challenging to adapt the traditional publishing model to take full advantage of new opportunities. I will discuss these challenges and opportunities and what publishers are doing to meet them from the point of view of a chief editor at Nature Publishing Group. Particular emphasis will be given to data handling and visualization, the role of computer scientists and the challenges in bridging the distinct biology and computer science cultures.