From the Oxford University Press Blog:
Environmental Epigenetics is a new, international, peer-reviewed, fully open access journal, which publishes research in any area of science and medicine related to the field of epigenetics, with particular interest on environmental relevance. With the first issue scheduled to launch this summer, we found this to be the perfect time to speak with WSU biologist Dr. Michael K. Skinner, Editor-in-Chief, to discuss the launch of the journal into an exciting and rapidly developing field.
What encouraged the launch of Environmental Epigenetics?
I considered the other journals that had been developed. Several fine journals in the areas around molecular epigenetics and disease epigenetics have been developed, with approximately 10 total journals currently on specifically focused epigenetic topics. In considering this, one of the main areas of epigenetics not currently addressed is environmental epigenetics.
To give you a perspective, considering all publications obtained on PubMed for keyword “epigenetics” a total of approximately 12,000 are obtained, and of those 11,400 were published in the last five years. Therefore, over 95% of the published literature in epigenetics is less than five years old. This reflects the dramatic recent growth in the field.
What, exactly, is environmental epigenetics?