Outside the Box – Get Involved

How are computational methods being used across disciplines? PLOS Computational Biology Founding Editor-in-Chief Phil Bourne calls for examples.

An advantage of being a part time university administrator (there are lots of disadvantages) is that you meet a larger diversity of people on your campus than you would as a professor working in one research area. One such encounter has led to something I think is new and exciting for PLOS Computational Biology. I was at our Rady School of Management at UCSD talking to a faculty member when suddenly he quotes a paper from PLOS Computational Biology and says, “I use a statistical method from this paper in my business analytics work doing a market analysis for a major corporation.” Bingo! An example of ‘Outside the Box’ – computational biology tools being used in unimaginable ways in disciplines I would never have dreamed of.

What other examples are out there? We already have a handful, but need your help in starting an exciting PLOS initiative that demonstrates the broad reach of computational biology. Please be in touch suggesting names of authors and let me know if you might have an interest in helping edit such a series. Use of tools from phylogenetic analysis to derive the lineage of ancient texts is just one other example we have unearthed. Cool stuff – help us find more and let me know at pbourne@plos.org.