About BaRC

Our mission

Empower Whitehead researchers with computational biology and genomics

Our vision

To be part of a biomedical research institute known internationally for its expertise in computational biology

Our values

integrity, creativity, objectivity, openness, curiosity, cooperativity

What we do

  • Collaborate and consult (with all levels of researchers) in bioinformatics, computational biology, and statistics
  • Train biologists (individually and in small workshops) in selected areas of bioinformatics and computational topics
  • Consult with Whitehead's IT group (to recommend scientific software and hardware)
  • Share and/or create bioinformatics resources (data and analysis tools)
  • Provide illustration expertise to all Institute personnel

Acknowledging BaRC in publications

Important reasons for acknowledging contributions from BaRC (and other core facilities) in publications, by co-authorship or by formal mention in the acknowledgments section, include:

1. Core facility personnel are scientists. When they make a substantial intellectual and/or experimental contribution to a publication they deserve to be acknowledged just as any other co-author.

2. The existence of core facilities depends in part on proper acknowledgment in publications. This is an important metric of the value of most core facilities. Proper acknowledgment of core facilities enables them to obtain financial and other support so that they may continue to provide their essential services in the best ways possible. It also helps core personnel to advance in their careers, adding to the overall health of the core facility.

This Association of Biomolecular Resources Facilities (ABRF) recommendation was previously published in Angeletti et al. in 1999 (FASEB Journal, 13:595), "Intellectual interactions between resource and research scientists are essential to the success of each project. When this success results in publication, a citation in the acknowledgments section of a manuscript may be appropriate for routine analysis. However, contributions from resource scientists that involve novel resource laboratory work and insight, experimental design, or advanced data analysis that make a publication possible or significantly enhance its value require co-authorship as the appropriate acknowledgment."