The Departments of Botany and Zoology at the University of British Columbia invite applications for a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Aquatic Microbial/Protist Ecology. This is a tenure-track position, with initial appointment to be made at the Assistant Professor level, beginning no earlier than July 1, 2013. We seek an outstanding applicant whose research program investigates the functional ecology of phytoplankton, microzooplankton or other protists within the context of their natural, preferably marine, environment. The program should include a strong field component and address fundamental questions in ecology with state-of-the-art approaches, such as genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics.

With over 250 Open Access journals in its portfolio Versita (www.versita.com) is one of the leading scholarly Open Access Publishers. Versita cooperates with Springer (www.springer.com) and in January 2012 the company was acquired by de Gruyter (www.degruyter.com), a prominent scholarly publisher with a 260-year history. We are now inviting authors to submit book proposals to our Open Access Books program in LIFE SCIENCES.

In this model, the book is available online to all interested readers, who do not have to pay for accessing its contents. Open access brings very wide audience and increased readership. It may also grow sales of printed copies.

Versita Publishers is very pleased to announce the launch of their newest journal, PROTIST GENOMICS, which will operate in the open-access style. PG is entirely dedicated to publishing research, news and review articles in the field of genomics of microbial eukaryotes. Currently the only peer-reviewed scientific publication dedicated to this field, PG offers a unique option for many researchers who had so far to opt for less representative journals to submit their work. PG offers the advantage of providing highly specialized reviewers and editors who are aware of the specific issues that characterize genomic research in protists.