At Nature Research, we’re proud to work alongside diverse sectors of the research community through our greater organization, Springer Nature. Our colleagues at BioMed Central – the pioneers in open access publishing – want you to be a part of their journey in becoming BMC.

BMC believes the research community shares their enthusiasm for innovation, science and progress, and would like to see it from your perspective – so they are launching their first ever “Research in Progress” photography competition!

They are looking for inspiring photographs that reflect innovation, curiosity and integrity in the following categories relating to research:

People at work – showing researchers in the lab or with patients at a clinic, and authors and editors at work too. BMC want to capture all aspects of the research process.

Close-ups of equipment – detailed, interesting close-ups and crops of equipment used in research and clinical settings.

Plants and animals – interesting crops and details that add intrigue and focus to different aspects of research.

Microscopy – close-ups of cells or bacteria capturing the detail and unusual forms that they take.

Think bright, modern, interesting and forward thinking. Anyone interested in research and photography can enter from anywhere in the world.

Winners will be decided by a panel of BMC editors and designers, who will be looking for originality, photo quality, creativity, composition and visual appeal.

The overall winner will receive a cash prize of £250 (~ €300/$325), while the runner-up will receive £100 (~€125/$150). Winning images will be featured on the BMC blog, BMC website and BMC promotional materials.

How to submit

You can enter this competition by emailing your photo to researchinprogress@biomedcentral.com. Your entry must include the following details:

Name Image Description (Max. 300 words) File type Data attribution (if applicable) Affiliation (if applicable) I agree to release this image under a Creative Commons License (CC-BY):  Y/N Twitter handle (optional)

All images must conform to the following criteria:

• A minimum 300dpi (1831 x 1831 pixels for a raster image).
• In one of the allowable formats – EPS, PDF (for line drawings), PNG, TIFF,  JPEG, BMP, DOC, PPT [Please note that it is the responsibility of the author(s) to obtain permission from the copyright holder to reproduce figures or tables that have previously been published elsewhere.]

In line with BMC’s policies on open access, entry to the competition implies release of the images under a creative commons license, to allow file sharing with proper attribution. By entering this competition you agree to make your entry available under such a license.

The BMC team will be posting regular updates on the competition throughout the coming months, so don’t forget to keep up to date by reading the BMC blog or by following them on Twitter and Facebook. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to send a message to researchinprogress@biomedcentral.com. 

The closing date for entries is 17th September 2017*, with winners being announced in late September. Good luck!

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* It has come to our attention that some submissions to the competition may not have reached us. We are investigating this issue, but if you have previously submitted your photographs, we encourage you to resubmit to researchinprogress@biomedcentral.com. In light of this, we are extending our competition deadline to the 17th September.