1.  INTRODUCTION
Many initiatives have been developed in different research areas in support of open access to scientific publications and data. Such initiatives were intended to create awareness on the benefits of sharing information and data among different stakeholders – such as researchers, policy makers, the general public– and to develop policies and infrastructures to host and manage research data. All together these initiatives contribute to a general cultural change shifting from traditional information dissemination patterns, mainly based on proprietary data, to new models of data sharing, dissemination and use.
In this framework, significant investment has been made to develop research infrastructures for an easy and free access to shared data and to empower researchers with communication and technological skills.
There is no doubt that research activity and its results dissemination need a global and multidisciplinary approach to maximize investments and increase the benefits to the entire society.
In this note, the authors illustrate a multi-sectorial collaboration in the field of bioresources involving both researchers and journal editors, developed within the international BRIF project (Bioresource Research Impact Factor, www.gen2phen.org/groups/brif-bio-resource-impactfactor). Within this project, the BRIF and journal editors subgroup mainly focused on the application of a standardized citation format for bioresources in journal articles. This effort towards the standardization of bioresources citation is in line with the different initiatives in support of open access to research results. As a matter of fact, the first step towards openness is the recognition of the value and impact of the resources used to perform research, which need to be openly defined and shared in a standardized and interoperable format (1, 2, 3).