This collection was launched with the mission to share knowledge about lab organization and scientific management. Each Perspective article represents an interview with a Principal Investigator, who shares his or her experience of running a lab by discussing selected topics in an informal and personal style. By creating this collection at PLOS Computational Biology, a journal committed to open knowledge, the collection editors hope to create a dialog through which we all can learn from each other.

Across all realms of the sciences, the rapid growth in the number of works published digitally presents new challenges and opportunities for making sense of this wealth of textual information. The maturing field of Text Mining aims to solve problems concerning the retrieval, extraction and analysis of unstructured information in digital text, and revolutionize how scientists access and interpret data that might otherwise remain buried in the literature. PLOS acknowledges the growing body of work in the area of Text Mining by bringing together reviews and research studies to create the PLOS Text Mining Collection. It is no coincidence that research in Text Mining is burgeoning: the widespread uptake of the Open Access publishing model developed by PLOS and other publishers now makes it easier than ever to obtain, mine and redistribute data from published texts.

'Translational Bioinformatics' is a collection of articles which reads as a "book" to be used as a reference or tutorial for a graduate level introductory course on the science of translational bioinformatics. Translational bioinformatics is an emerging field that addresses the current challenges of integrating increasingly voluminous amounts of molecular and clinical data. Its aim is to provide a better understanding of the molecular basis of disease, which in turn will inform clinical practice and ultimately improve human health. The concept of a translational bioinformatics introductory book was originally conceived in 2009 by Jake Chen and Maricel Kann. Each chapter was crafted by leading experts who provide a solid introduction to the topics covered, complete with training exercises and answers. The rapid evolution of this field is expected to lead to updates and new chapters that will be incorporated into this collection.