Nucleic Acids Research annual Database Issue and the NAR online Molecular Biology Database Collection in 2009

The current issue of Nucleic Acids Research includes descriptions of 179 databases, of which 95 are new. These databases (along with several molecular biology databases described in other journals) have been included in the Nucleic Acids Research online Molecular Biology Database Collection, bringing the total number of databases in the collection to 1170. In this introductory comment, we briefly describe some of these new databases and review the principles guiding the selection of databases for inclusion in the Nucleic Acids Research annual Database Issue and the Nucleic Acids Research online Molecular Biology Database Collection. The complete database list and summaries are available online at the Nucleic Acids Research web site (http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/).