Open Access Publishing: The BioMed Central Model

Change is occurring:  From print to electronic  From limited access to unlimited access  From paid access to free access  From output-paid to input-paid  From slow to fast publication  From expensive to less expensive

Traditional role of the publisher is under scrutiny Subscriptions and licences limit access To be useful, research must be used To be used (read, cited, applied, extended) it must be accessible Prices do not reflect quality or costs Subscription prices have increased by as much as 146% in 10 years – e.g. Brain Research 1991: £3, : £9,148 Authors lose rights e.g. to put their paper on a publicly accessible server Often inefficient and slow

What is being done?  PR Initiatives Public Library of Science Budapest Open Access Initiative  Facilitators SPARC Open Archives Initiative  Publishers BioMed Central

“What are publishers doing for us?” ‘I think scientists all over would be shocked to realise what a phenomenally lucrative business scientific publishing can be.’ Nicholas Cozzarelli- editor in chief of the PNAS

Public Library of Science Researcher-led initiative, open letter had 30,000+ signatories Advocated a boycott by researchers of journals that do not make available their articles in open access within 6 months of publication Not to submit Not to review Not to serve as editor or on an editorial board But, this has not proved successful –many signatories haven’t stuck to their promise

Budapest Open Access Initiative Soros Foundation-led initiative Activists and innovators brought together last December by the Soros Open Society Institute in Budapest Signatories are institutions and individuals Agreed outcome To stimulate ‘self-archiving’ To stimulate ‘open access’ journals

SPARC Library-led initiative in US and Europe Partners with BioMed Central Institutions become SPARC members Advocate open access, and also low- cost alternatives to conventional journals Urging authors and librarians to declare independence

Open Archives Initiative Library-technology-led initiative Develops interoperability standards (metadata harvesting) Enhances access to e-print archives Facilitates self-archiving

BioMed Central Commercial initiative, independent company Open access for research papers 90+ open access online journals Authors pay at input Supplemental income from advertising and acting as sales agent for review journals published by sister companies

Beneficiaries of open access Scientists Much higher visibility: thousands of downloads/uses per paper vs. a few hundred in the conventional journals Speed: publication immediately upon acceptance after peer-review Libraries Open access = free resource, freeing up budget Enabling libraries to play active part in changing the model

How does open access work? Taking BioMed Central as an example: Article submitted for publication Peer-review If accepted, charge of $500 or waiver granted Immediately published in manuscript-pdf form Fully-coded HTML and hi-res pdf one week later No restrictions on access whatsoever

BioMed Central Independent online publishing house launched in May 2000 Part of the Current Science Group of independent companies Publishing peer-reviewed research across all areas of biology and medicine Immediate, barrier-free open access for all

BioMed Central Advantages Immediate and continuous publication online None of the spatial constraints of print True free access for all Not even compulsory registration, except when using search function Fast, efficient peer review Very high visibility >200 downloads per article per month Authors have access to download figures Authors keep copyright and control

BioMed Central More Advantages Permanence Archived on PubMed Central, INIST ( an others to be announced) Searchable and retrievable Included in PubMed immediately upon publication Published in one journal, but cross-listed in other relevant ones Deposited in CrossRef, included in BIOSIS, ISI, CAS, Open Citation Project, and others Extensive PR for outstanding articles Opportunities to link to and from updates

Peer Review Online – rapid 2 reviewers plus statistician, if necessary Reviewers chosen from large network of experts in their field Decision on whether to publish based on validity (even negative results are published)

Editorial directorate  Dr Harold E Varmus President of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (USA)  Professor Elizabeth H Blackburn Professor, Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California San Francisco (USA)  Dr Steven E Hyman Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (USA)  Professor Marc W Kirschner Head of the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School. (USA)  Professor Philippe Kourilsky  Director General, Pasteur Institute (France)  Professor Joseph Boyd Martin Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (USA)  Dr David G Nathan Faculty Dean for Academic Programs at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (USA)  Dr Paul Nurse Director-General of Cancer Research UK  Sir David Weatherall Honorary Director of the ICRF Laboratories at the Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford (UK)  Professor Mitsuhiro Yanagida Kyoto University and President of the Molecular Biology Society of Japan

BMC Open Access Journals Biology Biochemistry Bioinformatics Biotechnology Cell biology Chemical Biology Developmental Biology Ecology Evolutionary Biology Genetics Genomics Immunology Microbiology Molecular Biology Neuroscience Pharmacology Plant biology Structural Biology Plus Journal of Biology Medicine Anesthesiology Blood Disorders Cancer Cardiovascular Disorders Clinical Pathology Clinical Pharmacology Complementary and Alternative Medicine Dermatology Ear, Nose and Throat Disorders Emergency Medicine Endocrine Disorders Family practice Gastroenterology Geriatrics Health Service Research Infectious diseases International Health and Human Rights Medical Education Medical Ethics Medical Genetics Medical Imaging Medical Informatics and Decision Making Medical Research Methodology Musculoskeletal Disorders Nephrology Neurology Nuclear Medicine Nursing Ophthalmology Oncology Ophthalmology Oral Health Palliative Care Pediatrics Pregnancy and Childbirth Psychiatry Public health Pulmonary Medicine Surgery Urology

Journal of Biology (J.Biol) An international journal publishing biological research articles of exceptional interest and importance Editor-in-Chief: Martin Raff, University College London Striving to achieve the fairest system of peer review Rapid publication schedule A variety of commissioned commentaries to accompany every research article All research articles available immediately on publication, free of charge, over the web, with copyright retained by the author

New Journals Start a new journal with BioMed Central Empowering scientists to launch new journals in specialist areas (small niches) All they have to do is: Provide a scope statement Assemble an editorial board Select a journal title Provide lists of potential authors BioMed Central provides: the publishing platform the web site and technical expertise Promotional campaigns to ensure that papers are submitted for publication

BioMed Central New Journals Some examples of new, autonomous, journals using BioMed Central’s infrastructure and technology:

BioMed Central Revenues Article Processing Charges (APCs) of $500 per published paper Automatic waivers for authors from developing countries – and to others on a case-by-case basis Institutional membership Includes automatic APC-waivers for authors from member institutions Advertising Sales of subscription products (Faculty of 1000, images.MD, etc)

Institutional Membership Annual fee proportional to number of biology and medical researchers at each institution Automatic waivers of article processing charges Customized member’s pages on BioMed Central site on which papers by researchers at the institution published in BMC journals are listed 15% discount on paid-for products such as Faculty of 1000 and images.MD

BioMed Central’s members include: L’Institut Pasteur Imperial College, London Cancer Research UK Harvard University The NIH of the US Princeton University University of California (all campuses) Lund University University of Helsinki World Health Organization John Innes Centre CNRS University of Amsterdam University of Toronto Utrecht University Rockefeller University University of York Kyoto University

BioMed Central Open Access: The New Scenario Authors take charge: author choice Publishing becomes a service to researchers and their communities – not selling of content No need for copyright transfer from author to publisher Massively increased exposure for research work Introduces competition – breaks monopolies journals (publishers) have – enhances market efficiency Librarians are empowered and can take active part in changing the model

So what is holding academia back? Given the clear benefits to scientists and libraries, why is the emergence of open access journals so slow? Because what is required is a ‘cultural revolution’ Open access can only succeed if enough researchers choose to publish in open access journals

The ‘Prestige’ question Scientists want to publish in prestigious, high IF journals, most of which are published in the conventional model Most open-access journals are new and it takes time for new journals to gather prestige, even if their quality is impeccable from the start. The solution: Create more open-access journals, staff them with first-rate editors, and give them time.

What can librarians do? Publicise widely the availability of open access journals to potential authors Arrange for the article processing bill to be picked up for the author (e.g. by becoming a member in the case of BioMed Central) Put up posters and distribute flyers from open access initiatives Hold seminars to educate authors about these resources and their benefits Include open access journals in library catalogues

‘It is the scientists who are going to have to figure out how they want their work to be available’ Mary Case – Association of Research Libraries

BioMed Central Thank You Becky Fishman Membership Director