Open Access; BioMed Central’s Commitment This presentation will also discuss the benefits for authors and what institutions can do to help support them when publish choosing in open access journals.

What’s wrong with the traditional model? Severe disadvantages of restrictive access Political Argument – the public pay taxes, the public should have access Increasing cost of subscriptions – Libraries cuts are at their highest, subscriptions are raised against these each year form between 5-10% Transfer of copyright – resides with publisher who has limited role in overall process.

What does Open Access mean to scientific research? Freely available via the Internet Author retains copyright Permanently archived in an internationally recognized repository (e.g. PubMed Central) Tracked by Scopus/Thomson Scientific, indexed in Medline, searchable in Google/Google Scholar etc…..

Comparison of the two models Under the traditional model: – the research community gives up control of the research –the publisher sells it back Under the OA publishing model: –the publisher charges directly for the service of publication/ dissemination –Free access to all content for everyone –By just changing how the service is paid for, the community as a whole retains control of research

Benefits of Open Access All researchers have access to your work Free Access = Maximum Visibility = Increased citations = Increased gravitas for authors research Articles are available to all aggregators, indexing services, search engines etc. Removes barriers between fields. Easy search tools to cross reference information without having to access within numerous subscriptions. Substantial savings for institutions and their libraries

Full open access Approximate no. submissions received Source: Claire Bird, Oxford Press

BioMed Central Largest open access publisher Launched first open access journal in 2000 Now publishes >200 OA titles and >29,000 peer reviewed OA articles published Creative Commons license - made available to anyone and can be re-used as long as the work is correctly cited by it’s creditors. Costs covered by 'article processing charge' (APC)

Journals with Impact Factors Respiratory Research3.87BMC Bioinformatics3.78Biology Direct3.72BMC Systems Biology3.71Molecular Pain3.71Neural Development3.45Microbial Cell Factories3.34BMC Medicine3.28Journal of Neuroinflammation3.21 Genome Biology6.15 Molecular Cancer5.36 Breast Cancer Research5.05BMC Biology4.73Critical Care4.55Arthritis Res. &Therapy4.49BMC Evolutionary Biology4.05Retrovirology4.04BMC Plant Biology4.03BMC Genomics3.93

UK Submissions Annual manuscript submissions

Reversing the traditional business model Article processing charge (APC) All original research articles are made freely and permanently accessible online immediately upon publication Articles take 6-8 weeks from submission to publication with a 50% acceptance rate. Payable upon publication Covering peer review, production, hosting and marketing costs GBP 995 on average How does BMC model work?

What is BMC Membership Enables organizations to actively support Open Access publishing Offers authors a level playing field when choosing where and when to publish with no restrictions. Helps ensure the most widespread dissemination of the research Covers full APCs for all investigators or provides them with a reduced fee

Types of Membership BioMed Central offers different types of Membership to institutions:  Supporter Membership Authors pay a reduced APC of 15%  Prepay Membership Institution covers the full cost of APCs

Supporter Membership Flat fee based on FTE of medical and life science, chemistry and physics (or R&D staff). Starting from USD 2,464 15% APC discount when publishing in any BioMed Central Open Access journals

Prepay Membership Advanced payment towards authors’ publications APC minus discount is deducted from account The larger the advanced payment, the greater discount given Deposit remains valid with no time limit. Is flexibly administrated.

Benefits of Membership Researchers’ fees paid for in full or discounted Discounted APCs  Cost-effective Showcase of institution’s research Red tape of individual payments eliminated Marketing to create awareness

BioMed Central Members 302 Members in 38 countries worldwide 29 Members in U.K –Newcastle University –University of Birmingham –University of Cambridge –King’s College London – Wellcome –NHS (NIHR)

SWORD Filling OA repositories can be difficult Many institutions may have their own repositories, but ensuring that research is deposited in the repository is a lot of work for both authors and administrators. BioMed Central is automating feeds to repositories using the SWORD protocol A direct article-feed from BMC journals into the institutions repository. Open Access journals provide a source of content that can be immediately shared

Institutional Repository (DSpace/Eprints etc.) Automated deposit to IR via SWORD Manuscript SWORD Import SWORD Export Published articles from institution’s authors Published article Accepted and Published article

Why publish in BioMed Central?

Summary Open access part of the mainstream – Providing a solution to the fundamental problems encountered with traditional publishing model. Existing journals moving to open access – Springer launched a new range of OA journals this year, Springer Open. Maximizes research visibility – Increases saturation of research and citations for authors. Quality journals – All research is peer reviewed and 50/50 acceptance rate of submissions. Successful business model

Thanks for your attention! Any questions ?