Full Peer Review Immediate Publication Open Access

The ethos of sharing…… Upon hearing that he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Sydney Brenner and Robert Horvitz, Sir John Sulston is quoted as saying that: "The worm [C. elegans] worked so well because the community held an ethos of sharing - just as the public genome projects have - from the beginning. We gave all our results to others as soon as we had them. From sharing, discovery is accelerated in the community. Research is hastened when people share results freely.“ The Guardian, UK, October 8 th, 2002 At BioMed Central we call this ethos of sharing “Open Access” – all research articles published in BioMed Central’s open access journals are freely accessible to anyone, anywhere, anytime, facilitating the acceleration of scientific discovery

Overview of presentation Open Access BioMed Central’s publishing model Institutional Membership Support Open Access – Spread the Word

Today’s (soon yesterday’s) print-derived model: Manuscript Publisher Author transfers copyright or exclusive publishing rights © Free Use Only those who can afford expensive subscriptions or licences have access Result:

What is Open Access? Articles are universally and freely available via the Internet Easily readable format (HTML, PDF) Permanently archived in an internationally recognised open access repository (e.g. PubMed Central) The authors retain Copyright to their article They grant the right to disseminate their article to anyone Integrity of text protected, authorship attributed, correct citation details required

How is Open Access achieved at BioMed Central? Reversing the business model: removing subscription charges and introducing article processing charges, whilst allowing authors to keep the copyright to their article Article processing charge of £ per published article Waivers are available No colour charges or other ‘hidden’ charges Model further financed by some advertising, BioMed Central’s Institutional Membership Program and value- added subscription products

Publisher Manuscript Tomorrow’s (today’s at BioMed Central) online-based model: Result: $ Author pays small amount of money or rather, institution pays on author’s behalf Everyone has access All use is fair use OPEN A CCESS

BioMed Central’s Journals Over 130 open access journals in total in all areas of biology and medicine Access to all peer-reviewed research content is free Highly Selective, general interest: Journal of Biology Edited by Martin Raff Free access to outstanding peer-reviewed research in biology Selective, high community interest: BMC Medicine and BMC Biology Publishing peer-reviewed research articles of high quality and broad interest Highlighting the best research from the BMC Series Sound science, range of interest: 60 BMC series journals 72 externally run specialist journals, varying interest and selectivity

Biology BMC 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 The BMC Series Medicine BMC 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 Oncology Ophthalmology Oral Health Palliative Care Pediatrics Pregnancy and Childbirth Psychiatry Public Health Pulmonary Medicine Surgery Urology

Examples of independent journals published by BioMed Central

Open Access publishing: the basics are there Peer Review: all papers are peer reviewed in the ‘traditional’ way Secure Archiving: all articles are permanently archived in PubMed Central, INIST (others to be announced) Searchable and retrievable: included in PubMed, Scirus, Google, CrossRef, HINARI, (some journals are indexed in MEDLINE, Biosis, CAS, an increasing number tracked by ISI for citations)

Open Access publishing: the benefits (1) Free Access Anyone with Internet access can freely read the papers, no need to worry about subscriptions Maximum Visibility = Maximum impact! BioMed Central’s papers average >200 downloads per article per month High chance of being cited Speed Online system for submission, peer review and publication Published on the day of acceptance No page constraints Listed without delay in PubMed and deposited without embargo in PubMed Central and other secure archives

Open Access Publishing: the benefits(2) Authors retain copyright Authors are free to post their paper on the web and distribute it to colleagues Lower cost to Libraries and Institutions £330-£450 at input, compare this with the current $ aggregate publisher turnover per article, which the libraries collectively pay Authors can access download statistics Download stats for the last 30 days are displayed on the site, for the most-viewed articles Publicity Press releases for articles suitable for wider audience

Peer Review web-based user-friendly system for: Submission referees to view manuscripts and feed back comments to authors authors to track the progress of their manuscripts Rapid process: decision in 7 weeks, on average Peer reviewing is done in the traditional sense: 2 peer reviewers plus a statistician if necessary Open peer review for medical journals

“I was indeed pleased with the editorial process at BioMed Central. The review itself was excellent, as stringent as that I have received from any top level journal. […] Our paper is far better, thanks to the detailed and thoughtful input that we received. Maintaining this standard of excellence should rapidly place BioMed Central among the leading biomedical journals.” - Leonore A. Herzenberg Genetics Department, Beckman Center, Stanford University Medical School, Stanford, USA Peer Review

“I was very impressed by the quality of the reviews. They have truly added to making this a better paper. In addition, providing the reviewers name adds substantially to the quality. Often, one gets very short and wishy-washy reviews in addition to an editorial rejection - in cases like that, the entire submission process is basically a waste - I am glad that BioMed Central is not following such examples.” - Gerold Belper Departments of Medicine and Cancer Genetics Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, USA Peer Review

Open Peer review For BMC medical journals Improves quality and accountability Reward reviewers for their work Reviewers declare any financial competing interests Prepublication history Submitted versions Reviewers reports Authors revisions/responses Pre-publication history posted on web with published article

"In submitting to BMC Infectious Diseases, I was very pleased with the rapid turn-around and over-all efficiency of the submission and publication process. What I never expected, however, was the high calibre of the reviews and reviewers: superb constructive comments from some of the giants in my field." - Marek Smieja McMaster University Open Peer review

Citation/Indexing The following journals are being tracked by ISI and have impact factors Arthritis Research & Therapy impact factor: 5.0 BMC Cancer impact factor: 1.7 BMC Cell Biology impact factor 2.6 BMC Health Services Research impact factor 0.67 BMC Infectious Diseases impact factor: 1.25 BMC Public Health impact factor: 0.93 Breast Cancer Research impact factor: 2.9 Critical Care impact factor: 1.9 Current Controlled Trials in Cardiovascular Medicine impact factor: 3.12 The following journals are being tracked by ISI and will soon have impact factors Genome Biology Malaria Journal Respiratory Research BMC Microbiology BMC Molecular Biology BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders BMC Gastroenterology BMC Genetics BMC Genomics BMC Bioinformatics

Citing BioMed Central’s articles Times citedAuthorJournalReferenceDownloads 22Cannone JJBMC Bioinfor Bitko VBMC Microbiol Lutter MBMC Cell Biol Macameyer NBMC Genetics Reddy ASNBMC Genomics Li YBMC Mol Biol Rohrmann GFBMC Evol Biol Srinivas SBMC Immunol Chamorro MBMC Immunol Leila Fernandez (York University)

BioMed Central’s Institutional Membership Service offered to institutions to ensure widespread dissemination of research Processing charges automatically waived for all submissions to BioMed Central journals by researchers at member institutions 15% discount on BioMed Central’s subscription products Customised page on the BioMed Central site

BioMed Central’s members include: NHS England All Universities in the UK Cancer Research UK Harvard University, USA The NIH of the US Princeton University, USA University of California (all campuses) Yale University, USA Lund University, Sweden Max Plank Society, Germany World Health Organization, Switzerland L’Institut Pasteur, France CNRS, France INSERM, France La Sapienza, Italy McMaster University, Canada University of Toronto, Canada Kyoto University, Japan and more………

Support Open Access Spread the Word A set of potentially helpful tools ( Includes presentations, articles, posters, tailored messages to faculty colleagues, etc The objective is to use the resources to: help improve understanding and importance of open access publishing at your institution help gain the support of faculty colleagues at your institution for open access journals motivate colleagues to take action to publish their research in open access journals

How can you support Open Access? Authors Submit your articles to Open Access journals Users Visit and cite Open Access journals Librarians Take up institutional/corporate membership Add our URL to your intranet or web pages, catalogue our journals Funding bodies and tenure committees Recognise Open Access research papers and the ‘payment-at-input’ model All of the above Support Open Access - Spread the Word