See also Barbour V, Patterson M. Open access: the view of the Public Library of Science. This issue, pp 1450–3. Believers in open access (OA) argue that the subscription-based journal model is like a clot blocking the free-flow of scientific research to vital research organs and the public, cutting off the supply of ideas and innovations.But believers in traditional journals argue that, with a single cut, there is a real risk that scientific research will leak in an uncontrolled fashion that would be impossible to stem. The end result will be an undifferentiated pool of unreviewed research, which will, because of its lack of structure, not only halt the diffusion of innovation to the same vital research organs, but also challenge the viability of the whole body by affecting other systems, such as peer review and societies like the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis.I will argue for a delicately balanced system that allows research that is published in journals to flow to the organs that need it, rapidly and efficiently. But I will also argue for a process of evolution, not revolution, in a spirit of experimentation, to safeguard what works well now, but also to ensure that neither sustainability nor quality is compromised.Open access is when ‘the author grants to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use distribute, transcript, and display the work publicly in any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship’.‘Author-pays’ journals that allow anyone to access all articles for free. They do not levy subscription charges, but cover the cost of publication through subsidies, sponsorship, or by charging authors, the authors’ funding body or employer, a fee for publication.Institutional or subject repositories, which are online collections of materials, including research papers. They are often managed by a university, institution, or funding body, and tend not to offer peer review (leaving publishers to carry the cost of organizing the review process).From a purist's perspective, it generally manifests itself in two ways.Many ‘traditional’ publishers of journals, including societies, have also incorporated aspects of the OA debate into their own publishing, creating an array of hybrid experimental models.the library-funding crisis;that lack of access impedes research;the right to access publicly funded research;the needs of the developing world; andthe profits of scholarly societies and publishers.So where did OA come from? There are five strands to the OA argument:Librarians have been active proponents of OA because they see it as a solution to their funding crisis. They believe there are too many journals (around 20 000 peer-reviewed titles) publishing too many papers, and they are too expensive: so no library can possibly afford to stock them all.This volume of research comes from a research community that has been funded well in excess of inflation. Journal price increases correlate with increases in research funding, which feed through to an increase in the number of articles published. The European Union is targeting an increase to 3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for research and development (R&D) spend, and Asia is following fast, with Pakistan increasing the number of PhD students from 250 to 1000 graduating per year. Peer-reviewed article output could easily rise from 1.5 to 2.5 million articles in the next 5 years. Universities must decide whether to invest in research (generating grant income) or the dissemination of research. Library funding has been the casualty, with budgets falling from 4% of university expenditure to just 2%.Librarians and publishers have reacted by buying and selling e-journals in bulk: libraries club together to form consortia that buy e-journal collections from the large publishers. The ‘Big Deal’  has pros and cons, but it has exploded online access to journals at incremental cost. In the USA, between 1998 and 2003, R&D spend increased by an average of 9.15% per annum, while the Association of Research Libraries’ spending increased by an average of 7.16%, the unit price of journals increased by an average of just under 1%, and the number of titles subscribed to increased by an average of 5% .British Journal of Haematology, as an example, this translates into a circulation of around 10 000 libraries in academic research institutes, hospitals, and colleges. I would argue that there are very few institutions supporting research in hematology that do not have access to it, and thousands more with only a peripheral interest can now gain access where it was impossible only 5 years ago.Many publishers also license journals to aggregators, such as OVID and EBSCO, who then sell databases of content to libraries, and grant access to libraries in poorer countries through initiatives such as HINARI (see below). If we take a mature title, such as Journal prices are just one part of this equation. Librarians also have to tackle their other costs: for every $1 spent acquiring journals, another $2 is spent on overheads. Even if all journals became free tomorrow, the library-funding crisis would hit again within 10 years ), the American Diabetes Association, and the American Cancer Society create bespoke news pieces relating to important papers published in the hundreds of journals  of 23 medical publishers and societies [Why? The scholarly communication system is not designed for communication between researchers and the public. Better channels already exist to do that, including television, radio, newspapers, patient information from medical societies and charities, such as the World Federation of Hemophilia, a plethora of health websites, and last, but not least, actually talking to your doctor. To subvert a system created to enable peer-to-peer communication is not doing patients, or their relatives, any favors, especially when 90 million people in the USA have trouble understanding and acting on health information . A healtocieties .Journal (with a 20% response rate) just 36% felt that retaining copyright was either a ‘very important’ or an ‘important’ factor when choosing where to publish.The second bone of contention is that copyright should not be transferred to the publisher. To misquote Mizner: ‘If you steal from one author, it's plagiarism; if you steal from many, it's publishing’. Surveys show that authors do not attach much importance to retaining copyright in an article . It was For the small minority of authors who do care, or whose funder tells them to care, many journals and publishers now have more liberal copyright policies. A large proportion of Blackwell Publishing journals have, therefore, adopted an Exclusive Licence Form (ELF) in place of the old Copyright Assignment Form. With an ELF, the author retains the intellectual copyright but allows the journal to retain the commercial rights.Taxpayers do have a right to know where their taxes are spent, but strong-arming the entire journal system to conform jeopardizes the considerable amount of research that is not government-funded. Evidence shows that a third of authors (more than 50% in medicine) publish most of their work without external funding . A quoteJournal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis (JTH) authors are publicly funded? In the 16 issues from January 2005 to April 2006, 42% of the articles were written by authors who did not cite any funding support. From the JTH survey 39% said their work was either only partially funded or completely unfunded. Of the more than 250 sources of funding for JTH papers, the NIH funded 78 of the 736 items published in the same period. That is 11%, and confirms a very dispersed source of funding dominated by small charities, or researchers cobbling together the funds to support their own work. The prospect of all authors paying for publication simply is not an option.How many Authors do not want to (and indeed most cannot afford to) pay for the cost of publication; they think that a greater burden should be borne by research funders, sponsors, and government .Let us take the world's largest funder of biomedical research: the NIH. The cost to the USA taxpayer of PubMed Central (PMC) was $1 million in 2005, and would be $3.5 million if there was full compliance, with every NIH-funded researcher depositing articles as requested . As Ann The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society has endured for 341 years.So if a diverse funding base is a good thing for dissemination, take JTH as an example. It has more than 250 separate sources of funding, and more than 60% of these funded just one paper from a wide range of institutions and universities. The cost of implementing an institutional repository in a university on DSpace (open-source software requested by MIT for archiving eprints and other kinds of academic content) is reckoned to be in excess of $50 000. Given that libraries across the globe are now gearing up to launch institutional repositories, it is easy to see how these costs can escalate. If each institution takes responsibility for disseminating its research, this could lead to a very fragmented research base, and as a consequence some research might be lost. Even if Google™ Scholar can retrieve most of it now, who knows what will happen in 10 years’ time, when an institution might decide that it can no longer support the financial burden? We have to be absolutely certain that the systems advocated by OA will survive the vagaries of current political and taxpayer opinion: the full-text of the world's first English language journal, Open access to research literature would significantly improve the quality of health care and scientific research in some of the world's poorest nations, or so the story goes. So, what about HINARI, the Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative that is jointly administered with the World Health Organization? This philanthropic initiative was launched in 2002, and makes available online across 1590 institutions in 113 countries, over 3230 journals from more than 60 publishers, including JTH and 210 other Blackwell medical journals [Subscription-based publishers are working through HINARI and other similar organizations on helping with training and infrastructure.At least some of the OA fervor derives from the perception that publishers and societies are making unjustifiable profits from journal publishing. There are thousands of journals published by societies, not-for-profits, and ‘commercial’ companies. Blackwell, for example, is the world's leading publisher for societies and ‘is viewed, by some, as an “honorary not-for-profit publisher”’ . Many soBlackwell Publishing's research shows that receipt of the society's journal is seen as one of the top two benefits of membership, along with the society conference. Without this member benefit and income from the journal, some societies may well close, and it is not clear whether government, universities or healthcare providers will fund these other invaluable services. Some societies will seek other sources of income, which could include significant sponsorships from the pharmaceutical industry. Many question whether this level of financial dependence would be healthy.Not surprisingly, therefore, societies are asking for caution in the rush to provide OA. Before we throw out the ‘baby with the bathwater’, we need to be quite sure that this new model of scholarly communication will be sustainable.Sustainability is a vital question in this debate, as is the recognition that there is a cost that has to be met by someone. OA supporters have thrown two new models into the publishing mix to try and ensure more equitable dissemination of research: the ‘author-pays’ model and self-archiving. Taken in isolation, neither of these will create a system that is demonstrably superior. Existing journals and publishers, however, have incorporated these two models into their own traditional approaches, creating hybrids that offer potentially viable compromises.The awareness of author-pays OA journals among the author community is rising: across a range of disciplines 30% claim to know ‘quite a lot’ or ‘a lot’ (12% more than a year ago) .So how do these perceptions stack up against reality and what is the uptake in the field of thrombosis and hemostasis?Thrombosis Journal, and the Journal of Atherosclerosis and Thrombosis. In 2005, these two titles published 76 items: this represents 14% of what JTH published in the same period, less than two issues, or just 2% of the 3500 thrombosis and hemostasis papers published in 2005 within journals listed in the ISI database. So the uptake seems remarkably low, perhaps suggesting that authors may think they are publishing in OA journals when in fact they are not.The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) contained 2127 author-pays titles on March 20, 2006 . A searcThe Facts about Open Access, which surveyed almost 500 full OA titles, it transpires that of the journals surveyed:52% of OA journals do not raise any author-side charges at all, and are far more dependent on other sources of income, such as advertising and sponsorship;over 40% of OA journals are not yet covering their costs: financial viability was often a low priority;the journals had substantially lower rates of article submission , but were less selective, with acceptance rates of over 50% ;only 72%of articles in OA journals were copy-edited , and OA journals tended to rely heavily on internal editorial staff for peer review (of around 28% of their papers).How do these author-pays journals compare to their more traditional competitors? There has only been one extensive comparison of OA journals, commissioned by the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers, HighWire Press, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, with contributions from the Association of American Medical Colleges . In The These data present a picture of fledgling titles that are struggling to impose themselves on the academic landscape. There is little evidence, so far at least, that the author-pays model is creating a sustainable challenge to the subscription model.Faced with a hand-to-mouth existence, it is easy to see why ‘traditionalists’ fear that author-pays will ultimately lead to a reduction in standards: if costs cannot be covered by author fees from high-quality papers, then why not publish lower quality articles instead?The author-pays model discriminates against researchers without grant funding. Ironically, it also discriminates against researchers from low-income countries, who cannot afford the fees. Some OA journals waive these fees, but for how long can that continue in the absence of a viable and sustainable business model?Many funding agencies now require authors to retain copyright and to make their articles available in a repository, usually within 6–12 months of publication –16.To date, the rate of compliance has been low. Recently, the NIH reported that <4% (1636) of the articles eligible (43 000) for submission in the first 8 months had, in fact, been deposited in PMC. This excludes the 5400 articles published in regular PMC participants, which are deposited automatically. The NIH says‘lack of awareness does not appear to be the primary reason for the low submission rate’ . But theATVB (five), Blood (11), and Thrombosis & Haemostasis (two). Interestingly, two papers from JTH had been published within the last 12 months, and should not have been deposited by the authors (infringing the embargo period specified by JTH). Our survey of JTH authors and readers showed that 16% claimed to have deposited an article in an institutional repository – while a significant minority (27%) said they had no intention of depositing articles in the future.There were 2288 authors’ manuscripts deposited in PMC on April 10, 2006. Of these, six were from JTH, and a handful from Awareness of institutional repositories is far lower in JTH authors and readers than it is for author-pays OA: just 13% of respondents claimed to know ‘a little’ or ‘a lot’. This leaves an overwhelming 87% knowing ‘a little’ or ‘nothing at all’. Only 35% of JTH respondents thought repositories would be either ‘very likely’ or ‘quite likely’ to undermine the existing journal system (vs. 57% for author-pays).This is ironic because ‘traditional’ publishers are far more concerned about the long-term impact of institutional repositories than the author-pays model. Imagine a scenario where approaching 100% of JTH papers are in open archives and available for free. Publishers argue that free online availability of large tracts of research literature is bound to lead to a large-scale move away from libraries paying subscriptions. And it is not just publishers that have made this connection. The Wellcome Trust points out that ‘If any kind of open archive is established, a subscriber-pays system cannot easily survive’. They add that ‘in the medium to long term therefore, that is, the time it will take to establish an effective open archive or series of interlinked, searchable open archives… the question facing journal publishers is not whether to offer OA or not, but how to position their journals so that they are able to continue to play an important part in a world in which OA, through an open archive and very cheap or free document delivery, is the norm’ .So if you think that mass extinction of journals is an overstatement, then think again. Environmental challenge is a great promoter of evolutionary change, so existing journals, publishers, and societies are now working hard to respond in ways that do not completely undermine their sustainability.The Facts about Open Access lists 14 different flavors of publishing model that are being tested out by established journals, mixing subscriptions with full OA and support from author fees, delayed OA, free or charging for archival content, institutional memberships, grants, industry sponsorship, and advertising [ertising .selected important articles are free online from the time of publication;full-text articles should be available within months of publication (may be up to 1 year);research articles should be free to scientists in low-income nations;content should be available for indexing by major search engines so that readers worldwide can easily locate information; anddevelopment of long-term preservation solutions.A group of mainly North American not-for-profit medical and scientific societies and publishers, known as the DC Principles Group, responded by announcing the Washington, DC Principles for Free Access to Science in 2004 . These iMost Blackwell journals also impose an embargo period, which in the case of JTH is 12 months, during which authors may not deposit their article in a repository. The relative usage of JTH articles after publication is a curve typical of most biomedical titles, in which there is a spike of usage in the first 12 months, trailing off thereafter. The ISTH, therefore, decided that a 12 month embargo period would protect subscriptions and allow scientists to comply with the requirements imposed by their funders.In addition, Blackwell Publishing launched Online Open in 2005, which is an equivalent of the author-pays model. For the fee of $2500 the author is assured of full OA to the article immediately after publication. Online Open is an ongoing experiment in which 82 journals are participating (not including JTH). To date 17 papers have been published and a further 47 are in press. To put this into perspective, this represents <0.01% of the total papers published by Blackwell in 2005.Publishers and societies are making strenuous efforts to find new ways of optimizing the publication and free-flow of research. But the threat to journals, whether intended or not, is real. If journals were to become extinct tomorrow, how would the academic community have to pick up the pieces? Put another way, the activity of ‘publishing’ in the context of the scholarly communication system has a cost that will continue regardless of the existence of journals or publishers – so what value do publishers and journals add?In 2005, 3500 papers were published in the area of thrombosis and hemostasis. Disregarding those rejected for publication, and assuming that each accepted paper had an average of two peer reviewers, the research community performed at least 7000 reviews. And they did it quickly in many cases – averaging 28 days to a first decision for JTH. The net result was a research pool that was better presented, sparing the community the trouble of reading some work that was, frankly, not up to scratch.JTH authors value peer review very highly when considering where to publish, with 96% citing it as a ‘very’ or ‘quite important’ factor. Taking journals out of the equation altogether, will 7000 individual reviews spontaneously happen in a timely and orderly fashion? I think not.Even then, peer review is only part of the editorial process. A good journal is much more than the sum of its parts. JTH publishes a wide variety of information in a range of formats including debates, reviews, and commentaries, which are actively commissioned and chased up by the editorial team. For many readers these are more important than the original research.In JTH, 60% of papers come from more than 40 non-English speaking countries. In some cases, journal editors see the germ of quality research that is obscured by unclear English, and work with the author to improve its presentation. In a low-cost database world, this research would be passed over as most readers cannot invest the same effort.Then there is the typesetting to create the pages that 58% of JTH readers find online but printout to read. Typesetting also introduces a wealth of content-tagging to create electronic files that link to other content, including external databases. And what of printed journals? Most OA advocates assume print will disappear, but it is still wanted by many customers. Several studies have shown that medical faculty still value print above online journals, because they are more mobile and less fixed to a single desk in a laboratory.Open access databases could perform search and retrieve as well as any journal, but journals are a shorthand for value and an understanding of what is and is not worth reading. Even the Wellcome Trust concedes that: ‘Journals provide a framework through which readers assess the value of articles and it is difficult to conceive of a system without a journal-like institution. A collection of articles without the quality measure given by publication in a journal would be less valuable. Articles could be individually kite-marked but readers would not have the sense of perspective and orientation which a journal gives and, without the journal, search costs for readers would be much higher’ .Researchers attach great value to being able to reach deeply into specialist readerships for their articles . In our Finally, like it or not, journals have an established role in the assessment of research impact and productivity. But it is more than simple metrics: researchers and their employers want their high-quality efforts to rub shoulders with other quality work, with a stamp of approval from accredited experts. Publishers and societies have spent decades building the quality of their journals, establishing their reputations and brands.Any researcher can publish on the web – but what authors want more than anything else is the peer recognition, which is why 98% of JTH authors value journal reputation above every other factor when choosing where to publish.I have argued that journals are not the principal barrier to the free-flow of scientific research. Library budgets need to match investments in R&D. Research funding needs to be better organized, and red tape cut. The IT infrastructure in the developing world needs to be upgraded. The public need patient-friendly information about government-funded research.The OA debate has focused on two solutions, neither of which creates a viable, sustainable business model proven to be more effective than the current system. Author-pays journals discriminate against unfunded researchers, from the developed or developing world. Very few OA journals are financially viable without donations and sponsorships. Self-archiving could seriously undermine subscription-based journals, risking the loss of decades of quality-controlled expertise in publishing high quality, peer-reviewed content. The funders of research are not necessarily the best guardians of it in the longer term, and research will become fragmented and more time-consuming to sift.Meanwhile, societies and publishers are energetically engaging in the debate and have begun active experimentation with a range of business models. As the Royal Society says: ‘The worst-case scenario is that funders could force a rapid change in practice, which encourages the introduction of new journals, archives and repositories that cannot be sustained in the long term, but which simultaneously forces the closure of existing peer-reviewed journals that have a long-track record for gradually evolving in response to the needs of the research community over the past 340 years. That would be disastrous for the research community’ .


Substance Abuse, Treatment, Prevention, and Policy uses a medium that provides the broadest possible worldwide readership. Anyone in the world can read articles without charge. Since the articles published here will hopefully help inform policy this is exactly the right target – free and unlimited access. Beginning July 2006, article-processing charges will be applied to papers published in this journal. Substance Abuse, Treatment, Prevention, and Policy uses a medium that provides the broadest possible worldwide readership. Articles can be freely read by anyone in the world without charge. Since the articles published here will hopefully help inform policy this is exactly the right target.The traditional strategy for disseminating work has been to publish in paper journals that charge the readers directly or through society memberships. Typically, academicians subscribe to a few journals within their own specialized area. Articles within those journals are often aimed to a narrow audience and consequently, the articles are not widely read outside the particular field. Open access is an alternative.Material in open access journals is equally available to anyone, anywhere free of charge at the time of publication. This fact alone is a huge advantage for this journal and for the authors. Since we aim to affect policy, the work here absolutely has to cross over and breakdown boundaries. Readers have access to this journal regardless of the financial resources of their region, libraries, or universities. Furthermore, common web searches such as through Google or Yahoo will point to relevant and freely accessible papers within the journal.There are other advantages. Authors retain the copyright for their own work. Articles are indexed in PubMed immediately on publication . FurtherAs with traditional publishing, open access publishing has underlying costs. To continue to fund open access publication, from July 2006, an article-processing charge (APC) will be levied on articles accepted for publication. Submitted articles that are not accepted will incur no charge.Article processing charges pay for developing and maintaining electronic tools for peer review and publication, preparation in various formats for online publication, securing inclusion in PubMed as soon as possible after publication, securing full text inclusion in a number of permanent archives such as PubMed Central, securing inclusion in CrossRef , and of course for immediate world-wide barrier-free open access to the full text.The APC will be covered in full or part if authors come from one of BioMed Central's member institutes , and manThe Editors will consider applications for waivers of the APC on a case-by-case basis, and we will do our best to support authors in instances of genuine financial hardship. We understand the APC may be steep for an out of pocket expense.Work of the Editors, editorial board and peer-reviewers is voluntary and unpaid. We have, however, sought funding to ensure we can support a number of APC waivers. The Iowa Consortium for Substance Abuse Research and Evaluation  has donaAuthors, readers, and editorial board members can suggest external funding sources to help grant waivers. The foundation might be from regional or otherwise specialized focus , and we can try to accommodate that. Please send your suggestions to the editor.We are committed to furthering open access in the field of substance abuse, to reach the widest audience possible, and to inform policy. We hope that you will support this cause by submitting your next article to an open access journal.The author(s) declare that they have no competing interests.


Journal of Biomedical Discovery and Collaboration was created to provide, for the first time, a unified forum to consider all factors that affect scientific practice and scientific discovery – with an emphasis on the changing face of contemporary biomedical science. In this endeavor we are bringing together three different groups of scholars: a) laboratory investigators, who make the discoveries that are the currency of the scientific enterprise; b) computer science and informatics investigators, who devise tools for data analysis, mining, visualization and integration; and c) social scientists, including sociologists, historians, and philosophers, who study scientific practice, collaboration, and information needs. We will publish original research articles, case studies, focus pieces, reviews, and software articles. All articles in the Journal of Biomedical Discovery and Collaboration will be peer reviewed, published immediately upon acceptance, freely available online via open access, and archived in PubMed Central and other international full-text repositories.The  As well, research and training are becoming less organized along traditional disciplines (such as pharmacology) and more organized according to problem areas (such as cancer research). Efforts are increasingly devoted, not to testing specific hypotheses, but to searching for promising hypotheses; for example, there are many ideas on what causes schizophrenia, but none are formulated so precisely that any particular experiment can currently test or falsify them. An increasingly important source of new discovery involves data mining – analyzing and re-analyzing raw data that reside in genomic and other databases. Just as the solo medical practitioner has largely been replaced by medical organizations, so is the solo investigator becoming incorporated into large multidisciplinary teams  was created to provide, for the first time, a unified forum to consider all factors that affect scientific practice and scientific discovery – with an emphasis on the changing face of contemporary biomedical science. In this endeavor we are bringing together three different groups of scholars:The ▪ Laboratory investigators, who make the discoveries that are the currency of the scientific enterprise.▪ Computer science and informatics investigators, who devise tools for data analysis, mining, visualization and integration.▪ Social scientists, including sociologists, historians, and philosophers, who study scientific practice, collaboration, and information needs.Journal of Biomedical Discovery and Collaboration will provide a venue for discussion and community-building that does not exist elsewhere.In the world of sports, different disciplines work together closely so that elite athletes can break Olympic records: There are those who devise the tools , those who run the races (the athletes) and those who study athletic performance (exercise physiologists and nutritionists). Yet, the three groups studying scientific practice have operated largely in isolation from each other – having appointments in different colleges, attending different meetings and publishing in different journals. The 'discovery notes', which describe literature-based discovery or data mining findings that follow systematic methodology and that make clear, testable, nontrivial experimental predictions that deserve the attention of a wide community of scientists.These include scholarly studies of scientific practice, information needs, tool development, scientific rhetoric, bibliometrics, data representation methods, and other related topics. Researchers are also encouraged to submit These describe the structure and programs of individual laboratories, research groups or training programs – how they attempt to foster discovery and collaboration, how this is monitored, lessons learned, and roadblocks to productivity.'discovery diaries', which document the "unexpurgated" story behind a specific experimental study that was previously published in the peer-reviewed literature. What really happened, in what order? What were the relative roles of factors such as hypothesis, policy, collaboration, chance, error, rhetoric, critical pieces of information, and new methods?These focus attention on important issues and aim to provoke discussion either by the phrasing of new hypotheses, alternative interpretations of existing work, or by the presentation of new proposals for tackling existing problems. They also provide an opportunity for scientists to publish These are comprehensive, authoritative, descriptions of any subject within the scope of the journal. These articles are usually written by opinion leaders that have been invited by the Editorial Board.These describe tools designed to enhance productivity, data mining, creative thinking, data synthesis, and collaborative work. The tools must be available to the public, and need not necessarily be specific to scientific work but should be applicable to scientists. The article must contain some formal evaluation, either of system performance or of user behavior.Peer review is more important than ever. Although online journals are not forced to reject papers due to space limitations, authors and readers alike deserve to have confidence that papers published in the JBDC will be readable and will meet high standards of quality. The JBDC is supported by an outstanding international Editorial Board . All proJournal of Biomedical Discovery and Collaboration? The first reason is that articles will have high visibility. We intend the JBDC to become the preferred venue for the best papers discussing scientific practice and the factors that affect scientific discovery. Second, papers will be published immediately upon acceptance – blazing fast compared to some established print journals where the backlog may be 12–14 months. Third, and perhaps most important, open access articles have a much higher circulation than any traditional disciplinary or specialty journal. Open access ensures that anyone in the world can read the full-text of articles without cost, regardless of their library holdings or subscriptions, both now and in the future. Papers appearing in the Journal of Biomedical Discovery and Collaboration will truly have multidisciplinary and international scope. They will be archived permanently in PubMed Central and other international repositories [Why publish in the sitories . If MendIt takes courage to submit an article to a new journal based on a new model of open access publishing – probably the same kind of courage it takes to undertake bold experiments in a new field of investigation. We invite you to embark on this adventure with us!


Plant Methods occupies a unique niche amongst plant journals. To fund its open access policy, and to enable it to continue to serve the plant sciences community, Plant Methods will be introducing an article processing charge (APC) from March 1st 2006. This charge will cover the costs of making the article freely and universally accessible online and the costs involved in its inclusion in PubMed and its archiving in public repositories. In some circumstances, waivers of the APC may be granted and authors whose institutions are BioMed Central members will incur no, or reduced, charges.As an Open Access journal dedicated to promoting technological innovation in plant biology,  Plant Methods is breaking new ground in plant science publishing by providing an open access outlet for refereed articles specifically devoted to technological innovation in plant biology. Plant Methods is published by BioMed Central and all its content is universally and freely available online to everyone, its authors retain copyright, and it is archived in PubMed Central [ Central .The traditional model for scientific publishing is that readers pay to access articles, either through subscriptions or by paying a fee each time they download an article. These access charges inevitably limit how many will be able to read, use and cite the articles. Furthermore, while the perception may be that traditional journals do not charge authors for publication, it is common for them to levy a fee for colour figures – and many additionally impose page charges.Plant Methods' articles are archived in PubMed Central [Open access changes the way in which articles are published. First, all articles become freely and universally accessible online, and so an author's work can be read by anyone at no cost. Second, the authors hold copyright for their work and grant anyone the right to reproduce and disseminate the article, provided that it is correctly cited and no errors are introduced . Third,  Central , the US  Central  in Germa Central  in Franc Central , the NatOpen access has four broad benefits for science and the general public.• First, authors are assured that their work is disseminated to the widest possible audience, given that there are no barriers to access their work. This is accentuated by the authors being free to reproduce and distribute their work, for example by placing it on their institution's website. Open access journals reach a much larger set of readers than any subscription-based journal, in print and online . Some st• Second, the information available to readers will not be limited by their library's budget, and the widespread availability of articles will enhance literature searching .• Third, the results of publicly funded research will be accessible to all taxpayers and not just those with access to a library with a subscription. As such, open access could help to increase public interest in, and support of, research.• Fourth, a country's economy will not influence its researchers' ability to access articles because resource-poor countries (and institutions) will be able to read the same material as wealthier ones.Plant Methods will be asked to pay an article-processing charge (APC) of £750. This will apply to articles submitted from March 1st 2006. These APCs will allow continued open access to all of Plant Methods' articles. Waiver requests will be considered by the Editor-in-Chief on a case-by-case basis. If an author is affiliated to a BMC member institute, the institute will cover all or a portion of the APC. Current member institutions are listed here . No charge is made for articles that are rejected after peer review. Many funding agencies have also realized the importance of open access publishing and have specified that their grants may be used directly to pay APCs .To fund its open access policy, authors of articles accepted for publication in Plant Methods will not levy additional page or colour charges, which in other journals can easily exceed £750. Indeed, with the article being published online only, any number of colour figures and photographs can be included, at no extra cost.The APC pays for efficient and thorough peer review, for the article to be freely and universally accessible in various formats online, and for the processes required for inclusion in PubMed and archiving in PubMed Central, e-Depot, Potsdam and INIST. Although £750 may seem expensive, it must be remembered that  Plant Methods and other BioMed Central journals are not alone in the move to open access funded by APCs. For example, the Public Library of Science has set up new open access journals, and have elected to set APCs of US$1500 for each accepted article [Although several journals now offer free access to their articles online, this is different from open access (as defined by the Bethesda Statement ). Journa article . Given t article , the higPlant Methods will be able to continue serving the community of plant biologists by promoting technological innovation in the plant sciences. If you have recently devised a novel protocol or research tool that you think may be of value to other plant biologists, we invite you to support this exciting new initiative by submitting your paper to Plant Methods.It is only through the instigation of article processing charges that APC = article-processing charge.


Implementation research is the scientific study of methods to promote the systematic uptake of research findings and other evidence-based practices into routine practice, and, hence, to improve the quality and effectiveness of health services and care. This relatively new field includes the study of influences on healthcare professional and organisational behaviour.Implementation Science will encompass all aspects of research in this field, in clinical, community and policy contexts. This online journal will provide a unique platform for this type of research and will publish a broad range of articles – study protocols, debate, theoretical and conceptual articles, rigorous evaluations of the process of change, and articles on methodology and rigorously developed tools – that will enhance the development and refinement of implementation research. No one discipline, research design, or paradigm will be favoured.Implementation Science looks forward to receiving manuscripts that facilitate the continued development of the field, and contribute to healthcare policy and practice. Research continually produces new findings that can contribute to effective and efficient healthcare. However, such research cannot change outcomes unless health services and healthcare professionals adopt the findings into practice. Uneven uptake of research findings – and thus inappropriate care – occurs across settings, specialities and countries -3.Implementation research is the scientific study of methods to promote the systematic uptake of research findings and other evidence-based practices into routine practice, and, hence, to improve the quality and effectiveness of health services. It includes the study of influences on healthcare professional and organisational behaviour.Implementation Science will provide a flagship home for this specialized area of research.Recent years have seen the rapid and continuing development of "implementation science", but this has not been accompanied by any dedicated journals. This has hampered the field in three ways. Firstly, implementation research articles are scattered across a wide range of journals, including clinical, public health, health services, and healthcare quality/safety journals. As a result, articles are often difficult to locate, and the breadth of the field is not easily understood. Implementation Science will encompass all aspects of research relevant to the scientific study of methods to promote the uptake of research findings into routine settings in clinical, community and policy contexts. Therefore, in addition to articles reporting final results, Implementation Science will publish a broad range of other types of articles, such as: study protocols, debate, theoretical and conceptual articles, rigorous evaluations and reports on the process of change, and articles on methodology and rigorously developed tools. No one discipline, research design, or paradigm will be favoured. The criteria for publication will be relevance to the field, scientific quality, and, as an international journal, generalisability. In pursuit of this end, we are supported by an international, multidisciplinary Editorial Board .Secondly, publication to date has usually been restricted to the final reporting of studies with little or no opportunity to describe the important contextual, developmental and supporting work that would allow for a better interpretation of results and enhance the likelihood of successful replication of an intervention. Implementation Science will be free of such restrictions and will make rapid publication decisions on the basis of the criteria described above. Therefore, articles will be published online immediately upon acceptance (following peer review) and will soon after be listed in PubMed.Finally, paper-based journals are bound by the limitations of issue length and frequency. As an electronic journal, Implementation Science follows the open access policy, changing the way in which articles are published. All articles are freely and universally accessible online, so an author's work can be read by anyone at no cost. The authors hold copyright for their work and may grant anyone the right to reproduce and disseminate the article, provided that it is correctly cited and no errors are introduced [Implementation Science articles are archived in several locations, including: PubMed Central [troduced . Further Central , the US  Central  in Germa Central  in Franc Central  – the NaOpen access has four broad benefits for science and the general public. First, authors are assured that their work is disseminated to the widest possible audience, given that there are no access barriers. This is accentuated by the authors' right to freely reproduce and distribute their work; for example, by placing it on their institution's website. Second, the information available to researchers will not be limited by their library's budget; the widespread availability of articles will enhance literature searching and use . Third, Implementation Science will offer several features to enhance its value and role in strengthening the field. Timely announcements of new funding opportunities and significant events  will facilitate broad awareness and access to these resources. The publication of conference proceedings and special issues highlighting specific research programs will broaden access to their insights and contributions, for larger audiences.Several types of planned thematic articles also will strengthen the field. Articles assessing the state of the science, as well as the barriers and challenges researchers face, will facilitate the development of effective solutions, such as new theories, frameworks, and research standards, approaches and methods. Other planned thematic articles will offer practical guidance and insights to implementation researchers. The series labelled "The Practice of Implementation Science" will offer practical, science-based guidance to researchers facing the need to select among available theories, frameworks, research approaches and designs, methods and other options. A planned series of articles written by implementation research users (in the policy and practice communities) will offer implementation researchers insights into the needs, values and preferences of these stakeholders. Enhancing communication between implementation researchers and implementation research users represents an important goal of the journal.Implementation Science a success, through submission of articles, ideas for journal features and content, and involvement in journal activities such as peer reviewing. We look forward to your involvement and suggestions for improving the journal as it develops.On behalf of the Editorial Board, we hope you will support us in our efforts to make The author(s) declare that they have no competing interests.


Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, published by BioMedCentral, with the aim of establishing a serious, peer-reviewed, open-access online journal that focuses on the multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary fields of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine, drawing on approaches and methods from both the social and biological sciences. The strong start vindicates the widely held belief that the journal responds to a real need within the research community.Last summer we officially launched the open-minded scientific journal in these research areas. Our aim has been to dedicate JEE to the "scientific communities" worldwide, particularly those in the developing countries.The success of the journal has been most gratifying. The steady influx of submissions of high scientific standards illustrates the strong demand for a dynamic, proactive, and  Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine (JEE) [multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary fields of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine, drawing on approaches and methods from both the social and biological sciences. The strong start vindicates the widely-held belief that the journal responds to a real need within the research community.Last summer we officially launched the ne (JEE) , which iopen-minded scientific journal in these research areas. Our aim has been to dedicate JEE to the "scientific communities" worldwide, particularly those in the developing countries.The success of the journal has been most gratifying. The steady influx of submissions of high scientific standards illustrates the strong demand for a dynamic, proactive, and After our launch period ends on February 1st 2006, the journal will be introducing article-processing charges (APC) to cover the costs of publication. These charges will be partly or completely waived for all authors whose institutions are members of BioMedCentral and for scholars in developing countries who are experiencing financial hardship.Journal of Ethnopharmacology [A recent editorial in the macology , whose bII. No information about the ethnographic background of the study or about the methods used.IV. The ethnopharmacological frame of reference/theory that forms the basis of the study is not spelled out; e.g. no information about how disease diagnosis and practices related to specific plant medical uses were observed and verified.V. No information on the protection of the biodiversity rights of indigenous people or local government.Journal of Ethnopharmacology, apart from using a confusing phrasing (ethnographic background and methodologies are not necessarily the same things) have underlined the crucial issue of methodology to be followed during ethnoscientific field studies and how these should serve truly hypothesis-driven research aims and objectives.In stating these criteria, the editors of the each contracting party shall, as far as possible and as appropriate, subject to its national legislation, respect, preserve and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, and promote their wider application with the approval and involvement of the holders of such knowledge, innovations and practices, and encourage the equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of such knowledge, innovations and practices.On the other hand, a "right of biodiversity to be protected" is very difficult to sustain, at least when expressed in such a form; article 8 (j) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CDB)  states iThis article of the CDB invites us – much more than to establish further obscure "legal frameworks" – to actively interact with the local communities and all those who retain Traditional Knowledge for finding common strategies and pathways, aimed to improve that common "well-being", which at the end should be the ultimate aim of every scientist.Economic Botany [Further, an open editorial letter recently published in c Botany , a princThese examples demonstrate how the JEE's broad scope has the potential to attract huge interest within the entire botanical/biological, medical/health and social-scientific communities, and beyond them, but at the same time how difficult it sometimes can be within our (often) secluded academic circuits to keep up with the dynamic changes taking place outside of the scientific community, and especially at the interface between science and society (societies) at large.I am referring here especially to the crucial issue of the dissemination strategies of the research outputs beyond academia and the very rapidly changing panorama of scientific publishing.how people perceive and conceptualise nature, health  or othewidely and freely disseminated.More importantly, ethnobiology and ethnomedicine now have the chance to change political agendas and to capture the attention of many stakeholders in environmental and health sectors, but only if their sciences, knowledge, practices, experiences, and "know-how" are In articles so far published in JEE authors have addressed these issues very well in their research on such diverse topics as the role of traditional healers as psychosocial supporters in caring for orphans in Dar-es Salaam city , the proWe aim to continue offering JEE as a forum to the wider ethnobiology and ethnomedicine communities throughout the globe. We also aim to turn JEE into a crucial instrument capable to provide analysis and insights for environmentalists, physicians, veterinarians, health-care specialists, development workers, policy makers, and "civil societies", paying special attention to what is going on in the developing countries.We once again draw your attention to the fact that our publisher, BioMed Central, is introducing article-processing charges (APCs) from February 1st 2006 onwards to recover the cost of publication. APCs are essential for the sustainability of open-access publishing in general and for the success of JEE in particular. Authors should note that open access, made economically viable through APCs, has many advantages over the traditional subscription model with its restrictions on access and the dissemination of knowledge. Authors must be painfully aware that the existence of subscriptions does not exclude page and/or colour charges.In the open-access model, authors continue to retain copyright ownership of their publications and they do not have to be concerned about the length of their manuscripts or the number of figures and tables as the APC is based on a flat rate. The use of colours does not incur any additional charges, and all articles are archived in perpetuity in the US NIH's PubMed Central and other archives and repositories, with free access over the world -wide web.Authors affiliated with institutional members of BioMed Central (at present there are over 500 ) will coThe past six months have been an exciting, fruitful and successful start-up period for JEE. I would like to thank the journal's Editorial Board and all the authors who have shown such great trust in our new initiative.


Journal of Brachial Plexus and Peripheral Nerve Injury [Today marks the publication date of the inaugural issue of the e Injury . My immeOur aim is that the journal will be the pre-eminent repository of knowledge for brachial plexus and peripheral nerve injury science. Injury in this context does not imply trauma alone, but any derangement of the anatomy, physiology or biochemistry that results in an altered state of functioning, truly an unlimited scope for a fascinating and important field.The journal is in open access format, in my view the only relevant such model in these times where information must be freely available to all. The traditional subscription-based model inherently denies free access to knowledge and seems contrary to the spirit of scientific thought. In support of this concept, we have arranged with BioMed Central to subsidize the costs of publication for the first two years of publication. Therefore, there are no barriers to publication of high quality science or to access to this knowledge.It is very important to note that all submissions, upon approval by our peer review process, are immediately indexed in PubMed and archived in PubMed Central, the full-text repository of the United States National Library of Science. Many other growing indexers such as Google Scholar will also display our articles, making them more widely read and accessible than any other system. Our goal is to have a rapid peer review process, and we will make every effort to make an initial decision within 6 weeks of submission.The peer review process will match knowledgeable reviewers with submitted manuscripts to produce high quality articles of interest and scientific merit. The process is confidential so that criticisms and revisions are made in the fairest manner possible. The final decision on publication will be made by the editors in chief.We will look for submissions of interesting and important scientific information that hopefully will have clinical application. This focus does not deny the relevance of basic research, it embraces it: the future of nerve injury management lies in manipulation of molecular mechanisms, less so in classic surgical and medicinal treatments. Whether there are obvious clinical implications or not, high quality research of all types will be nurtured and presented with pride in the journal.One of the main goals of our endeavor is to cultivate cross disciplinary dialogues to enhance our understanding of mechanisms and to develop strategies for treatment of various disorders. As an example, a neurologist may be interested to know the potential application of surgical techniques such as nerve transfer to upper motor neuron lesions like stroke that are not fully treatable with medicines; conversely, surgeons should be aware of potential sensory and motor imbalances typically see by neurologists which may be candidates for surgical treatment. And both groups will enhance their management of patients by knowledge of breakthroughs in underlying molecular mechanisms.Journal of Brachial Plexus and Peripheral Nerve Injury, there has been no single, dedicated place to discuss these critical issues. We have the opportunity to improve the quality of life of so many people in developing countries and otherwise disadvantaged situations. The talent and determination of our readers is a resource with unlimited potential and we have this as a motive to produce and foster new scientific thought for the benefit of the community affected by brachial plexus and nerve injury. This is the most exciting concept of all.Prior to today's inauguration Journal of Brachial Plexus and Peripheral Nerve Injury and for the International Society for Brachial Plexus and Peripheral Nerve Injury [I look forward to a most interesting future for e Injury . Our edi


Scoliosis is the brainchild of a dedicated group of researchers and clinicians. In September 2003 Dr. Manuel Rigo invited leading specialists on conservative treatment of scoliosis from all over the world to Barcelona, for the first International Conference on Conservative Management of Spinal Deformities. The meeting took place in January 2004 and has to be regarded as a great success. During this meeting the Study Group On Spinal Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation Treatment (SOSORT) was founded as a working group and it was decided to prepare a consensus meeting in Milan 2005. During this meeting, hosted by Dr. Stefano Negrini, a decision was made to establish the working group as a society with a formal website  and an official peer reviewed journal. This, in short, is the history of Scoliosis.Scoliosis is dedicated to multidisciplinary research on prevention, control, and treatment of scoliosis and other spinal deformities. Scoliosis was described in the Hippocratic Collection (500 B.C.) and has clinical implications for a wide range of disciplines, including biomechanics, epidemiology, exercise physiology, physical therapy, orthopaedics, osteopathy, physiatry, psychology, and respiratory science. The following contributions are welcome: research, reviews, methodology articles, and case reports. The journal will also publish "technical notes" that focus on new technical developments in the field of physiotherapy, rehabilitation and orthotics.Scoliosis is published by BioMed Central, an independent publisher committed to ensuring peer-reviewed biomedical research is open access. Articles will be freely and universally accessible online, and archived in several internationally recognized free access repositories, including PubMed Central, the US National Library of Medicine's full-text repository of life science literature, and repositories at the University of Potsdam in Germany, at INIST in France, and in e-Depot, the National Library of the Netherlands' digital archive of all electronic publications. Authors publishing in the journal retain copyright, allowing anyone to reproduce or disseminate articles, according to the BioMed Central copyright and license agreement.Scoliosis will be a valuable resource in the field of conservative scoliosis therapy. The prevalence of mild to moderate scoliosis in adolescents is 3000–5000 per 100,000 population, and in adults as high as 12% [h as 12% ,5. Yet th as 12% -13. Scolh as 12% ,7. Furthh as 12% -12, and h as 12% -16. Reduh as 12% .Scoliosis. In the last twenty years, with cooperation among the International Research Society for Spinal Deformities (IRSSD), increasing attention has been paid to scoliosis etiology and pathomechanism [Scoliosis will provide a forum to fill this gap, to facilitate international communication of professionals and, finally, to improve the care of patients living with scoliosis. Information gained through research on spinal deformities may also provide insight into pathological mechanisms underlying back pain which perennially afflicts a large proportion of the human population.Treatment indications will be a primary focus for echanism . Carefulechanism ,20. Yet Scoliosis may develop as a forum for patients as well as professionals in the field of spinal deformities. I am very thankful to Stefan Busch and Tom Pollard from BioMed Central who have helped to get Scoliosis started, and to the members of the editorial board, who agreed to help me to keep Scoliosis on course for the future.Each case of spinal deformity has its own 'natural history' with variable onset, progression, and symptoms , and infScoliosis.I am deeply indebted to the senior Board members of SOSORT, namely Theodoros B Grivas, MD; Tomasz Kotwicki, MD, Toru Maruyama, MD, Stefano Negrini, MD, Manuel Rigo, MD but also to Prof. Martha Hawes. Without their help it would have been impossible to establish Scoliosis. It has been and will continue to be a great pleasure to work with all those professional and enthusiastic supporters whom I met on the way to the launch of our new journal.I am honored by the task of acting as Editor-in-Chief of Everyone involved wishes the journal a successful start. May we increase our knowledge, improve our skills and gain enthusiasm for the benefit of our patients.


Almost exactly five years ago, in early June 2000, BMC Bioinformatics received its first submission. Five years on, it has received over a thousand submissions, and the journal is continuing to grow rapidly Figure .editorial board, which now consists of over 50 leaders in the field, and a Bioinformatics and Genomics gateway that brings together relevant content from across BioMed Central's 130+ Open Access journals. And by the time you read this,  BMC Bioinformatics should have its first official ISI Impact Factor. Impact factors certainly have their problems – a previous editorial in this journal[BMC Bioinformatics having an Impact Factor, there are more reasons than ever to make it the first choice for your research.In the past few months, developments have included a refreshed international bioinformatics.org and sourceforge.net. No doubt the similar philosophies of open-source software and Open Access publishing have been a factor in making BMC Bioinformatics one of BioMed Central's most successful journals. Two other emerging trends are, firstly, an increasing use of web service technology to connect disparate tools into analysis pipelines, and secondly, the development of systems to allow biological knowledge to be modelled and expressed in structured form. The linking factor between both these trends is that increasingly, as the data deluge continues, the 'users' of bioinformatics tools and the 'readers' of the biological literature, are likely to be computer systems rather than human beings. Looking back over the first 5 years of the journal, are any significant trends evident? One thing that is noticeable is the prevalence of the open-source model of software development. In fact more than 10% of all BMC Bioinformatics articles include the term "open-source". Hundreds of open-source bioinformatics projects are now hosted on sites such as BMC Bioinformatics has published several articles on the use of Web Service technologies such as the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) - if you are interested, try searching the journal for: SOAP OR "web services"As bioinformatics tools have proliferated, the complexity of data analysis has increased. Often, a sequence of analysis steps each using different tools must be carried out one after the other. This might be done manually or by using a monolithic system that is capable of carrying out multiple analyses, or, more flexibly, by writing special 'glue code', often in Perl, to connect together multiple tools into a pipeline.The problem with the latter approach, though, is that in the absence of defined standards for the input and output of different tools, lots of glue code has to be written in order to create each new pipeline. Worse, systems built in this way tend  to be fragile, since at any time one of the tools in the pipeline may change the format of its input or output (breaking the system), because there is no explicit 'contract' between the various tools as to what input and output formats each will support. Web services , and morAnother growth area in bioinformatics has been the structured representation and modelling of biological knowledge. The Gene Ontology project  has provBioMed Central's Open Access corpus[Much of the initial work on modelling biological knowledge has explored the use of text-mining techniques to automatically derive structured semantic information from the relatively unstructured text of scientific research articles. ss corpus is now rBMC Bioinformatics publishes many  papers on text-mining topics, including the recently published supplement [pplement , which cpplement , but it Publicon[Some recent developments, however, suggest that progress is being made. For example, this editorial was created using Publicon- a new bPublicon.  This So, for example, if you are accessing this editorial online using a suitable browser, you should be able to cut and paste the equation below into any MathML-aware application, as a mathematically meaningful equation rather than an image.et al.[In two accompanying Commentaries, the issues associated with capturing and representing biological knowledge are discussed further. Murray-Rust et al. consideret al. explores


Plant Methods is a new journal for plant biologists, specialising in the rapid publication of peer-reviewed articles with a focus on technological innovation in the plant sciences. The aim of Plant Methods is to stimulate the development and adoption of new and improved techniques and research tools in plant biology. We hope to promote more consistent standards in the plant sciences, and make readily accessible laboratory and computer-based research tools available to the whole community. This will be achieved by publishing Research articles, Methodology papers and Reviews using the BioMed Central Open Access publishing model. The journal is supported by a prestigious editorial board, whose members all recognise the importance of technological innovation as a driver for basic science. Plant Methods at this time our principal goal is to give technical creativity in the plant sciences the high profile platform it needs and deserves. By providing a forum for the rapid publication of novel or significantly improved techniques in plant biology, Plant Methods will aim to stimulate the development and the adoption of new and improved techniques, tools and technologies in the plant sciences. By spotlighting the technical aspects of plant biology, and providing a focal point for discussion and exchange of information, we hope that Plant Methods will also be able to serve the plant community by promoting higher and more consistent standards in the practice of plant research.Technical innovation is surely one of the most important catalysts for progress in any scientific discipline – and this must be particularly true for plant biology in the current post-genomics era. In launching Plant Methods, as described in the BioMed Central Open Access Charter [Plant Methods.The open access policy of  Charter , is one  Charter . For reaPlant Methods: Research Papers, which will report a significant technical advance and its successful application to shed important new light on a biological problem, and Methodology Papers, which will describe an important new technique or research tool (such as a new online database or genetic stocks), but with less emphasis on the generation of new data beyond the required proof of concept. Too often researchers, particularly young researchers, are discouraged from dedicating the time needed for the development of new techniques or community resources because there is little opportunity to obtain proper recognition for their contribution. For example, it could easily take the major portion of a postdoctoral appointment to work through the cycles of trial and error needed to refine a new protocol, leaving little time to obtain the biological insights that a conventional research paper will demand. By providing a high profile outlet for methodology papers Plant Methods will encourage and reward technical creativity. Additional formats, including Reviews and Protocols, will be by invitation or by prior arrangement with a member of Editorial Board.Two main formats will be available for the publication of original work in  brings together a group of internationally renowned plant scientists who share a strong belief in the fundamental importance of technological innovation. All manuscripts submitted to the journal will be rigorously peer-reviewed and papers will be published online immediately after acceptance and soon after listed in PubMed. When a paper has been accepted, an Article Processing Charge (APC) of £410 (approximately US$720) becomes payable. This pays for the article to be freely and universally accessible in various formats online, and for the processes required for inclusion in PubMed and archiving in PubMed Central. All Plant Methods articles will be archived in PubMed Central [Plant Methods will not levy additional page or colour charges and any number of colour figures and photographs can be included, at no extra cost). There will be no APCs for the first 6 months after launch, and after that time those authors whose institutions subscribe to BioMed Central will still be able to publish free of charge. In cases of lack of funds, authors' requests for waivers, if made at the time of submission, will be considered on a case-by-case basis.Our Editorial Board  Central , the US  Central  in Franc Central , the NatPlant Methods a success. We very much look forward to receiving your submissions.On behalf of the Editorial Board, we hope you will support us in our efforts to make The majority of the APC is used by BioMed Central to fund the web services that host the journal and the submission and review system However, a small proportion of the APC is returned to the editorial office to support running costs associated with the journal.


Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery (JCTS) is an open access, peer-reviewed, online journal, which will encompass all aspects of research in the field of cardiothoracic surgery. JCTS will provide a forum for the publication and free-access of high quality scientific reports documenting clinical and experimental advances in cardiac and thoracic surgery, and related fields. The following types of articles will be accepted: Research Article, Review, Study Protocol, Book Review, Case Report, Case Study, Commentary, and Editorial. The intended audience is cardiothoracic surgeons, cardiothoracic anaesthesiologists, cardiologists, chest physicians, and allied health professionals.There are many cardiothoracic journals in the printed form. Most of these are affiliated to national or international societies, and all are subscription-based, thus there is restricted access to the material published. The turnaround time for papers can also be quite long for some of these journals. JCTS will aim to provide a quick and efficient service to authors. Being open access, the material published will be freely available on the internet. All articles will be archived in major databases including PubMed Central.The term open access is self-explanatory. In practical terms, it means that anybody with access to the internet will be able to access and download material published in the JCTS.The main motivation for researchers and clinicians who write papers is the desire to advance the frontiers of knowledge in their speciality. What better medium than an open-access journal that allows anybody, anywhere unfettered access to the results of their work?However, alongside this altruistic aim is a desire to be recognised for their work in a manner that will also help advance their careers. Citation counts of their papers, and impact factors of journals in which they publish are two objective (even though not entirely free of controversy) markers widely used in the scientific community. Open access journals will not put any author at a disadvantage. In fact there is some evidence that open access articles have a greater chance of being cited . For artAuthors also value open access, and consider this an important factor in deciding which journal to submit their work to .The future of scientific publication is definitely headed in the direction of open access. The internet has profoundly changed the way we communicate and obtain information. For my nine-year-old daughter, Google is the first port of call when she has to do any research for her schoolwork. She has learnt that enough information is available free on the net, and she ignores sites that ask for a subscription to help her with her course work. In the years to come, she will continue to expect information to be freely available. In general, any information that is available freely (read open-access) is more likely to be looked at than information that is not (read subscription-based).Open access publication, however requires funding. Authors of papers accepted for publication in JCTS will be asked to pay an article-processing charge (APC). The concept of authors contributing towards the cost of publication is not new. Many subscription-based journals including Circulation, Circulation Research, Neuron, Cell, Blood require authors to contribute towards the costs of publication.Many research funding agencies strongly encourage open-access publication, and in fact allow the use of research grants for this purpose. These include the National Health Service, and the Wellcome Trust in the UK, and the National Institutes of Health in the USA . Full orCurrent methods of peer review are not perfect. A single paper can elicit two different opinions from two recognised experts. Even so, rigorous peer review remains the mainstay of quality control in scientific publishing. The JCTS has a distinguished international editorial board, which covers expertise in all areas of cardiac and thoracic surgery. Peer review will be rigorous, open and transparent. For all accepted papers the comments of the reviewers will be published as well. This is not only to give recognition to the peer reviewers for their work, but also to ensure accountability via openness and transparency. Reviewers as well as authors will be asked to declare any competing interests. Any reader will be able to follow the exchanges between the authors and reviewers before publication .JCTS will also have a comment section, which will allow readers to comment on articles published in the journal. This is in effect post-publication peer review, and we would expect authors to respond to the comments in a timely manner.With the launch of the JCTS we enter a new era of publishing in the field of cardiothoracic surgery. On behalf of the entire editorial board, David Taggart and I would like to welcome you to this exciting new journal.1) The majority of APC is used by BioMed Central to fund the tools required for peer-review and publication. VZ and DT are the editors-in-chief of JCTS and receive a proportion of the APC revenue from the journal.


CytoJournal opened its doors in late 2004 and 2005 was the first full year of publication. In order to celebrate this event as well as recognize the contributing authors works, CytoJournal has initiated a Best Article of the Year, in this case 2005. This year's Best of CytoJournal: 2005 is an excellent review of thyroid FNAB. This is an exciting time in peer-reviewed publication. The establishment of BioMed Central and its on-line journals, including CytoJournal, has opened up a new avenue for rapid publication and open access . In ordeIt has been estimated that about 5% of the general population has a palpable thyroid nodule . ThyroidIn closing, we congratulate the authors on their article and hope that at the same time this will interest other authors in submitting their articles to this journal.


Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research is an open access, online journal that aims to expeditiously publish clinical and basic research studies related to musculoskeletal issues in different cultural communities. It provides a platform for exchanges of new clinical and scientific information in the most precise and expeditious way to achieve dissemination of information and cross-fertilization of ideas. The open access nature of this journal allows articles to be universally and freely accessible via the Internet. This ensures a rapid and efficient communication of research findings. The journal welcomes all types of articles related to musculoskeletal issues. Its timely publication and high visibility are the two most important features that make this journal different from other traditional journals in the orthopaedic field. Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research is an open access, online journal that aims to expeditiously publish clinical and basic research studies related to musculoskeletal issues in different cultural communities.Orthopaedic research has been conducted essentially at clinical and basic science levels. With advancement of new technologies and increasing demand and aspiration from the community, we are seeing an enormous growth of orthopaedic research, in particular in the fields of traumatology, spinal surgery, joint replacement, sports medicine, musculoskeletal tumour, hand and micro-surgery, foot and ankle surgery, paediatric orthopaedic, and orthopaedic rehabilitation. The contribution of basic science ranges from molecular, cellular, structural, and functional perspectives to tissue engineering, gait analysis, automation and robotic surgery. Implant and biomaterial designs are emerging new disciplines that will compliment clinical applications. Multi-disciplinary research with collaboration amongst clinicians and scientists from different disciplines will be the trend in the coming decades. This journal will provide the platform for exchanges of new clinical and scientific information in the most precise and expeditious way to achieve timely dissemination of information and cross-fertilization of ideas.This new journal will provide the incentive and facilitation for academic exchanges from different cultural, social, economical and ethnic perspectives, allowing unique orthopaedic research in different communities and cultures to be shared around the world. With a professional editorial team  and faciJournal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research welcomes all types of articles related to musculoskeletal issues, which include Research, Reviews, Book reviews, Case reports, Case studies, Commentaries, Database articles, Debate articles, Hypotheses, Meeting reports, Methodology articles, Short reports, Software articles and Study protocols. In order to cover all the essential topics in the orthopaedic field, Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research will publish issues with different themes, examples include Spinal Arthroplasty, Implant Design, Biomaterial, Functional Tendinopathies, and Scoliosis.Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research is an online open access journal and as such articles are universally and freely accessible to everyone in an easily readable format via the Internet. The copyright belongs to the authors and they grant anyone the right to reproduce and disseminate the article on condition that the article has been correctly cited and no errors have been introduced [Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research will be published quickly continuously online once accepted after the peer-review process avoiding the delays commonly found in traditional journals, in which submitted and accepted papers may have to wait for publication until enough articles have been collected for a particular issue. Articles from Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research are not only included in BioMed Central's databases, but also permanently archived in PubMed Central, the US National Library of Medicine's full-text repository of life science literature, in repositories at the University of Potsdam in Germany, at INIST in France and in e-Depot, the National Library of the Netherlands' digital archive of all electronic publications.troduced . ArticleBeing an open access journal ensures rapid and efficient communication of research findings for the benefits of science, medicine and the general public. Authors can be assured their work is disseminated to the widest possible audience. Information will not be limited to readers' library's budgets, which in return will enhance literature searching of the articles. Results of publicly funded research will be available to all, including those without access to a library with a subscription. Resource-poor countries and institutions will be able to access the same material as wealthier ones.Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research are two important features of this journal that makes it different from other traditional journals in the orthopaedic field.Timely publication and high visibility of Three reviewers will be assigned for each submission. The reviewers will have up to three weeks to review the submitted article. After the receipt of the recommendation from the reviewers, the decision on whether to Accept, Reject or request Major/Minor Revisions will be made by co-editors-in-chief. The review time will be monitored by the Editorial Board to make it reasonably short for this journal.


Pediatric Rheumatology, now published by BioMed Central. Pediatric Rheumatology is a continuation of the open access Pediatric Rheumatology Online Journal, launched in 2003 as the first solely pediatric rheumatology journal.We welcome you to Our mission is to further research, scholarship, and education in pediatric rheumatology throughout the world and thereby improve the care of children with arthritis and rheumatic diseases. We hope to speed the growth of pediatric rheumatology in every country. We believe that a dedicated pediatric rheumatology journal has a better opportunity to help develop our field than existing, predominantly adult rheumatology journals. The journal is independent and international and is purposefully free of direct association with any one institution, organization, or commercial enterprise other than BioMed Central.Pediatric Rheumatology's articles will be archived in PubMed Central, the US National Library of Medicine's full-text repository of life science literature. These articles will also be archived in the repositories at the University of Potsdam in Germany, at INIST in France, the e-Depot, the National Library of the Netherlands' digital archive of all electronic publications, and in the new UK PubMed.Our choice of the open access venue is intentional. We wish the pediatric rheumatology information in this journal to be freely available to anyone. We believe that this model is optimal for growth of pediatric rheumatology in both developed and developing countries ,2. Why iWhy should we join the shift towards online, open access publishing? The traditional business model for scientific publishers requires restriction of access to published research so that the publishers can recoup the costs of publication. This restriction has deleterious effects, limiting full use of digital technology, and can be considered to be contrary to the interests of authors, funders, and the scientific and medical community as a whole. This traditional system is straining as increasing amounts of research are being published while library budgets have remained static. The open access approach treats publication as the last step in the research process:1) The article processing charge (APC) covers the cost of publication so that there is free and immediate access to research and education articles.2) The APCs ensure transparency and allow publishers to compete to provide the best service at the best price.3) By linking the cost of publication to research budgets, APCs allow the publishing system to adjust to the ever-increasing volume of clinical and basic research [Pediatric Rheumatology is open to submissions on all aspects of pediatric rheumatology, including: editorials; commentaries; research, both clinical and basic; clinical and basic science reviews; rheumatologic reviews for the generalist; significant case series or case reports; book reviews; letters to the editors; and drug studies. Submissions are online, reviews and decisions occur within four weeks in most cases, and publication online is rapid and continuous.Pediatric Rheumatology will be useful to pediatricians, pediatric rheumatologists, adult rheumatologists, other professionals, and the lay public. Let's work together to help our kids with rheumatic diseases.We hope that Pediatric Rheumatology.Alberto Martini, MD and Charles H. Spencer, MD are Co-Editor-in-Chiefs of


Understanding how the nervous system develops poses one of the greatest challenges in biology. The nervous system is highly complex yet strikingly precise, both in its structural order and in its ability to perform the many functions required for survival and interaction with the environment. Such precision demands that key events at every developmental stage are executed properly and are coordinated to produce the circuitry underlying each of the adult nervous system's functions.Over the years, the field of neurodevelopment has captured the creativity and curiosity of an increasingly large number of investigators. Diverse, state-of-the-art approaches have been used to study the developing nervous system of both vertebrates and invertebrates. These studies encompass investigations at all levels: understanding how neurons obtain their many and various identities, how they migrate to their appropriate locations, how they acquire their unique morphological and functional properties and, finally, how they form circuits that are appropriate. And the investigators – the developmental neuroscientists who will write, read and edit this journal – have a variety of reasons to be fascinated by these issues. Some see the nervous system as a fascinating  model for addressing fundamental issues in developmental biology. Some, following the advice of Cajal, believe that mapping the establishment and plasticity of connectivity in the "young wood" of the embryo is a good way to find out what is going on in "the full-grown forest" of the adult. Still others are motivated by the growing realization that many neurological and behavioral disorders, even those manifested in adults, have their seeds in developmental defects. All will find common ground in the work we hope to highlight.Neural Development thus believe that there is a need for a dedicated journal in this growing field, and given the rising popularity of open-access publication, we thought that a new open-access journal in our field is particularly timely.Understanding how the nervous system is built is best pursued by bringing together knowledge gained across many model systems; currently such findings are published in many journals, none of which is focused entirely on issues of neural development. The Editors of Neural Development is to create a venue for publishing high-calibre work in all areas of nervous system development. We are dedicated to providing an outlet for full-length contributions that advance the field in any significant way. To ensure top-quality publication, we have enrolled a strong editorial board of international leaders in the field who will work hard to ensure that Neural Development becomes the cutting-edge journal and destination of choice for the best work in the field. We envisage that Neural Development will be an important platform for presenting the findings of those interested in the development of the nervous system at any and all levels.Our idea behind Neural Development: movies will be built into the article, such that readers will be only one click away from a real-time view of the observations. Also, the online format permits the journal to generate a cover for every article we publish. Apart from the intellectual challenge of understanding how our favourite part of the nervous system develops, the sheer beauty of development is what has attracted many of us to the field.Open access will allow key findings in our field to be more accessible and far-reaching, because it will be online and without charge. An online journal means more rapid reviews and shorter time to publication; for a growing field, dispensing new knowledge quickly is critical. The open access format will also allow us to publish articles without the constraint of page limitations. A fixed article-processing charge will be levied to cover the publication costs; there are no additional page or colour figure charges . FurtherWe therefore provide the opportunity for authors of each article to highlight their work through their chosen cover image.Neural Development.The Editors are committed to making this new venture a success for the neurodevelopment community. We hope that you share our vision and will join us in launching


The need to publish corrections to scientific articles, and occasionally to retract them, has been recognized for decades. However very little emphasis has been attached to how this is done, provided that the retraction or correction is accessible. We are considering a policy to directly correct our online publications. The need to publish corrections to scientific articles, and occasionally to retract them, has been recognized for decades. However very little emphasis has been attached to how this is done, provided that the retraction or correction is accessible . In a paJournal of the Medical Library Association, said, "We must never forget that the preservation of the historical record, with all of its faults, mistakes, and corrections, is an essential part of the service that librarianship performs for society. As the medium of information becomes more elusive, we must become more vigilant" [Archivists and librarians are on record in their support of the historical importance of maintaining the publication trail and therefore maintaining the original. As T. Scott Plutchak, Editor of the igilant" .The underlying implication is that the historical work maintains some intrinsic merit, whether right or wrong. In the rapidly changing environment of electronic publishing, however, one of the key benefits for authors is the capacity to document their work fully and accurately in a timely fashion . When thet al. also suggest that the different characteristics of articles retracted for misconduct and for unintentional mistakes reflect distinct causes and, potentially, point to distinct solutions.Studies of the biomedical literature have shown that retractions are more than twice as likely to result from unintentional mistakes as from scientific misconduct.  Nath et We want to provide our readers with the most accurate presentation of our authors' work. "Dynamic documents" that allow for change in a networked environment will assist to make this intention a reality . Non-fraWe at BioMed Central believe that by providing immediate and unrestricted access, open access online publishing provides a unique environment in which to prevent the perpetuation of errors. To date, we have followed a policy of displaying a note about corrections prominently at the beginning of the original article, in accordance with the National Library of Medicine (NLM) guidelines . In the Of course, it will be up to our authors and our readers to provide a cogent case for the original article to be amended. This argument may also be published as an accompanying commentary to explain the rationale behind the changes that have been made. In cases of fraudulent work, misconduct, or complete invalidation of results, our current policy of retracting an article will remain, in keeping with the NLM guidelines.We invite our authors, reviewers and readers to join in this debate and to voice your opinions on this proposal by sending us your comments.MLN and DCS are employees of BioMed Central and receive fixed salaries.MLN and DCS contributed equally to the writing of this editorial.The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed here:


AIDS Research and Therapy, is intended to fill this knowledge gap by online publication of basic, preclinical, and clinical research articles.Open Access online publishing is the trend of the future for unrestricted rapid and international dissemination of knowledge. Several journals are published on acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) research, but none of them appear to be Open Access. To eliminate or to abate the scourge of AIDS, it is important that the knowledge acquired through research be disseminated as soon as possible. The Open Access journal,  BioMed Central and the Public Library of Science (PLoS) have literally revolutionized the business of science publication and popularization. The Open Access, online publications were initially spearheaded by BioMed Central. It is interesting to reflect that the concept of Open Access scientific publications was met with disbelief and opposition by both the scientific community and the publishing houses [Open Access, online publication of scientific journals is a growing trend. In essence, Open Access is free and unrestricted availability of literature. This allows authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited . The DirAIDS is one of the biggest threats to humankind. At the end of 2003 there were 40 million HIV-infected patients worldwide, of which 3 million were estimated to have died in 2003 [AIDS Research and Therapy. The purpose of this journal is not to compete with or replace any of them, but to provide a unique platform where both basic research and clinical science can be studied side by side to contemplate, design, and develop applications of basic science in preclinical or clinical research. The overarching goal of the journal is to communicate emerging knowledge at a faster pace with an aim to accelerate bed-side research by taking into consideration the latest bench-side accomplishments. An additional benefit of an Open Access, online journal is enormous cost savings for libraries and institutions in terms of the high subscription rates and archival of the old journals.Dissemination of the latest knowledge in basic science and its application to AIDS therapy and prevention is of paramount importance. To date, this has been accomplished with several excellent print journals dedicated to HIV-1 and the disease caused by it, AIDS. Many of them are now accessible online. However, we are launching the first Open Access journal in the AIDS arena – AIDS Research and Therapy will encompass all aspects of basic and clinical science that impact on abating the spread of AIDS; it is a multidisciplinary journal that aims to keep scientists and clinicians abreast of the latest research on HIV-1. AIDS Research and Therapy will be particularly interested in publishing articles on novel and developing treatment strategies for AIDS, as well as articles on the outcome of treatment strategies. The ultimate goal of the journal is to lead research from bench to bedside in the combat of AIDS.Section Editor, who will assign at least 3 reviewers . Reviewers are expected to return reports within two-three weeks, and the Section Editor will then make a decision based on these reports. This is to insure timely publication of findings that are important in the prevention and cure of AIDS. Indeed, we anticipate a turn around time (from submission to acceptance) of about two months. Authors, together with the Editor/reviewer handling the manuscript will be required to declare any competing interests. AIDS Research and Therapy will consider following types of articles: Research, Hypotheses, Methodology, Short reports, Study protocols, short as well as comprehensive Reviews. Efforts have been made to select Editors from as diverse areas of HIV and AIDS research as possible. However, Editors from areas currently not represented in the Editorial Board will be included. Readers have the option of recommending scientists who may be suitable Editors and/or reviewers.Each manuscript submitted to the journal will be sent to the appropriate AIDS Research and Therapy is published by BioMed Central, an independent publishing house, committed to ensuring peer-reviewed biomedical research is Open Access – immediately and permanently available online without charge or any other barriers to access. In an Open Access journal, the communication has to be bi-directional for the journal's success and improving the quality of the journal. Consequently, the Editorial Board of the journal will constantly seek new ideas to improve the journal to serve as an excellent resource in AIDS research and therapy to the scientific community.Rapid dissemination of science is crucial for the progress and survival of human kind. Let the wheel of communication roll at the fastest pace and to the widest possible world.