Open Access Publishing:The BioMed Central Model

Change is occurring:

From print to electronicFrom limited access to unlimited

accessFrom paid access to free accessFrom output-paid to input-paidFrom slow to fast publicationFrom expensive to less expensive

Traditional role of the publisher is under scrutiny

Subscriptions and licences limit accessTo be useful, research must be used To be used (read, cited, applied, extended) it must be accessible

Prices do not reflect quality or costsSubscription prices have increased by as much as 146% in 10 years – e.g.

Brain Research1991: £3,7132001: £9,148

Authors lose rightse.g. to put their paper on a publicly accessible server

Often inefficient and slow

What is being done?PR Initiatives

• Public Library of Science• Budapest Open Access Initiative

Facilitators• SPARC• Open Archives Initiative

Publishers• BioMed Central

“What are publishers doing for us?”

‘I think scientists all over would be shocked to realise what a phenomenally lucrative business scientific publishing

can be.’

Nicholas Cozzarelli- editor in chief of the PNAS

Public Library of ScienceResearcher-led initiative, open letter had 30,000+ signatoriesAdvocated a boycott by researchers of journals that do not make available their articles in open access within 6 months of publication

Not to submitNot to reviewNot to serve as editor or on an editorial board

But, this has not proved successful –many signatories haven’t stuck to their promise

Budapest Open Access Initiative

Soros Foundation-led initiativeActivists and innovators brought together last December by the Soros Open Society Institute in BudapestSignatories are institutions and individuals

Agreed outcomeTo stimulate ‘self-archiving’To stimulate ‘open access’ journals

SPARC

Library-led initiative in US and EuropePartners with BioMed CentralInstitutions become SPARC membersAdvocate open access, and also low-cost alternatives to conventional journalsUrging authors and librarians to declare independence

Open Archives Initiative

Library-technology-led initiativeDevelops interoperability standards (metadata harvesting)Enhances access to e-print archivesFacilitates self-archiving

BioMed Central

Commercial initiative, independent companyOpen access for research papers90+ open access online journals Authors pay at inputSupplemental income from advertising and acting as sales agent for review journals published by sister companies

Beneficiaries of open access

ScientistsMuch higher visibility: thousands of downloads/uses per paper vs. a few hundred in the conventional journalsSpeed: publication immediately upon acceptance after peer-review

LibrariesOpen access = free resource, freeing up budgetEnabling libraries to play active part in changing the model

How does open access work?

Taking BioMed Central as an example:

Article submitted for publicationPeer-reviewIf accepted, charge of $500 or waiver grantedImmediately published in manuscript-pdf formFully-coded HTML and hi-res pdf one week laterNo restrictions on access whatsoever

BioMed Central

Independent online publishing houselaunched in May 2000Part of the Current Science Group of independent companies Publishing peer-reviewed research across all areas of biology and medicineImmediate, barrier-free open access for all

BioMed Central Advantages

Immediate and continuous publication onlineNone of the spatial constraints of print

True free access for all Not even compulsory registration, except when using search function

Fast, efficient peer reviewVery high visibility

>200 downloads per article per monthAuthors have access to download figures

Authors keep copyright and control

BioMed Central More Advantages

PermanenceArchived on PubMed Central, INIST (an others to be announced)

Searchable and retrievable Included in PubMed immediately upon publicationPublished in one journal, but cross-listed in other relevant ones

Deposited in CrossRef, included in BIOSIS, ISI, CAS, Open Citation Project, and othersExtensive PR for outstanding articlesOpportunities to link to and from email updates

Peer ReviewOnline – rapid2 reviewers plus statistician, if necessaryReviewers chosen from large network of experts in their fieldDecision on whether to publish based on validity (even negative results are published)

Editorial directorate Dr Harold E Varmus

President of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (USA) Professor Elizabeth H Blackburn

Professor, Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California San Francisco (USA) Dr Steven E Hyman

Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (USA) Professor Marc W Kirschner

Head of the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School. (USA) Professor Philippe Kourilsky Director General, Pasteur Institute (France) Professor Joseph Boyd Martin

Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (USA) Dr David G Nathan

Faculty Dean for Academic Programs at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (USA) Dr Paul Nurse

Director-General of Cancer Research UK Sir David Weatherall

Honorary Director of the ICRF Laboratories at the Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford (UK)

Professor Mitsuhiro YanagidaKyoto University and President of the Molecular Biology Society of Japan

BMC Open Access Journals BiologyBiochemistryBioinformaticsBiotechnologyCell biologyChemical BiologyDevelopmental BiologyEcologyEvolutionary BiologyGeneticsGenomicsImmunologyMicrobiologyMolecular BiologyNeurosciencePharmacologyPlant biologyStructural Biology

Plus Journal of Biologywww.jbiol.com

MedicineAnesthesiologyBlood DisordersCancer Cardiovascular DisordersClinical PathologyClinical PharmacologyComplementary and

Alternative MedicineDermatologyEar, Nose and Throat

DisordersEmergency MedicineEndocrine DisordersFamily practiceGastroenterologyGeriatricsHealth Service ResearchInfectious diseasesInternational Health and

Human RightsMedical EducationMedical EthicsMedical Genetics

Medical ImagingMedical Informatics and Decision MakingMedical Research Methodology Musculoskeletal DisordersNephrologyNeurologyNuclear MedicineNursingOphthalmologyOncologyOphthalmologyOral HealthPalliative CarePediatricsPregnancy and ChildbirthPsychiatryPublic healthPulmonary Medicine SurgeryUrology

Journal of Biology (J.Biol)

An international journal publishing biological research articles of exceptional interest and importanceEditor-in-Chief: Martin Raff, University College London Striving to achieve the fairest system of peer review Rapid publication schedule A variety of commissioned commentaries to accompany every research articleAll research articles available immediately on publication, free of charge, over the web, with copyright retained by the author

New Journals Start a new journal with BioMed Central

Empowering scientists to launch new journals in specialist areas (small niches)All they have to do is:

Provide a scope statement Assemble an editorial boardSelect a journal titleProvide lists of potential authors

BioMed Central provides:the publishing platformthe web site and technical expertise Promotional campaigns to ensure that papers are submitted for publication

BioMed Central New Journals Some examples of new, autonomous, journals using

BioMed Central’s infrastructure and technology:

BioMed Central Revenues

Article Processing Charges (APCs) of $500 per published paper

Automatic waivers for authors from developing countries – and to others on a case-by-case basis

Institutional membershipIncludes automatic APC-waivers for authors from member institutions

AdvertisingSales of subscription products (Faculty of 1000, images.MD, etc)

Institutional Membership

Annual fee proportional to number of biology and medical researchers at each institution

Automatic waivers of article processing charges

Customized member’s pages on BioMed Central site on which papers by researchers at the institution published in BMC journals are listed

15% discount on paid-for products such as Faculty of 1000 and images.MD

BioMed Central’s members include:

L’Institut PasteurImperial College, LondonCancer Research UKHarvard UniversityThe NIH of the US Princeton UniversityUniversity of California (all campuses)Lund UniversityUniversity of Helsinki

World Health OrganizationJohn Innes CentreCNRSUniversity of AmsterdamUniversity of TorontoUtrecht UniversityRockefeller UniversityUniversity of YorkKyoto University

BioMed Central Open Access: The New Scenario

Authors take charge: author choicePublishing becomes a service to researchers and their communities – not selling of content

No need for copyright transfer from author to publisher

Massively increased exposure for research workIntroduces competition – breaks monopolies journals (publishers) have – enhances market efficiencyLibrarians are empowered and can take active part in changing the model

So what is holding academia back?

Given the clear benefits to scientists and libraries, why is the emergence of open access journals so slow?

Because what is required is a ‘cultural revolution’

Open access can only succeed if enough researchers choose to publish in open access journals

The ‘Prestige’ question

Scientists want to publish in prestigious, high IF journals, most of which are published in the conventional model Most open-access journals are new and it takes time for new journals to gather prestige, even if their quality is impeccable from the start. The solution:

Create more open-access journals, staff them with first-rate editors, and give them time.

What can librarians do?Publicise widely the availability of open access journals to potential authorsArrange for the article processing bill to be picked up for the author

(e.g. by becoming a member in the case of BioMed Central)

Put up posters and distribute flyers from open access initiativesHold seminars to educate authors about these resources and their benefitsInclude open access journals in library catalogues

‘It is the scientists who are going to have to figure out how they want

their work to be available’Mary Case –

Association of Research Libraries

BioMed Central

Thank You

Becky FishmanMembership Director

becky@biomedcentral.comhttp://www.biomedcentral.com