Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust, Rheumatology, Ipswich, Suffolk, United Kingdom
Correspondence to: R. Watts. E-mail: editorial{at}rheumatology.org.uk
Alea iacta estthe die is castGaius Julius Caesar is quoted as saying as he crossed the Rubicon to invade Rome in 49 BC. The past year has seen momentous changes in the world of journal publishing. The NIH in the USA and the Research Councils UK (RCUK) and the Wellcome Trust in the UK have launched their plans for open access publishing, which impose on their grant holders a duty to deposit post prints of accepted manuscripts within 12 months of acceptance for publication.
The philosophy behind open access is that publicly funded research should be freely available to all as soon as is practicable. Whilst this is a very laudable aim, the requirement has forced learned journals to consider how best to respond to the challenge of this new environment. What is clear is that the traditional model of free authorship and the reader paying is no longer tenable for journals with a significant authorship holding such grants.
We at Rheumatology have taken a very proactive attitude in responding to this challenge. We analysed our submitted and accepted manuscripts during 2004, demonstrating that 38% of accepted papers with a declared source of funding had funding from one of the major UK and USA funding agencies which have either already adopted, or are expected to adopt, an open access deposition policy. Loss of these manuscripts would pose a very real threat to the quality of the journal. Financial modelling indicates that continuing the traditional model is not viable in the long term. We have, therefore, been forced to consider alternative business models, including partial or full open access and publishing the journal online only.
We have decided to adopt a partial or optional open access model since this will enable those authors who must, as a condition of their grant, place post prints in an open archive/repository to do so, whilst also enabling those who do not wish to do so to continue to submit and publish papers in the traditional manner. Our publishers, Oxford University Press, have developed an optional open access model for their Press-owned journals, called Oxford Open, and our system will be very similar. Rheumatology will, we wish to reassure our authors and readers, continue to be published both in print and on-line.
We are therefore delighted to announce that, commencing 1 January 2006, authors wishing to publish using an open access system will be able to do so in Rheumatology. Manuscripts should be submitted in the usual fashion via Manuscript Central (http://rheumatology.manuscriptcentral.com). Authors will be offered the choice of using open access once their manuscript has been accepted. Thus, the editorial decision process will not be affected by open access. The charge for open access in 2006 will be £1500 ($2800) per article, or the discounted rate of £800/$1500 per article for authors whose institutions have an online subscription. There will also be discounts available for authors from developing countries. Further details of submitting and charges for open access publication can be found via the journal website at www.rheumatology.oxfordjournals.org
We envisage that this proactive approach will enable us to continue to develop Rheumatology so that we can continue to produce a high-quality journal to disseminate scientific and clinical research to the broadest community.
Caesar, in crossing the Rubicon, precipitated the final collapse of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire. Whether the introduction of open access publishing will have such a dramatic effect on journal publishing remains to be seen. There are those who would like to see the collapse of the present system and the rise of a new order.