Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current issue
    • Past issues
    • Early releases
    • Collections
    • Sections
    • Blog
    • Infographics & illustrations
    • Podcasts
    • COVID-19 articles
    • Obituary notices
  • Authors & Reviewers
    • Overview for authors
    • Submission guidelines
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Forms
    • Editorial process
    • Editorial policies
    • Peer review process
    • Publication fees
    • Reprint requests
    • Open access
    • Patient engagement
  • Physicians & Subscribers
    • Benefits for Canadian physicians
    • CPD Credits for CMA Members
    • Subscribe to CMAJ Print
    • Subscription prices
    • Obituary notices
  • Alerts
    • Email alerts
    • RSS
  • JAMC
    • À propos
    • Numéro en cours
    • Archives
    • Sections
    • Abonnement
    • Alertes
    • Trousse média 2023
    • Avis de décès
  • CMAJ JOURNALS
    • CMAJ Open
    • CJS
    • JAMC
    • JPN

User menu

Search

  • Advanced search
CMAJ
  • CMAJ JOURNALS
    • CMAJ Open
    • CJS
    • JAMC
    • JPN
CMAJ

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current issue
    • Past issues
    • Early releases
    • Collections
    • Sections
    • Blog
    • Infographics & illustrations
    • Podcasts
    • COVID-19 articles
    • Obituary notices
  • Authors & Reviewers
    • Overview for authors
    • Submission guidelines
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Forms
    • Editorial process
    • Editorial policies
    • Peer review process
    • Publication fees
    • Reprint requests
    • Open access
    • Patient engagement
  • Physicians & Subscribers
    • Benefits for Canadian physicians
    • CPD Credits for CMA Members
    • Subscribe to CMAJ Print
    • Subscription prices
    • Obituary notices
  • Alerts
    • Email alerts
    • RSS
  • JAMC
    • À propos
    • Numéro en cours
    • Archives
    • Sections
    • Abonnement
    • Alertes
    • Trousse média 2023
    • Avis de décès
  • Visit CMAJ on Facebook
  • Follow CMAJ on Twitter
  • Follow CMAJ on Instagram
  • Listen to CMAJ podcasts
News

As one journal ends open-access policy, a new one embraces it

Barbara Sibbald
CMAJ September 30, 2003 169 (7) 700-700-a;
Barbara Sibbald
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Responses
  • Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

As the British Medical Journal was announcing in early August that its free online-access policy will end in 2005 (CMAJ 2003;169[6]:590), a journal built entirely upon the open-access concept was preparing for launch in the US. The Public Library of Science (PLoS), a nonprofit organization committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a free public resource, is launching PLoS Biology on Oct. 13; PloS Medicine will follow next year (www.publiclibraryofscience.org/). PLoS Executive Director Vivian Siegel says that although the monthly peer-reviewed journals will provide their online content for free, researchers' funding organizations will have to pay US$1500 in order for the work to be published.

Siegel, a former editor of Cell, says access to research is an integral part of the publishing process. “Publishing is the last step in your research. It ensures that others can learn and build on what you've found, and it is the reason you were funded in the first place.” She also says there is an ethical duty to make publicly funded research freely accessible to the taxpayers who paid for it. If researchers can't afford the fee, it may be waived.

She says PLoS has a US$9-million start-up grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation that “will allow us to demonstrate this will work.” Advertising may be taken later, but “the fees are a main source of revenue.”

The question is, will they cover costs? CMAJ, for example, spends about Can$5000 (US$3500) to process and edit each research-based manuscript.

The editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association says the open-access model “is not feasible for the average general clinical journal.” Dr. Catherine De Angelis says specialists such as geneticists who publish in narrow-interest specialty journals don't require the same degree of editing as researchers writing in a general medical journal, which must communicate to a broader audience. The differences between specialty and general clinical journals are “like the difference between a banana and a cabbage — they have no concept of what clinical medicine is.”

Although JAMA is a not-for-profit publication, it needs revenue from advertising to pay for the intensive publishing process, which includes peer review, statistical review, editing, formatting and publication. Its abstracts and lead articles are available free online, and information is provided to journalists.“We are meeting the needs of people,” says De Angelis.

There are about 300 open-access journals worldwide (www.doaj.org). BioMed Central (BMC, www.biomedcentral.com) publishes 58 of them in subject areas ranging from bioinformatics to nursing. BMC articles are peer reviewed, but they are not edited as extensively as papers in most quality print journals. It also charges researchers US$500 for publication. — Barbara Sibbald, CMAJ

PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

Canadian Medical Association Journal: 169 (7)
CMAJ
Vol. 169, Issue 7
30 Sep 2003
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author

Article tools

Respond to this article
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
To sign up for email alerts or to access your current email alerts, enter your email address below:
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on CMAJ.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
As one journal ends open-access policy, a new one embraces it
(Your Name) has sent you a message from CMAJ
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the CMAJ web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
As one journal ends open-access policy, a new one embraces it
Barbara Sibbald
CMAJ Sep 2003, 169 (7) 700-700-a;

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
‍ Request Permissions
Share
As one journal ends open-access policy, a new one embraces it
Barbara Sibbald
CMAJ Sep 2003, 169 (7) 700-700-a;
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like

Jump to section

  • Article
  • Responses
  • Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • Saying goodbye to CMAJ News
  • National survey highlights worsening primary care access
  • How Canadian hospitals are decreasing carbon emissions
Show more News

Similar Articles

Collections

  • Topics
    • Journalology & publication ethics

 

View Latest Classified Ads

Content

  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Collections
  • Sections
  • Blog
  • Podcasts
  • Alerts
  • RSS
  • Early releases

Information for

  • Advertisers
  • Authors
  • Reviewers
  • CMA Members
  • CPD credits
  • Media
  • Reprint requests
  • Subscribers

About

  • General Information
  • Journal staff
  • Editorial Board
  • Advisory Panels
  • Governance Council
  • Journal Oversight
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Copyright and Permissions
CMAJ Group

Copyright 2023, CMA Impact Inc. or its licensors. All rights reserved. ISSN 1488-2329 (e) 0820-3946 (p)

All editorial matter in CMAJ represents the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the Canadian Medical Association or its subsidiaries.

To receive any of these resources in an accessible format, please contact us at CMAJ Group, 500-1410 Blair Towers Place, Ottawa ON, K1J 9B9; p: 1-888-855-2555; e: [email protected]

CMA Civility, Accessibility, Privacy

 

Powered by HighWire