Annual Meeting Reports Open Access—What’s New, What’s Worked, What Hasn’t Moderator: began talking about requiring OA, it was data and software be freely available and Deborah Kahn thought that publishers would jump right that reviews be signed. Executive Vice President, Publishing into the Gold OA model: An author pays The Journal of Neuroinflammation has BioMed Central a fee and an article appears in a journal been OA from its beginnings in 2004 London, United Kingdom in which all articles are OA. Not surpris- because the editors-in-chief believed that ingly, many publishers have been leery of OA was the wave of the future. Current Speakers: suddenly converting all their titles to Gold Editor-in-Chief Sue T Griffin present- Barbara Goldman OA without some idea of how it will affect ed the viewpoint of this established OA Director, Journals their revenue. Some are using a hybrid OA journal. Like GigaScience, the Journal of American Society for Microbiology model, in which an author can buy OA for Neuroinflammation has no embargo period, Washington, DC an article in a subscription journal. so all articles are made available on publi- Deborah Kahn, of BioMed Central, pub- cation. However, authors are charged a pro- Laurie Goodman lisher of more than 260 OA journals, led a cessing fee, whereas GigaScience has no fees Editor-in-Chief lively and informative panel that comprised for authors. Another difference between GigaScience five OA viewpoints: those of the author, these OA journals is in their style of peer BioMed Central the editor of an established OA journal, review. The Journal of Neuroinflammation London, United Kingdom the editor of a new OA journal, the jour- uses the traditional form in which reviewer nal director of a society, and the publisher. comments are anonymous, and GigaScience Sue T Griffin The author viewpoint provided by Kay reveals reviewers’ identities unless specifi- Editor-in-Chief Robbins focused on four aspects that affect cally asked not to. Journal of Neuroinflammation an author’s decision of where to submit an The final viewpoint, that of the University of Arkansas article: impact, cost, review process, and society publisher, was presented by Fayetteville, Arkansas big picture. Impact factors are important, Barbara Goldman, journals director of but exposure is equally important, and most the American Society for Microbiology Kay Robbins OA journals track views. Authors want the (ASM), which publishes nine hybrid OA Professor, Department of Computer “right” audience to see their articles, and it research journals and in 2010 launched Science helps if an article is easily accessible. Cost mBio, its highly selective, online-only University of Texas, San Antonio matters, and OA journal costs are paid by gold OA journal. Submissions to mBio San Antonio, Texas authors rather than by subscribers, so the have increased steadily, and the journal cost needs to be manageable. The review has been successful in attracting high- Reporter: process must be fair and include helpful quality science. According to the 2012 Jeanette Panning comments and fast turnaround. Finally, Journal Citation Reports, mBio has an Manager, Editor Coordination the author’s big picture is that institutions impact factor of 5.621, ranking it 15th American Geophysical Union have limited budgets for publishing, and of 116 journals in the microbiology cat- Washington, DC all researchers are vying for the funds. OA egory. In 2013, ASM launched a second costs need to be reasonable, but the quality OA journal, Genome Announcements. Open access (OA) is one of the biggest of a journal needs to be high. Goldman emphasized the importance of issues facing scholarly publishing. Funding Laurie Goodman, editor-in-chief of the leveraging the society’s assets, such as a agencies are beginning to require that relatively new OA journal GigaScience, strong brand, reputation in the field for research be published in OA journals, presented the advantages that new OA publishing good science, large society and publishers are scrambling to assess journals have over established journals membership, and high-profile leadership. current business models to find where trying to move to OA. A newly formed In ASM’s experience, it is important to OA is appropriate. Editors want the best journal does not have an established busi- appoint an editor-in-chief who is well research and articles, so they don’t want ness model or established practices, so known and well respected in the field, has any barriers to publication for authors; new ideas can be tried and incorporated a vision for the journal, is fully committed and authors want their research to reach if they work or jettisoned if they don’t. to its success, and understands the impor- the most people and get the biggest bang GigaScience has no embargo period, except tance of engaging the next generation of for their buck. When funding agencies at an author’s request; it requires that all authors and readers. Science Editor • Summer-Autumn 2014 • Vol 37 • No 3 • 83 CSE3703-Summer-Autumn-2014.indd 83 25/11/14 11:01 PM.