Journal of Biology BioMed Central
Editorial
Published: 18 June 2002 Journal of Biology 2002, 1:1 The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at http://jbiol.com/content/1/1/1 © 2002 BioMed Central Ltd ISSN 1475-4924
The small number of journals in which among the scientific community and, scientist in the relevant field, the a great number of scientists strive to increasingly, by librarians, scientific Editor-in-Chief, or one of the eminent publish their best work share certain institutes, and funding bodies (see the scientists of the editorial board. More- characteristics. They are edited by pro- Comment article in this issue by Peter over, when a paper is refereed, at least fessional editors rather than by scien- Suber). The advantages are especially one reviewer will be chosen from a list tists. They aim to cover a broad subject great for papers of exceptionally broad of referees provided by the authors. area. They reject many of the papers interest, as anyone with an interest in submitted to them without review, on the research can access it without hin- Until now, supporters of the open the grounds that the work is of insuffi- drance anywhere and at any time, and access movement have not had a top cient interest to their readers. The pub- authors and their funders can distrib- rank biology journal to publish in. lished papers are often accompanied by ute their article as they wish, ensuring Journal of Biology aims to be such a comments written by either working maximum dissemination of their work. journal. It will be published primarily scientists or science journalists. Impor- online, where each research paper will tantly, the authors of research articles Journal of Biology also differs from always be freely available to all, from in these journals usually have to assign traditional top rank journals in a the day it is published. A print form of copyright to the journals publisher, number of other ways. We believe that the journal will have an initial circula- and readers or their institutions have the more important the research tion of at least 75,000 life scientists. to pay a subscription charge in order to article, the more it deserves the best Each issue may contain only a single access the papers. treatment: thorough, fair and fast research article and its associated refereeing by the most appropriate ref- commentaries, as is the case for this In launching a new journal that erees, effective presentation of the first issue. We hope that you will aspires to join this top rank, we have article itself both on the web and in become a regular reader of the chosen to adopt an approach that print, and the informative promotion Journal of Biology and will aspire to differs from the above in two impor- of the article to all interested parties. publish your most interesting research tant ways. irst, no subscription fee or example, to provide readers with in it. We will do our best to publicize will be necessary to read the research different perspectives on the work, your paper, and you will be helping to articles in Journal of Biology. Second, Journal of Biology will provide two promote open access publishing. authors will retain copyright of their commentaries for each research article, papers. These are the principles of at least one of which will be written by Martin Raff, Editor-in-Chief, open access publishing, to which a scientist. To provide authors with the Journal of Biology Journal of Biology and its publisher, best service, decisions on which articles BioMed Central, are committed. to publish in the Journal of Biology Theodora Bloom, Editor, Although still in its infancy, open will be in the combined hands of a Journal of Biology access publishing has major benefits scientist Editor-in-Chief and a profes- for the scientific community, and it is sional Editor. No article will be rejected Peter Newmark, Editorial Director, supported by a ground swell of opinion without the advice of either a working BioMed Central