The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society and the Wellcome
Trust announced today that they are to support a new, top-tier, open access
journal for biomedical and life sciences research.
The three organizations aim to establish a new journal that will attract and
define the very best research publications from across these fields. All
research published in the journal will make highly significant contributions
that will extend the boundaries of scientific knowledge.
A team of highly regarded, experienced and actively practicing scientists
will ensure fair, swift and transparent editorial decisions followed by
rapid online publication. The first issue of the journal, whose name has yet
to be decided, is expected to be published in the summer of 2012.
The three research organizations developed their plans following a workshop
in 2010 at HHMI’s Janelia Farm Research Campus attended by a number of
leading scientists. The participants concluded that there was a need for a
model of academic publishing that better suits the needs of the research
community.
Dr. Robert Tjian, President of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, says: "
The message from the research community was clear: we are fortunate to have
many excellent journals, but there is need for a different, more appropriate
and efficient publishing model."
Professor Herbert Jäckle, Vice President of the Max Planck Society,
says: "A journal which aims to represent and publish the very best research
outcomes needs an editorial team of experienced – and, crucially, actively
practicing – scientists. It must also be editorially independent of those
who provide the financial support."
Sir Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust, says: "We will attract the
most outstanding science for publication by establishing a journal in which
researchers have confidence in robust editorial decisions taken by their
scientific peers. This will be a journal for scientists edited by scientists
. The ethos of the journal will be to avoid asking authors to make extensive
modifications or perform endless additional experiments before a paper can
be published."
Recruitment is under way for an Editor-in-Chief who – together with the
journal's editorial team – will be an experienced, active scientist. The
editorial team will be editorially independent of the funders. They will
rely on their scientific expertise and active research experience to
identify the best papers, make scientifically-based judgments and exercise
leadership in steering these papers through peer review.
The journal will employ an open and transparent peer review process in which
papers will be accepted or rejected as rapidly as possible, generally with
only one round of revisions, and with limited need for modifications or
additional experiments. For transparency, reviewers' comments will be
published anonymously.
As the journal will only exist online, it offers an opportunity to create a
journal and article format that will exploit the potential of new
technologies to allow for improved data presentation. The journal will be an
open access journal, i.e. the entire content will be freely available for
all to read, to reproduce and for unrestricted use. This open access system
will also enhance opportunities to share content and to more directly engage
the reader.
The three organizations have made a commitment to cover costs of launching
the journal to ensure its success. The long-term business model will be
developed by the incoming Editor-in-Chief and the team they build.
