Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance: Open access in 2008

The traditional publication method has the disadvantage of research not being available to many without charge. This limits its visibility and impact. There is evidence that open access journal articles are more frequently accessed, which results in a greater impact and a higher citation rate [4]. Other attractive features for researchers include ownership of the copyright to their papers, same day posting of the manuscript on acceptance (in provisional form, with replacement by the final PDF and HTML versions within a few weeks after XML mark-up and typesetting), free use of colour, and the possibility of embedding supplementary material directly within the primary article (for example cines, data, weblinks) at no extra cost. One disadvantage of the new model is that no paper version of JCMR will be produced, but we believe this is more than offset by rapid email notification of new articles going online (please sign up for article alerts [1]) and direct selective printing in the office where needed, which disseminates articles faster with reduced environmental impact. Clearly, open access also means that research is available in economically disadvantaged regions of the world, and to the public – who have often paid for the research in the first place. Table 1 compares the publishing models, and a number of references are listed below which document some of the reports and discussions regarding the adoption of open access [5-9].For researchers, the new manuscript submission system can be accessed on-line [1] and is now fully operational. Please submit all new manuscripts through this system. The system is very similar to manuscript submission operated by other major journals. There may be some minor teething problems with its use in the first months, mainly because the editorial team has to adjust to using it, but we anticipate the impact of this learning curve will be very limited.The system of paying for the journal is very different from the conventional subscr