The Move to Online Journal Access, Is this Necessary?

Our journals, JBMR-A and JBMR-B will be moving to online access only in January of 2016. What are the issues and concerns with regard to this move and what will be the impact on both journals and users in the coming years? At the Denver meeting in 2014, the editorial boards of both journals met and considered the conversion to online access only. The overwhelming majority of both editorial boards along with journal editors, Drs. James Anderson and Jeremy Gilbert, were in favor of this change. Is there evidence to support this move to online access only? In 2013, online-only institutional subscriptions in the United States for both journals was at 94%. This is the trend for most journals at institutions of higher learning which began around fifteen years ago, most likely coinciding with the large use of electronic information data bases. What are the advantages of moving to all online access format? First, our journals have seen a steady increase in submissions, for example, for JBMR-A in 2010, there were 867 submissions and in 2014, there were 1092 submissions. This has led to a burden on the editorial board to review more articles and the journal to publishing more quality articles. Interestingly, the review process or manuscript handling for JBMR-A during this same time, decreased from 42 to 23 days from average time to first decision on a manuscript and time from acceptance to early view publication decreased from 119 days to 42 days. Perhaps these two aspects are most compelling for online access as state-of-the-art and cutting edge research can be published faster, which should entice more submissions and increase our impact in the field of biomaterials. At the same time, rejection rates also increased from 60 to 66% but the impact factor of JBMR-A increased from 2.625 in 2011 to 3.369 in 2014 and JBMR-B from 2.147 to 2,759 in 2014; these are very encouraging trends. A second important issue that should impact this trend is the addition of more pages to our online issues as well as addition of color images at no charge to the authors. Wiley, our publisher, has indicated that we should be able to increase the number of pages in each issue as well as being able to include color images as well as larger datasets and models which have also been on the rise in recently submitted articles. In addition, there will be a number of special journal issues, known as “virtual issues”. These virtual issues will begin in 2016 with the first ones involving compilation (republishing) of important biomaterials articles from our SFB affiliates from Korea and Japan. These virtual issues will be similar to what was done in 2012, when the 25 most important biomaterials articles were published in an online virtual issue. Finally, Wiley has indicated that a new app (free to SFB members) will be available next year which should allow for another method of journal access even when not connected to the internet. Are there any consequences in moving to online access journals only? Obviously, a major concern is the ability to read a printed copy. At the most recent JBMR-A editorial board meeting in Charlotte, 97% of the board members indicated they were reading only online journals instead of consistently reading a hard copy. Will the price of an online access only be lowered compared to having either print or print and online access? At present this does not appear to be the case but the addition of changes to journal processing, color reproduction, free app for phones and more articles published may indicate the need to remain at the same cost. This may be a bigger issue for many journals and their associated societies as this has not been the case of reduced costs for individual or libraries. The cost of online access should reduce print and mailing costs but other costs may be associated with use of electronic media. However, a more compelling and important issue to consider is that our Society For Biomaterials benefits from our journal revenue, so reduced costs will likely affect the SFB's bottom line. Our journals, JBMR-A and JBMR-B are important to our Society as well as its members in publication of its most prestigious, state-of-the-art and cutting edge research. It is clear that the move to electronic access was forthcoming and even though some may argue for having a paper copy to read, we need to move forth in this digital age to be competitive in the biomaterials field that has been adding new journals every year. By adding more pages, limiting color costs, having special editions and reducing turn-around time to first appearance, our journals should have increased popularity and increase our visibility and impact in biomaterials science. Thus, the change to online access is a move in the right direction for our journals and our society. Nicholas P. Ziats, Ph.D. Editorial Board, JBMR-A Past-President, Society for Biomaterials, 2014-2015 University Hospitals of Cleveland Department of Pathology Case Western Reserve University 2103 Cornell Road WRB Room 5143 Cleveland, OH 44106-7288 [email protected]