New Online Access Policy for Neuron

Abstract

We are very pleased to announce a change in the access policy for Neuron and the entire Cell Press journal collection. Beginning in January of 2005, we will provide free access to the online archive of Neuron and the other Cell Press journals for content that is 12 months old or older. This policy applies to the recent archive that dates from 1995, when Cell Press first published online. Free access to this archive will be available on both ScienceDirect.com and the Cell Press journal sites, including www.neuron.org. From January onward, all Cell Press issues from 1995 through December 2003 will be freely available. Each month, as new issues are published, year-old content will be added to the freely accessible recent archive. In making this change, we are incorporating the principle of a freely accessible archive without adopting the Open Access author-pays business model, which we believe is untested and potentially flawed from both editorial and financial perspectives. Many members of the scientific community, editorial board members, authors, and reviewers have discussed these issues with me and the other Neuron editors, over the phone, at meetings, and during lab visits. I speak for all the editors at Neuron and Cell Press when I say that we are all enormously grateful for all the input and are very pleased that through an open dialogue with the scientific community we were able to arrive at this positive outcome. The editors at Cell Press are committed to making a positive contribution to scientific communication through publishing journals that serve the community's needs and are widely disseminated. To that end, we are pleased to be able to add our new policy to these existing initiatives:– participation in the HINARI project of the WHO, which distributes journals for free to developing countries (http://www.healthinternetwork.org/index.php);– a copyright policy that gives authors liberal rights;– free advance online publication of selected papers;– online submission and review for the convenience of authors and reviewers;– conference sponsorship and prizes. This year, Neuron will be hosting “Neurons and Memory,” the second annual Neuron satellite meeting at the SFN meeting in San Diego on October 21–22. We are extremely grateful for the support and interest that the community has extended to Neuron over the years, and as always, we look forward to any feedback you may have on these and other editorial issues.