Open Access to Traffic

Abstract

Several weeks ago Gary Ward and Suzanne Pfeffer, writing in the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) monthly newsletter, reminded the cell biology community of the recent vigorous debate on the state of scientific publishing (http://www.ascb.org/news/vol26no2/ns/february-03.html). The issues of concern center on the failure of many prominent publishers to permit unrestricted access to the content of their journals, rising subscription costs, and questions of copyright. In addition, there is a prevailing feeling of inequity that scientists, having found the funds to pay for the research, have to pay both to publish the work and then to access this published material. ASCB has adopted a clear policy of withdrawing support from journals that do not release their content within six months of publication. The Editors of Traffic support these views. With the backing of our publisher, Blackwell Munksgaard, we announce the following changes in our open access and copyright policies, and new on-line features aimed at better serving the scientific community. Open access after 6 months.Traffic's contents have already been freely accessible 12 months after publication. However, in response to the ASCB's policy, effective January 2004, we will release the contents of Traffic six months after publication. More rights retained by authors. Blackwell's new policy on copyright assignment lead to extended rights being retained by the author(s), or their organization(s), further facilitating open access. OnLineEarly. Within the year; papers will be published online as soon as the galley proofs are accepted, thus accelerating the communication of the results. Articles may be cited using DOIs. Electronic submission and manuscript tracking. The current informal electronic submission system has already been supplemented by a fully web-based and easily used electronic submission and review system, which will again accelerate publication. In the coming years you can expect Traffic to continue to respond to, and to meet the needs of, the cell biology community. We aim to keep the personal and institutional subscription rates reasonable, as well as maintaining page charges at a low flat-rate fee. Other large publishers have resisted the society's cries for open access, claiming that subscriptions will be lost and that the profits necessary to sustain the essential services provided by publishers will not be forthcoming. Therefore it is critical that, as a community, we actively support publishers that are willing to work together with scientists. This support can be expressed by submitting our papers to these journals, by taking out personal subscriptions, and by encouraging our libraries to do the same. Otherwise the fallacious argument – that open access and profitability are mutually exclusive – will be validated. Frances M. Brodsky, Mark Marsh, Sandra L. Schmid