PRS Global Open's Evolution: Logo, Growth, and Mission.

Abstract

“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” William Shakespeare Two years after the launch of PRS Global Open, several associate editors, regional editors, members of the managing committee, and staff from the Editorial Office, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, and Wolters Kluwer gathered in Dallas to discuss the successes-so-far and the strategic path forward for our journal. It dawned on us rather quickly that PRS Global Open was no longer in a launch phase. The journal had exceeded all benchmarks and expectations. The mission and goals had evolved beyond what was originally planned. The journal was no longer in “launch” phase at all; we were now in “growth phase.” As our journal was growing up, we had a unique opportunity. As one member so pointedly put it: PRS GO (as it was then known) had effectively “left the nest” built by our other journal, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. As such, it was time for the journal to truly set forth into the world and make a name for itself. A NAME FOR ITSELF We discussed fully renaming the journal: “Global Journal of Plastic Surgery,” “International Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery,” “Plastic Surgery Case Reports and Original Research—Open Access.” There is no wrong answer in brainstorming, but this session made us realize that the name we had—the name the journal was born with—was on point and described the journal and the mission perfectly. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery—Global Open or PRS Global Open for short was the ideal title. The journal will remain to be known as PRS Global Open. What was deemed by this group as less than desirable was the journal’s nickname. “PRS GO” presented a mixed marketing message. There were reports of confusion: is it just an online version of PRS? Is it PRS but just more mobile friendly? There were discussions that the word “go” made the journal seem a bit “‘gimmicky.” So, we decided to only refer to the journal by “PRS Global Open” in all official communications, on the website, on the articles, on Editorial Manager letters, in the URL, and everywhere else possible. LOGO A GO-GO A voice called out: “What about the logo?” We love our original logo. But, as pointed out in our meeting, the most prominent word on that logo was “GO.” The group decided that a new logo was needed. Our designers in the Editorial Office and at Wolters Kluwer worked on ideas from the spring and into the summer. We workshopped them with journal leadership. By the Editorial Board meetings in fall of 2015 in Boston and Seoul and winter 2016 meeting in Paris, we had it narrowed down to 3 final options, which were commented on, voted on, and ultimately decided upon. We proudly present the new logo to you today and hope you like it as much as we do. The new logo will begin appearing on articles themselves on July 1, 2016, and will roll out to all aspects of the journal thereafter (Fig. 1).Fig. 1.: PRS Global Open logo.MISSION STATEMENT Although some analysts might say that changing a highly visible logo for any product approximately 3 and a half years after launching a product might be ill advised, we think that the timing is perfect because this new logo signifies the evolved mission of the journal. This far into the growth of PRS Global Open, it has become evident that the mission of the journal has evolved beyond our initial calculations: what you, the readers, and writers of the journal are actually using the journal for is trending and amazing, so we have followed your lead and will continue to guide the journal along this pathway toward the future. Initially, we launched the journal with the intent of being “The best peer reviewed, open access, international plastic surgery literature in the world.” Now, please don’t misunderstand us: we truly believe that this journal is made up of the best peer reviewed, open access, global plastic surgery literature in the world, and we will only continue to aim to set a high bar for open access plastic surgery research. However, as we watched you, read your articles, and listened to your voices and concerns, we saw you using the journal differently. It did not necessarily matter if all of the articles published were the newest findings in the world; you wanted to publish it, others of you read and spread it…widely. Content that may not be new in Manhattan but may still need to be read today in Moscow or Mumbai. Or treatments standard in Seoul may be of interest to surgeons in Chicago. The goal became clear: these articles—validated by peer review and free-to-read by anyone, anywhere with an internet connection—were aimed at informing and educating plastic and reconstructive surgeons, affiliated specialists, and—to some extent—their patients to improve the patient experience. It is with that understanding that we slightly course corrected and were able to reframe our vision for the future of the journal, which is “To publish and promote validated open access science, techniques, and cases, which aim to enhance physician knowledge and thus improve outcomes, safety, and patient care for all plastic surgeons and affiliated specialists globally.” It seems the perfect confluence of events: a refined title, a new logo, independent editorial process, and evolved mission. These statements encapsulate what we are aiming for with PRS Global Open. Now, we would like to take a brief moment to discuss some of the ways we are acting upon it. ABSTRACTS AND PROCEEDINGS PRS Global Open has worked with societies and groups from Italy, Ireland, America, Russia, and more to bring abstracts and proceedings from regional and local plastic surgery societal meetings to publication. We often opine on how much we love abstracts: they are the future, but now, they are the seeds of what will grow to be great forests of research and innovation; they are the incubated egg, waiting to be hatched. By partnering with these global groups to publish their members’ abstracts and proceedings for the entire world to see for free online, we feel we are taking great steps toward fulfilling our mission. The abstracts you read in PRS Global Open may be developed into full-fledged papers that could be published in any journal across the world, including here if the authors so desire. But today and for perpetuity, the essence, the promise, and the premise of those papers—the abstracts and proceedings—are presented for all to read and learn from. You may be unable to go to your local meeting, let alone one for a society of colleagues half-way across the world, but with these publications, we are bringing the world of plastic surgery ideas to you, one abstract at a time. INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS In the 21st century, the missions for many journals—not just our own—have evolved. For the most part, the landscape is decreasingly “isolationist” and “sharing” is becoming the force du jour. With our refined mission to expand medical knowledge and improve patient safety, outcomes, and care firmly declared, we knew that we needed to share more to connect more physicians with more content. PRS Global Open being an open access journal is helping us obtain these goals. Cooperation between open access journals and sharing of “log-in free” content creates a new landscape of complex mutually beneficial relationships in which “all ships can rise with the tide.” In this collaborative model, the “winner” is the customer: the readers, the authors, and the patients. As paywalls disappear, there are fewer barriers to content; the more discoverable the content is, the more interconnected our readers become. In this spirit, we have launched and grown a network of global journals and societies from Korea, India, Pakistan, Russia, Spain, United States, and more with whom we reciprocally share content. They promote our articles on their sites, and we do the same with their content. As International Partners, we are helping each other increase potential readership, improve search engine optimization, and—most importantly—help link readers, patients, and authors across the globe. WHAT IS IN AN APC? There are no subscriptions to PRS Global Open, and therefore, there are no barriers for readers to get to the content; the content is free for all to read. The economic engine of the open access publishing model necessitates an Article Processing Charge (APC) to cover the review, production, publication, and promotion costs for each published paper. We have worked hard to make sure that our rates are not only competitive but in many cases better than most other open access journals in the affiliated specialties. That said, we are aware that APCs can be a barrier to submission for those from specific regions of the world. For that reason, in April 2015, we instituted special discounted APC rates (up to 30% off) for authors from emerging countries. We will continue this practice not only to encourage authors from these regions to submit their findings but also to encourage international collaboration among researchers as well. VIDEO ARTICLE To encourage surgeons from all over the world to publish and share their operative and clinical techniques, we have recently created a new article type for a video-based short submission. In the highly visual field of plastic and reconstructive surgery, we know that pictures can truly be worth a thousand words, and a video can be worth even more. With that in mind, we set the parameters of this article type to accommodate 500 words of text only, along with up to 20 minutes of video separated into no more than 5 clips. With our lowest APC cost ($379), we truly hope that this peer-reviewed “article type” provides even more surgeons’ voices to be heard around the world. Open access publishing allows us to forge ahead into an important facet in the future of publishing: the published material in PRS Global Open is able to be read by anyone, anywhere; and therefore the best vehicle to get plastic surgery information to surgeons worldwide, for free. We are forging a new path forward with our partners around the globe, including worldwide readers, researchers, and writers such as you. Our new logo signifies this new pathway forward. Thank you for your help in making this journal what it is today and thank you for joining us on our journey forward into the future of PRS Global Open.