Supporting Open Access and the AAOF

Abstract

I am excited to report that the Board of Directors of the American Association of Orthodontists Foundation (AAOF) recently approved funding that will result in significant support for continuing open access to The Angle Orthodontist online. The AAOF will provide $25,000 per year for the next 3 years to help preserve the Angle archives and disseminate its orthodontic scientific information throughout the world without charge to all who seek its rich assets. This marks an important step forward in ensuring that the Angle Heritage Campaign, whose purpose is to support the online Angle Orthodontist in perpetuity, will be successful in reaching its $2 million goal. I am proud to be able to count the AAOF among the many distinguished contributors to this scholarly and worthy cause. The Angle Orthodontist is the only major scientific orthodontic journal with an open access policy to allow free, convenient, and unencumbered use of its current and historical archives for readers throughout the world. During the time that the open access policy has been in place, submission of new manuscripts for publication has increased exponentially (from 120 in 2001 to nearly 1000 in 2012) and the journal’s impact factor has nearly doubled (from 0.70 in 2000 to 1.21 in 2011). The website housing the journal’s pages is visited .40,000 times by .25,000 unique visitors each month by users in 145 countries worldwide (Google Analytics, Nov 8–Dec 8, 2012 data). In 2005, The Angle Heritage Campaign fund was created to keep The Angle Orthodontist as a free, open access journal forever. Over $1 million has been collected toward the $2 million goal. The recently approved additional support from the AAOF is greatly appreciated and will significantly boost efforts to fulfill the journal’s mission. This means that all those who have donated to the AAOF in the past now hold a share of the credit for The Angle Orthodontist’s future success. The goal of the AAOF is to ensure the future viability of the orthodontic specialty by investing in the next generation of educators and researchers. Since 1994, the AAOF has provided nearly $10 million in funding primarily in support of junior faculty members. Their campaign has been extraordinarily successful not only in terms of obtaining monetary backing but also, most significantly, in focusing the specialty’s attention on the importance of preserving and strengthening its scientific and educational base. I am pleased to say that I was a recipient of 3 AAOF biomedical research awards when I was a junior faculty member. Later, I spent 6 years serving on its Planning and Awards Review Committee (PARC). These experiences have helped to make me aware of the substantial positive impact that the AAOF has had and continues to have on the orthodontic specialty. The Edward H. Angle Society of Orthodontists shares several goals with the AAOF. Among its purposes are: