Open Access Format Research Articles

Sound Exchange: Reframing Music Composition Educational Practice

Affordable technology facilitates an immediate documentation of sound and space that encourages collective artistic expression modeled after track- or song-remixing websites. Students in a newly proposed music composition course must capture and generate original sounds, and then upload them to a separate class drive for other students to reuse. New creative work consists entirely of these reused sounds. The author discusses the use of remixed sound collages in an open access format and considers the positive influence of legal file exchange and remixing in educational musical practice.

EURAPA moves to open access: Research trends and challenges in physical activity in old age.

The rise of the Internet has radically changed scholarly communication. It is now widely recognized that having an open access to research results contributes to better and more efficient science, and to innovation in the public and private sectors [1]. The global trend towards offering free online (open) access to the results of publicly-funded research (publications and data) has been a core strategy in the European Commission to accelerate the circulation of knowledge and thus innovation [1]. In accordance of this trend, the European Union (EU) is striving to improve access to scientific information and to boost the benefits of public investment in the research funded under the EU framework [2] so that everyone with access to the Internet can benefit from the latest scientific insights. As Editors-in-Chief of EURAPA, we very much look forward to the changes entailed in the journal’s transition to BioMed Central. Thanks to the open access format, the quality research and review articles that appear in our journal will be available to a much larger audience with an interest in aging and physical activity than was possible until now. EURAPA is the official publication of the European Group for Research into Elderly and Physical Activity (EGREPA). EGREPA fills an important niche in the study of physical activity for the elderly. The first volume of EURAPA, as the official journal of EGREPA, was issued on the occasion of the 6th World Congress on Aging and Physical Activity in London, Ontario, Canada in 2004. The first volumes were published without a publisher. The decision to publish EURAPA with Springer Publishers was taken in 2005. The first issue with Springer, Volume 3, Number 1, appeared in May 2006. EURAPA has meanwhile become a well-established and accepted peer-reviewed journal. With Volume 8, Number 1, 2011, EURAPA became an electronic-only version. The year 2011 also marked the introduction of new publication formats so that EURAPA began to accept papers in categories such as: original research, theoretical and methodological articles, brief reports, guest editors and guest editorials [3]. In January 2015 the journal began publishing with BMC with the intention of further expanding its role as an interdisciplinary platform for the development and dissemination of scientific research relating to physical activity and aging. A new editorial board, comprised of new scientists in all relevant areas was created. This is a great opportunity to express our appreciation and thanks to the founders of the journal – Prof. Michael Sagiv and Prof. Heinz Mechling. Prof. Sagiv was the Co-Editor-in-Chief for life and medical sciences and Prof. Mechling for behavioral sciences. Both of them were pioneers in research on physical activity and aging and contributed greatly to the success of the journal. We also extend our thanks to Dr. Michael Brach, who has served as an associate editor and continues to contribute in making the journal an important voice for research in our field. We would also like to extend sincere thanks to three academic institutes that have provided essential resources and necessary operational support to both EGREPA and EURAPA: The Zinman College of Physical Education and Sport Sciences at the Wingate Institute; The Institute of Movement and Sport Gerontology at the German Sport University, Cologne (former at University of Bonn); and the Institute of Sport at the Westfalische Wilhelms-University, Munster. We hope these institutes continue to provide their support. We also take the opportunity to thank all of our past reviewers for their service to the journal, the authors for their willingness to publish their work in EURAPA, and the readers, who have accepted EURAPA as a part of the scholarly literature.

A new open access journal

The mission of the new journal is to focus on the rapid dissemination of the science and practice of otolaryngology–head and neck surgery. As a companion journal to The Laryngoscope, the focus of Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology is to publish high-quality, original, peer-reviewed research across the spectrum of basic and clinical research in an open access format to the worldwide community. Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology will publish contributions in the form of comprehensive reviews, research articles, clinical trials, short reports, in-depth perspectives, and theoretical and/or translational articles. Negative results and confirmatory studies may be published as short communications. As you are probably aware, the publication model for an open access journal is different from a traditional subscription-model journal like The Laryngoscope. There is no subscription charge. Once accepted and published, the content is free and available to anyone in the world. Publication costs are paid by the authors through an article publication charge, and most research grants allow the use of grant funds for that purpose. In fact, studies funded by the National Institutes of Health and some other national funding agencies are required to be published in an open access journal. The Triological Society and editorial teams from The Laryngoscope and Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology welcome submissions to this new journal, effective immediately. You can submit articles at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/laryninvesotohns. Again, subscription is not required to read the journal. You can access Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology at laryngoscopeinvestigativeoto.com. D. Bradley Welling, MD, PhD Editor-in-Chief Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology Michael G. Stewart, MD, MPH Editor-in-Chief The Laryngoscope

Memórias and the Journal Citation Reports

We, as many other journal editors, have been looking at the recent release of the 2014 Journal Citation Reports by Thompson-Reuters. The results for the Memorias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz have again been gratifying; our two-year impact factor has increased to 1.592 while the Memorias is one of the few Latin American journals with a five-year impact factor above 2.0. The other indices released by Thomson-Reuters have provided even more impressive news for the Memorias. The journal continues not only to be the most highly cited scientific periodical (with 5,899 citations in 2014), but also has the highest Eigenfactor score (0.086) of any Latin American journal. The Eigenfactor is like the impact factor, but gives more weight to citations from highly cited journals and less weight to citations from less cited journals, and self-citations are also omitted from the calculation. However when we compare the Memorias to international journals worldwide the results are not so impressive. Here we have the same struggle as many other journals published in developing countries. That is, how can we attract the best manuscripts from our region, which tend to be sent by their authors to highly cited international journals? Even so the Memorias, in the tropical medicine category is classified within the top ten journals, using ranking by any of the indices mentioned above, while among parasitology journals the Memorias is ranked in the third quartile by impact factor. Tropical medicine and parasitology are the only two categories were Thomson-Reuters classifies the Memorias. Other data from the Journal Citation Reports show the changes in journal publishing. One is the growth of megajournals. There are now over 100 journals that publish 1,000 articles per year. PLoS One, that published more than 30,000 articles last year, heads the list. While many are traditional journals, such as Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and the Journal of Biological Chemistry, there are several newer open access (OA) journals as for instance the Scientific Reports from the Nature Publishing Group, which published nearly 4,000 articles with an impact factor of over 5.0. Another trend has been the rise of OA journals. In several categories, such as public health, tropical medicine and parasitology, the ranking of journals by impact factor is headed by OA journals. New OA journals such as eLife, which is sponsored by major research funders, have received their first impact factors (an impressive score of nearly 10) and flagship journals published by the major OA publishers have seen increases in their impact. Brazil is fortunate to have most of its scientific journals published as OA. This is principally due to the SciELO project, which provides an OA platform for selected Brazilian journals, including the Memorias. Many of the Brazilian journals, including the Memorias, are published under a special model of OA where no fees are charged to authors and readers sometimes referred to as Platinum Open Acess. These journals are funded by a variety of public resources (including institutional and research agency funding). This together with the pro bonowork of their editors and reviewers allows for a form of open public access: authors can contribute to the scientific literature and any member of the public can access this literature without any financial barriers. The scientific publication process is thus funded by the Brazilian taxpayers as a logical complement to their investment in scientific research. With this distinctive form of OA together with improvements in the quality of its contents and better dissemination of the journal we hope that the Memorias will continue to increase its impact in the coming years.

A word about supplemental materials

A word about supplemental materials

Crystals Best Paper Award 2015

first_page settings Order Article Reprints Font Type: Arial Georgia Verdana Font Size: Aa Aa Aa Line Spacing:    Column Width:    Background: Open AccessEditorial Crystals Best Paper Award 2015 by Helmut Cölfen Physical Chemistry, Universität Konstanz, Universitätsstraße 10, Box 714, D-78457 Konstanz, Germany Crystals 2015, 5(2), 273-274; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst5020273 Received: 2 June 2015 / Revised: 2 June 2015 / Accepted: 4 June 2015 / Published: 5 June 2015 Download Download PDF Download PDF with Cover Download XML Download Epub Browse Figure Versions Notes Graphical abstact Graphical Abstract An annual award has been instituted to recognize the outstanding papers published in Crystals. We are pleased to announce the first “Crystals Best Paper Award” for 2015.This year, nominations were made by the Editorial Office of Crystals based on citation counts among all the original research articles published in 2014 and 2013. The following three papers were chosen by the Prize Awarding Committee:Best Paper Award1st PrizePeter Politzer, Jane S. Murray, Goran V. Janjić and Snežana D. Zarićσ-Hole Hole Interactions of Covalently-Bonded Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Arsenic: A Survey of Crystal StructuresCrystals 2014, 4(1), 12–31; doi:10.3390/cryst4010012Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4352/4/1/12 “A fundamental work on noncovalent directional interactions”––Dr. Gerhard Laus“This article will have the largest long-time impact, not only for solid state research but in all fields of chemistry.”––Prof. Dr. Gerd Meyer2nd PrizeValentina F. DegtyarevaElectronic Origin of the Orthorhombic Cmca Structure in Compressed Elements and Binary AlloysCrystals 2013, 3(3), 419–430; doi:10.3390/cryst3030419Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4352/3/3/419 “This paper explains the commonly observed crystal structure in representative metals under high pressure from electronic origin. The focus is just on this journal.”––Prof. Dr. Hideo Hosono“Interesting analysis of pressure-dependent structural transformations.”––Dr. Gerhard Laus3rd PrizeIgor Shishkovsky, Floran Missemer, Nina Kakovkina and Igor SmurovIntermetallics Synthesis in the Fe–Al System via Layer by Layer 3D Laser CladdingCrystals 2013, 3(4), 517–529; doi:10.3390/cryst3040517Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4352/3/4/517 “This paper demonstrates the generation of a functional gradient of intermetallic FexAly structures by 3D laser cladding. The control of hardness in a multi-layer structure is a very interesting finding and has good industrial application potential.”––Prof. Dr. Helmut CölfenThese three outstanding papers are valuable contributions to Crystals. On behalf of the Prize Awarding Committee and the Editorial Board, we would like to congratulate these three teams for their excellent work. In recognition of their accomplishment, Dr. Peter Politzer, Dr. Valentina F. Degtyareva, and Dr. Igor Shishkovsky will receive the privilege to publish an additional paper free of charge in open access format in Crystals after the usual peer-review procedure.Prize Awarding CommitteeEditor-in-ChiefProf. Dr. Helmut CölfenPhysical Chemistry, Universität Konstanz, Universitätsstraße 10, Box 714, D-78457 Konstanz, GermanyE-Mail: [email protected]Former Editor-in-ChiefProf. Dr. Gerd MeyerInstitut für Anorganische Chemie, Universität zu Köln, Greinstraße 6, D-50939 Köln, GermanyE-Mail: [email protected]Editorial Board MemberProf. Dr. Hideo HosonoFrontier Research Center & Materials and Structures Laboratory, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama 226-8503, JapanE-Mail: [email protected]Editorial Board MemberDr. Gerhard LausCenter for Chemistry and Biomedicine, University of Innsbruck, 6020 Innsbruck, AustriaE-Mail: [email protected] © 2015 by the author; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Share and Cite MDPI and ACS Style Cölfen, H. Crystals Best Paper Award 2015. Crystals 2015, 5, 273-274. https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst5020273 AMA Style Cölfen H. Crystals Best Paper Award 2015. Crystals. 2015; 5(2):273-274. https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst5020273 Chicago/Turabian Style Cölfen, Helmut. 2015. "Crystals Best Paper Award 2015" Crystals 5, no. 2: 273-274. https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst5020273 Find Other Styles Article Metrics No No Article Access Statistics For more information on the journal statistics, click here. Multiple requests from the same IP address are counted as one view.

Advancing the Common Core Knowledge in Journalism and Mass Communication

It is a great honor and humbling experience for me to assume my position as the tenth editor of the Quarterly or Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly (JMCQ), the flagship journal of Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). First, I would like to thank my predecessor, Dan Riffe, who served JMCQ for the past fourteen years, for his mentorship when I was associate editor for the journal, and for his tremendous help during the transition. With my team of associate editors, David Atkin, Hong Cheng, Carolyn Kitch, Wilson Lowrey, and book review editor, Ron Rodgers, and the support of the AEJMC Publications Committee, I hope we can take JMCQ to a new height in this highly competitive academic journal publishing landscape with a plethora of communication journals, either in open access or subscription formats. Our new editorial advisory board members, who are accomplished scholars from across the globe, will add more international perspectives in our review process and help further globalize the impact of the journal with more geographical, institutional, and ethnic diversity.Print and Online PresencesI began my official term as the new editor by asking our readers and media scholars about their views of the journal through a readership survey. I am thankful to the 1,142 respondents who participated in the survey. The survey results revealed that among AEJMC member respondents, only 18.4% JMCQ exclusively online, while 69% either the print issue or both print and online versions. Based on the survey data, an article on the concern of journal impact factor and how media scholars' attributes affected the rating of JMCQ is included in this issue for our readers' reference.I would like to cultivate a regular reading habit of our print issue readers by our new regular features in each issue and let them know what to anticipate in every issue (see the new features of the journal below). AEJMC members will receive an electronic Table of Contents with links to article abstracts for every upcoming issue of JMCQ. To increase our online presence and fully utilize the JMCQ website and other social media, we will disseminate all accepted submissions as fast as we can as OnlineFirst articles on the JMCQ website at http://jmcq.sagepub.com/ and tweet about them on my official JMCQ Twitter account @LouisaHaJMCQ. Our JMCQ readers and authors who are on Twitter are strongly encouraged to follow it and retweet the postings. In addition, JMCQ website users will be able to find our read and cited articles based on our Hitwise online data and find answers to our most commonly asked questions.New Features of JMCQ1. Review essays by senior scholarsThere are several new regular features in JMCQ, beginning this issue. There will be a regular review essay of a major theoretical or methodological topic written by senior scholars in every issue. These essays are commissioned and blind-refereed by two or three senior scholars in the field. As a leader in the field, we hope to provide standards, best practices, and state-of-the-art reviews on these topics as a crash course for junior scholars and a refresher course for senior scholars. The first review essay this year is former associate editor and current editorial board member JeffSmith's review of media history articles. The choice is deliberate. JMCQ values both quantitative and qualitative research. Because of the change to American Psychological Association (APA) style, some may think JMCQ is discouraging qualitative or historical research. Jeff's essay helps both history researchers and nonhistory researchers to understand the contemporary implication of historical research and explains the standards for high-quality historical research for publication in our journal.2. Virtual theme collectionsThe second important new feature is our virtual theme collections of past JMCQ articles online. JMCQ, with its ninety years of history and as a prestigious flagship journal, has contributed many important pieces of scholarship on a wide variety of areas for our field. …

Water Best Paper Award 2015

To better recognize the outstanding papers in the area of water sciences and technology published in Water, we announce the institution of an annual award.[...]

The evolution of the global spine journal.

I am so excited about the new year and the combination of the Global Spine Journal (GSJ) and Evidence-Based Spine-Care Journal (EBSJ) into a single, international journal formally called the Global Spine Journal (GSJ). This combination allows for the maturation of the official journals of AOSpine International into a single, high-quality scientific academic publication. This will consist of the Global Spine Journal with original research articles, case reports, and review articles. The high-quality outstanding evidence-based reviews, that are typically associated with EBSJ, will be published as special issues of GSJ twice each year. This combined with the new open-access format of the journal, will allow for the appropriate dissemination of the international research and educational missions of AOSpine International. In 2015 we will be improving options for readers to access and download papers via their tablets/phones with a downloadable browser app. We will also be awarding our very first best paper prize to an author who published in 2014. In addition, our ongoing podcast series will continue to highlight key papers published in the journal. You can subscribe to these episodes via iTunes or download direct from the journals homepage. AOSpine continues to represent a truly global membership and academic spine society, with its mission dedicated to education, research, and community-development on a world-wide basis. This journal format will continue to allow the global research in the spine arena to be developed and presented to the world, along with challenging cases and superb review articles that will keep each spine practitioner up to date on the latest developments and ultimately allow for better patient care. I want to thank my two other Chief Editors of this publication, Jens Chapman, MD, and Karsten Wiechert, MD, for all of their efforts in launching this important endeavor. With their guidance, I am confident that this publication will be a leading academic forum for the presentation of spinal research and knowledge, and continue to fulfill the mission of the AOSpine professional medical association. I wish all of our readers and members a Happy New Year and I sincerely look forward to the years to come.

Addressing the challenges and limitations of utilizing data to study serial homicide

Conducting systematic research on serial homicide is complicated by variations in definition, sample size, data sources and collection procedures. This review will identify the challenges of utilizing data to study serial homicide and propose new methods to address these limitations. Almost three decades ago, Kiger (1990) highlighted the limitations of employing then existing data to study the social problem of serial murder and called for the creation of new sources to allow for quantitative assessments that used empirical data. In response, serial homicide researchers – previously operating in ‘information silos’ – contributed information to the ‘Serial Homicide Expertise and Information Sharing Collaborative’ to build a comprehensive record of serial homicide offending in partnership with the ‘Radford/FGCU Serial Killer Database Project’. Providing serial homicide data in an open access format empowers users to increase data reliability by interacting with the information to supply edits and corrections. Statistical evidence generated from the data enables analysts to disprove ingrained myths and stereotypes about serial murderers using valid data. Impaneled experts applied the Modified Delphi Technique and proposed adopting the broad term ‘multiple-event murderer’ to counter some institutionalized definitional differences. The exploration of creating a dashboard to track instances of serial homicide alongside further study of serial offenders committing revenge murders, witness elimination and robbery homicides, organized crime, contract and gang killings is recommended.

Thank You and Good Night

Welcome to the Fall 2014 issue of Advances in Social Work. This issue represents the last one on my watch, as I retired from the Indiana University School of Social Work (IUSSW) last May. Since the journal moved to its current online, open-access format in the Fall of 2008, I have had the privilege of serving as its Editor, managing peer review, making final decisions, relaying both positive and negative news to authors, producing the issues, and trying to raise the profile of the journal. During that time we have seen an increase in manuscript submissions and the production of a number of excellent special, thematic issues under the guidance of exceptional guest editors. We now have nearly 1,000 registered users from all over the globe, more than 350 of whom also serve as peer reviewers. All of our archives, dating back to the very first issue in 2000, are now readily available from the Advances website.

Clinical movement disorders - a new era.

We are proud to announce the launch of a new open access journal, entitled Journal of Clinical Movement Disorders (JCMD). The aim of the journal is to offer an open access forum for the publication of scientifically rigorous articles focusing on the natural history, etiology, evaluation and treatment of patients with a wide range of movement disorders [1]. We are interested in topics important to the practicing clinician, but especially in articles that explore the ways in which translational approaches are changing the evaluation and treatment of patients with movement disorders in the 21st century. We are particularly pleased to launch JCMD as a fully open access journal. At present, only one journal devoted to movement disorders (Tremor and Other Hyperkinetic Disorders) offers an open access format. We believe that the open access format offers numerous advantages to traditional publication strategies. Articles will be published as soon as they are accepted, markedly decreasing the time for evaluation and distribution. All articles are available online at no cost throughout the world, enabling the widest possible reach for the journal irrespective of a reader’s location or economic resources [2]. Authors will continue to hold copyright for their work, and articles will be archived in PubMed Central. The online format allows articles to be published without constraints on length of text. Further, the format is a perfect vehicle for publication of videos demonstrating salient features in articles, a critical feature of clinical movement disorders. JCMD will publish articles covering the full spectrum of movement disorders including hypokinetic disorders (Parkinson’s disease, atypical parkinsonian disorders such as multiple system atrophy, progressive supranuclear palsy, corticobasal syndrome, dementia with Lewy body disease, frontotemporal dementia, etc.), and usual and unusual hyperkinetic disorders (myoclonus, chorea, tics, tremor, dystonia, stereotypies, paroxysmal movement disorders, etc.). We are interested in both descriptive articles that illustrate phenotype, as well as hypothesis driven articles that explore the etiology, genetics, pharmacology, neuroimaging and treatment options for these patients. Submissions on both adult and pediatric disorders are welcome, and we are particularly interested in novel treatments such as deep brain stimulation. Special features that we plan to integrate into the journal include a clinical phenomenology section, a section devoted to current controversies, and reviews that summarize important findings in the field. All manuscripts submitted to JCMD will be independently reviewed by two experts in the field, by a member of the Editorial Board and by the Editor-in-Chief. We are interested in publishing articles of the highest quality and novelty, but will also consider research that may be of more general interest to readers due to novel clinical or examination features, clinical relevance or unusual phenotype, even if the findings are confirmatory. We believe that clinical movement disorders is unique as a subspecialty area in neurology, in that many are drawn to the field by the complexity and subtlety of the clinical examination, and the way in which 21st century technologies can help illuminate these findings. The Editorial Board of JCMD includes 43 members from 11 different countries [3]. We believe that the broad expertise and international reputations of the Editorial Board attests to their confidence that JCMD will succeed. We hope that you enjoy JCMD, and that you will consider it when deciding where to publish your work. Welcome!

The Open Access Advantage for American Law Reviews

Open access legal scholarship generates a prolific discussion, but few empirical details have been available to describe the scholarly impact of providing unrestricted access to law review articles. The present project fills this gap with specific findings on what authors and institutions can expect. Articles available in open access formats enjoy an advantage in citation by subsequent law review works of 53%. For every two citations an article would otherwise receive, it can expect a third when made freely available on the Internet. This benefit is not uniformly spread through the law school tiers. Higher tier journals experience a lower OA advantage (11.4%) due to the attention such prestigious works routinely receive regardless of the format. When focusing on the availability of new scholarship, as compared to creating retrospective collections, the aggregated advantage rises to 60.2%. While the first tier advantage rises to 16.8%, the mid-tiers skyrocket to 89.7%. The fourth tier OA advantage comes in at 81.2%.Citations of legal articles by courts is similarly impacted by OA availability. While the 15-year aggregate advantage is a mere 9.5%, new scholarship is 41.4% more likely to be cited by a court decision if it is available in open access format.

What is the Future of Scholarly Journals in an Open Access Environment?

A growing number of colleges and universities are requiring faculty to publish manuscripts accepted in peer-reviewed journals on their internal school websites in open access format so all of the articles would be available free to the public. This is exciting to anyone who wants to share knowledge and enhance the visibility of ideas, but mildly terrifying to publishers of scholarly journals. If people can get any article online for free, why would anyone pay to subscribe to a journal? This “disruption” is likely to cause some difficult transitions for faculty, colleges, and universities and publishers, as well as some innovation.

Eic Message

It has been just little more than a year from the launching date of the IEEE <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing</i> ( <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">TETC</i> ) and I am honored to report to you on the many success stories that have occurred over this time period. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">TETC</i> has published 4 issues (exclusive of the current one) in 2013 and 2014, as evidenced by Special Issues and Sections on a diverse range of topics such as Cyber-Physical Systems; Emerging Nanoscale Architectures for Hardware Security, Trust, and Reliability; Computational Sustainability. A total of 50 manuscripts have been published (31 in 2013 and 19 in 2014); all these manuscripts are now available in Open Access (OA) format at the IEEE Xplore Digital Library.

Editorial for inaugural issue of Journal of Brachial Plexus and Peripheral Nerve Injury

Today marks the publication date of the inaugural issue of the Journal of Brachial Plexus and Peripheral Nerve Injury [1]. My immediate thanks goes out to my co-editor in chief, Professor Rolfe Birch, Head of the Royal National Orthopedic Hospital Peripheral Nerve Unit, in London, U.K. Professor Birch is a living encyclopedia of the history and development of peripheral nerve injury management and has been an invaluable personal and scientific resource for guiding the journal from initial planning to the first steps it is taking now. Our aim is that the journal will be the pre-eminent repository of knowledge for brachial plexus and peripheral nerve injury science. Injury in this context does not imply trauma alone, but any derangement of the anatomy, physiology or biochemistry that results in an altered state of functioning, truly an unlimited scope for a fascinating and important field. The journal is in open access format, in my view the only relevant such model in these times where information must be freely available to all. The traditional subscription-based model inherently denies free access to knowledge and seems contrary to the spirit of scientific thought. In support of this concept, we have arranged with BioMed Central to subsidize the costs of publication for the first two years of publication. Therefore, there are no barriers to publication of high quality science or to access to this knowledge. It is very important to note that all submissions, upon approval by our peer review process, are immediately indexed in PubMed and archived in PubMed Central, the full-text repository of the United States National Library of Science. Many other growing indexers such as Google Scholar will also display our articles, making them more widely read and accessible than any other system. Our goal is to have a rapid peer review process, and we will make every effort to make an initial decision within 6 weeks of submission. The peer review process will match knowledgeable reviewers with submitted manuscripts to produce high quality articles of interest and scientific merit. The process is confidential so that criticisms and revisions are made in the fairest manner possible. The final decision on publication will be made by the editors in chief. We will look for submissions of interesting and important scientific information that hopefully will have clinical application. This focus does not deny the relevance of basic research, it embraces it: the future of nerve injury management lies in manipulation of molecular mechanisms, less so in classic surgical and medicinal treatments. Whether there are obvious clinical implications or not, high quality research of all types will be nurtured and presented with pride in the journal. One of the main goals of our endeavor is to cultivate cross disciplinary dialogues to enhance our understanding of mechanisms and to develop strategies for treatment of various disorders. As an example, a neurologist may be interested to know the potential application of surgical techniques such as nerve transfer to upper motor neuron lesions like stroke that are not fully treatable with medicines; conversely, surgeons should be aware of potential sensory and motor imbalances typically see by neurologists which may be candidates for surgical treatment. And both groups will enhance their management of patients by knowledge of breakthroughs in underlying molecular mechanisms. Prior to today's inauguration Journal of Brachial Plexus and Peripheral Nerve Injury, there has been no single, dedicated place to discuss these critical issues. We have the opportunity to improve the quality of life of so many people in developing countries and otherwise disadvantaged situations. The talent and determination of our readers is a resource with unlimited potential and we have this as a motive to produce and foster new scientific thought for the benefit of the community affected by brachial plexus and nerve injury. This is the most exciting concept of all. I look forward to a most interesting future for Journal of Brachial Plexus and Peripheral Nerve Injury and for the International Society for Brachial Plexus and Peripheral Nerve Injury [2]. Our editorial board includes world leaders in all areas of our field and a comprehensive international distribution. There is every reason to expect that we will set new standards for the study of peripheral nerve injury and in the process improve public health significantly. I thank our editorial board and our contributors and readers for their interest and efforts in advancing this worthy cause.

Retirement of Hugh A. Tilson

Vol. 122, No. 8 EditorialOpen AccessRetirement of Hugh A. Tilson Linda S. Birnbaum, and Rick Woychik Linda S. Birnbaum Search for more papers by this author and Rick Woychik Search for more papers by this author Published:1 August 2014https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1408939AboutSectionsPDF ToolsDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InReddit Linda S. BirnbaumRick WoychikAs announced in the April 2014 issue (Tilson 2014), Hugh A. Tilson will be stepping down as Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) on 1 August 2014. With his departure, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) is now actively recruiting for a new Editor-in-Chief. Dr. Tilson is generously offering to continue to stay involved with the journal during the period of transition until his successor can be identified. A search committee has been formed and is actively seeking to identify world-class environmental health scientists who have the qualifications and interests to serve in this role. If you are interested in learning more about the position, please send an e-mail to either of us (see e-mail addresses below). For information on how to apply for the position, contact Angela Davis in the National Institutes of Health Office of Human Resources ([email protected]).On behalf of the NIEHS and the National Toxicology Program, we want to express appreciation for Dr. Tilson’s efforts over the past 6.5 years. Since January 2008, when he assumed the role of Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Tilson has played a significant role in moving the journal to where it is today—one of the premier peer-reviewed journals in environmental health sciences. Dr. Tilson has worked diligently to improve the quality of the journal. The impact factor has moved steadily upward—from 5.86 in 2008 to 7.26 in 2013. He has also worked hard to ensure a more diverse readership. The submission of papers from Asia, particularly from China, has almost quadrupled over the past 6 years, and EHP has further expanded its accessibility by disseminating news and research to readers via social media such as Twitter and Facebook. EHP, one of the first scientific journals to move to an open access format, continued to demonstrate its leadership by becoming one of the first scientific journals to go to an online-only version in January 2013. Hugh Tilson has done a remarkable job and has much to be proud of during his tenure as Editor-in-Chief of EHP!ReferenceTilson HA. 2014. Letter from the Editor-in-Chief.Environ Health Perspect 122:A88; doi:10.1289/ehp.1408430. Link, Google ScholarFiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Vol. 122, No. 8 August 2014Metrics About Article Metrics Publication History Originally published1 August 2014Published in print1 August 2014 Financial disclosuresPDF download License information EHP is an open-access journal published with support from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health. All content is public domain unless otherwise noted. Note to readers with disabilities EHP strives to ensure that all journal content is accessible to all readers. However, some figures and Supplemental Material published in EHP articles may not conform to 508 standards due to the complexity of the information being presented. If you need assistance accessing journal content, please contact [email protected]. Our staff will work with you to assess and meet your accessibility needs within 3 working days.

Two Models for Sharing Digital Open Educational Resources

Two contrasting models to facilitate the sharing of digital educational resources available for Higher Education are reviewed. The first model is based upon a low-input / open-access format that identifies, reviews then integrates digital resources taken from the global open educational resources pool into a course structure. New resources are added where required and the totality is contextualised for the specific current curriculum requirements. The second model is based upon a membership system linking global schools in any subject but trialled in dentistry to create, structure and curate a common pool of digital educational resources. The models selected have their roots in common initial goals but have chosen different routes to structure and fund their development in their search for sustainability. The models are contrasted and compared in terms of ease of use and contextualisation, and some general lessons for further OER development are drawn.

Open Access in China: A Study of Social Science Journals

To learn about the current situation of open access (OA) in Chinese social science journals, 714 journals listed in the Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index (CSSCI) in 2012 to 2013 were chosen to investigate, and search engines were used to analyze the OA status of these journals and their articles. The results showed that 13.73 per cent of journals in the CSSCI are OA, their OA format is mostly PDF, and 84.69 per cent of their OA resources are gathered from the publishing years 2004 to 2012. The level of OA journals focusing on different subjects is unbalanced in China. Articles from each journal published in 2007 were selected according to different standards to study the relationship of OA and citation. The results showed that the OA level of highly cited articles is higher than that of low- and non-cited articles. Factors that may restrict OA development in China were analyzed.

Editorial: Asia Pacific Journal on Computational Engineering

© A m Editorial During my long career of 40 years as a researcher and professor at the University of Liege, Belgium, I have always been interested in running a scientific journal in my field. But due to lack of time, I had put on hold this hot desire. Indeed, during the last 20 years in activity, I pursued the dual functions of permanent full professor in Belgium and founder professor coordinator of the two centers of international interuniversity Master's degree training in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, Vietnam. It is only during my retirement where I returned to Vietnam, that I have the time to start working on this idea, initially receiving effective encouragement by the leaders of Ton Duc Thang university. It was during the period when I was senior advisor of this university that the founding agreement with Springer was signed, and APJCEN could appear as you see today. When the Asia Pacific Journal on Computational Engineering (APJCEN) was opened for submissions in 2013, I was aware of the difficulties caused by the current competition in this sector of scientific information, especially with the open-access format that is not yet very attractive to researchers in the world. Nevertheless, encouraged by the support of more than 50 leading scientists from around the world and especially the partnership agreement of the famous publisher Springer, the advent of APJCEN has finally emerged as you see today. APJCEN has set out as an international multidisciplinary peer-reviewed publication devoted to disseminating research in and development of theoretical and applied mechanics. APJCEN constitutes a forum for researchers to present their original work and scholarly reviews of solid mechanics, fluid mechanics, structural mechanics, material modeling, multiphysics, and thermodynamics with significant computational components. The journal will adopt a multidisciplinary approach to link physical, experimental, and mechanics as applied to the development of and practice in computational engineering. The journal is committed to providing comprehensive and innovative techniques in computational engineering. The regional denomination means only that the secretariat team is located in Asia, but you may recognize that the list of editorial board consists of renowned scientists from around the world! In fact, this dissemination of computational methods and their applications should impact research and education at universities, as well as developments in research institutions and industries throughout the Asia Pacific Region, mostly in ASEAN countries, and particularly in Vietnam. We hope that the journal will attract young researchers to