This is the PPT for the presentation at AFFRIT in Japan on 1st July 2013. It was presented by Dr Nandita Quaderi who is the publisher of Biological Sciences at BioMed Central.

1. An Overview of BioMed Central and
the Growth of Open Access
Publishing
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Research
Information Technology Center (AFFRIT)
1st
July 2013
Dr Nandita Quaderi
Publisher, Biological Sciences

2. My Role and Background
• I joined BioMed Central in 2005 as an Acquisitions Editor
• I am now Publisher (Biological Sciences) and have responsibility for:
- The strategy that guides the expansion and development of
BioMed Central's portfolio of 70+ biology journals
- BioMed Central’s strategic journal acquisition activities in the
Middle East, India and Far East
• Background:
- BA in Chemistry (U. Oxford)
- PhD in Molecular Genetics (Imperial College, U. London)
- Post-doc Human Genomics (TIGEM, Milan, Italy)
- Lab Head MRC Centre for Developmental Neurobiology, King's
College London (funded by the Wellcome Trust)

3. Summary
• What is the open access (OA) publishing model?
• A short introduction to BioMed Central’s journals

4. What is Open Access?

5. What is Open Access (OA)?
Open access articles are defined by two
fundamental criteria:
• Price barriers (e.g. subscription fees) are removed
• Permission barriers (e.g. copyright restrictions)
are removed

6. Benefits of Publishing in an OA
Journal
Benefits of OA for readers Benefits of OA for authors
Removal of subscription barriers
allows immediate electronic access to
peer-reviewed articles
High visibility and maximum exposure
of articles – increase chances of
articles being noticed, read or cited
Easy to search for articles of interest -
can use Google as well as traditional
indexing services such as PubMed
No limits on article length or additional
charges for inclusion of colour figures,
video clips or large data sets
Allowed to copy, distribute and re-use
content as long as original article is
correctly attributed
Retain copyright of published content

7. Article-processing charges
The article-processing charge (APC; £1115-1475/ USD 1755 -2321) covers:
• Editorial: handling of manuscripts
• Technical: development, maintenance and operation of online journal
platforms and manuscript handling systems
• Production: Formatting and mark up of articles, inclusion in indexing
services
• Marketing: Making sure readers and authors know about the journal
• Customer service: Responding to authors/readers
No extra charge for inclusion of colour figures, videos/animations or
large data sets (no limits on article length)

8. Creative Commons Licences
• Allow redistribution and reuse of OA articles
• Unlike traditional journals, copyright lies with authors, not publishers
• Maximum dissemination
CC BY
Lets all others distribute, reuse and build upon your work, even
commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation
• Limited dissemination (several varieties)
CC BY- NC
This license lets others reuse and build upon your work non-
commercially as long as they credit you for the original creation.

9. The Changing Landscape of
Open Access Publishing
2000 2013
And many more…

10. Growth in Open Access Journals

11. Growth in Open Access Articles
Source: Anatomy of open access publishing: a study of longitudinal development and internal structure, Mikael Laakso
and Bo-Christer Björk
BMC Medicine, 2012, 10: 124

12. Growth in Submissions and Publications
(Japan)

13. Models of Open Access Publishing
‘Full’ Open Access‘Full’ Open Access
•Whole journal is OA•Whole journal is OA
‘Green’ Open Access‘Green’ Open Access
•Self-archiving of author
manuscript on author
website, institutional or
subject-based
repositories
•Self-archiving of author
manuscript on author
website, institutional or
subject-based
repositories
‘Gold’ Open Access‘Gold’ Open Access
•Article freely available
from publisher
website
•Article freely available
from publisher
website
‘Hybrid’ Open
Access
‘Hybrid’ Open
Access
• Selected articles
are OA within a
subscription journal
• Selected articles
are OA within a
subscription journal

14. Open Access Publishing at Springer
‘Hybrid’ Open Access
• Springer Open
Choice: Article fee
€ 2000 / USD 3000
‘Full’ Open AccessAuthors’ Rights / Green OA
• Self-archiving of
author’s accepted
version
• An estimated 12% of all
scholarly articles are
available through some
form of ‘Green’ OA

15. Some Truths About Open Access Journals
• Open access journals have some of the highest Impact Factors
in their fields
• Open access journals have some of the most prestigious
academics as Editors-in-Chief and Editorial Board Members
• Open access journal publishing is identical to subscription
publishing, but content is distributed differently

16. • Wellcome Trust
• RCUK
• US National Institutes of Health
• Howard Hughes Medical Institute
• European Research Council
• Almost 150 mandatory institution-wide open access
policies world-wide
e.g. Harvard University (Compact for Open Access
Publishing Equity)
Many Funders and Research Institutes Have
Open Access Mandates

17. An Introduction to BioMed Central
Journals

18. About BioMed Central
• Launched first open access journal in 2000
• One of the largest global publishers of peer-reviewed open
access journals
• Became part of Springer in 2008
• Publishes >250 open access journals
• All research articles published under Creative Commons license
• Costs covered by article-processing charge (APC) or journal
sponsors

19. • Top 20 journals by Impact Factor
• 3 main sets of journals
- BMC Series journals
- ‘Independent’ journals
- ‘Hybrid’ journals
The BioMed Central Portfolio

20. Top 20 Journals by Impact Factor
1 Genome Biology 10.288
2 Particle Fibre Toxicology 9.178
3 BMC Medicine 6.679
4 BMC Biology 6.531
5 Breast Cancer Research 5.872
6 Retrovirology 5.657
7 Biotechnology for Biofuels 5.552
8 Molecular Cancer 5.134
9 Cell Communication and Signaling 5.093
10 Critical Care 4.718
11 J Hematology and Oncology 4.458
12 J Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance 4.435
13 BMC Genomics 4.397
14 Alzheimers Research & Therapy 4.39
15 BMC Plant Biology 4.354
16 J Neuroinflammation 4.351
17 Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases 4.315
18 Arthritis Research & Therapy 4.302
19 Cardiovascular Diabetiology 4.209
20 Molecular Brain 4.202

21. • Pioneering series of 60+ open access journals
• Spanning biology and medicine
• Academic Section Editors and Associate Editors handle
peer review
• 2000+ submissions per month
• As a whole function as a ‘megajournal’
• Publish sound science; Separate evaluation of ‘soundness’
from ‘interest’
The BMC Series

22. • Broader interest titles within the BMC series
• Dedicated in-house Editorial teams
• More commissioned material (reviews, commentaries,
Q&As) than other BMC series journals

23. ‘Independent journals’
• Academic and clinical Editors-in-
Chief
• Growing number of society journals
• Some leading journals within their
fields – e.g. JCR ranks Veterinary
Research highest amongst
veterinary sciences journals;
Retrovirology ranks 4/32 virology
journals

24. Japanese Society Journals
Accepting submissions
Japanese Society of Intensive Care Medicine
Impact Factor = 0.63
Japan Society of Physiological Anthropology (JSPA)
Japanese Society of Psychosomatic Medicine

25. • In-house Editorial teams, academic Editorial Boards and
Section Editors
• Publish broad-interest research, reviews, comments,
meeting reports
• Collaborations with other publishers (Nature, Genome
Research)
• ‘Hybrid journals’: value-added subscription content

26. Towards Painless Publishing:
Separating interest from soundness
Peer review aims to establish
• whether the research and its description/ interpretation is sound
• level of interest
The importance of interest levels and extent of advance is different
depending on the editorial goals of the journal
Separating soundness from interest level: BMC series, new ‘mega-
journals’

27. Towards Painless Publishing:
Journal cascades
Flagships
Subject-specific
journals
BMC Research Notes
BMC series
Independent
Journals

28. ご清聴ありがとうございまし
た。
Thank you for your attention!
Nandita Quaderi
nandita.quaderi@biomedcentral.com
www.biomedcentral.com
Local BioMed Central contact:
Natsu Ishii
natsu.ishii@biomedcentral.com

29. Characteristics of Open Access
• No barriers to access such as subscription costs
• Research permanently available via the Internet
• Licensed so as to allow redistribution and reuse (Creative
Commons)
• Archived in an internationally recognised repository (e.g.
PubMed Central)

30. 0
10000
20000
30000
40000
50000
60000
Submissions
Publications
Growth in Submissions and Publications