Open Access Week, a global event now entering its eighth year and running from the 20th – 26th October, is an opportunity for the academic and research community to continue to learn about the potential benefits of Open Access, to share what they’ve learned with colleagues, and to help inspire wider participation in helping to […]
Category: Open access
Comparing the results from two surveys of BMJ Open authors
BMJ Open authors were among those surveyed by Professor David J Solomon of Michigan State University for a study recently published in the journal PeerJ. Needless to say we read this with great interest (we were unaware of the survey until the results were published). The survey reported a generally positive response to BMJ Open […]
Thank you to our reviewers – 2013
Peer review is a fundamental part of publishing. Perhaps nowhere more so than in the open access field, which is often more scrutinised than other traditional publishing routes. Recognising this, the BMJ Open team would like to thank all 2725 peer reviewers who refereed for the journal in 2013 – your advice and considered remarks […]
Exploring open access in higher education
BMJ Open will be taking part in the The Guardian’s Higher Education Network’s live blog/debate tomorrow on Exploring open access in higher education. Discussion kicks off at noon, BST and will run until 2 pm. There is a large panel, drawn from publishing, academia, industry and policy. The event will ‘consider the various ways in which higher […]
Open Access Week is here
BMJ Open is proudly sponsoring Open Access Week 2011. A global event, now in its fifth year, Open Access Week promotes open access as a new norm in scholarship and research. The website currently lists 119 upcoming events so have a look to see what is happening near you or browse their back catalogue […]
UK universities minister helps UK research councils affirm OA commitments
The Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE) and Research Councils UK (RCUK) – which includes the Medical Research Council – recently put out a joint statement reinforcing their open access commitments (here). This announcement came in a speech by David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science, showing the extent to which the principles of open access are […]
Open roads and closed sessions
A recent report on the next steps for increasing open access to UK research concluded that Green OA infrastructure (i.e. repositories) should be encouraged while an economically sustainable transition to Gold OA is worked through. ‘Heading for the open road: costs and benefits of transitions in scholarly communications’ by CEPA and Mark Ware Consulting, […]
BMJ Open and UK PMC
Confirmation that BMJ Open satisfies the open access criteria for the Wellcome Trust and other UK PMC funders (including Arthritis Research UK, British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, NIHR and MRC) can be found here, at the UK PMC blog. BMJ Open will automatically deposit published articles with PMC on authors’ behalf without embargo. […]
BMJ Open in PubMed Central
This week BMJ Open received confirmation the journal has been accepted for inclusion in the NLM collection and so may deposit articles in PubMed Central (PMC). This means that by publishing in BMJ Open authors will meet the requirements of major funders such as the Wellcome Trust by making their articles open access and ensuring their deposition in PMC. Another reason […]
Press release
The official press release announcing BMJ Open can be found here. It includes a comment from Dr Fiona Godlee, BMJ Editor-in-Chief, that helps set BMJ Open in the context of the BMJ Group’s history of open access, and its mission to help improve patient outcomes worldwide. […]