Heys, Steven D

Lowenfels, Albert B

Pandey, Manoj

English

PubMed

Heys Steven D

Pandey Manoj

Lowenfels Albert B

Directory of Open Access Journals

World Journal of Surgical Oncology

<it>World Journal of Surgical Oncology</it>: One year of Open Access publishing

Manoj Pandey

Steven D Heys

Albert B Lowenfels

Springer - Publisher Connector

BioMed Central
World Journal of Surgical Oncology
ssOpen AcceEditorial
World Journal of Surgical Oncology: One year of Open Access 
publishing
Manoj Pandey*1, Steven D Heys2 and Albert B Lowenfels3
Address: 1Department of Surgical Oncology, Regional Cancer Centre, Medical College PO, Trivandrum, Kerala, India, 2Surgical Oncology, 
University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK and 3Department of Surgery, New York Medical College, Munger Pavilion, Valhalla, New York, 
USA
Email: Manoj Pandey* - manojpandey@vsnl.com; Steven D Heys - Steven.Heys@arh.grampian.scot.nhs.uk; 
Albert B Lowenfels - lowenfel@nymc.edu
* Corresponding author    
In many parts of the world cancer is the second leading
cause of death, with substantial amounts of health care
resources allocated for cancer research, patient care, reha-
bilitation, and education. Because of the rapid growth of
Oncology, many new specialties have developed, includ-
ing 'Surgical Oncology,' which includes not only surgeons
but other health professionals whose interests cover areas
such as genetics, pathology, nursing, medical imaging,
psychiatry and rehabilitation. As we embark on the 21st
century, the surgical treatment of the common "solid"
cancers still offers the only hope of cure for patients with
many of the most commonly occurring cancers in the
world today.
Over the past several decades the field of Surgical Oncol-
ogy has become much more defined, resulting in impor-
tant contributions to the diagnosis and management of a
wide variety of cancers. Of more than 100,000 current
Medline references to 'oncology', more than 15% contain
the additional reference term 'surgery'.
But still there is a dichotomy in surgical oncology. There
has been an almost exponential rate of change in what has
been regarded as the "developed" world, which has not
been reflected in the changes occurring in the developing
countries. Clearly, there are issues of financial resource,
availability of staff, structured and continuing education
and, of course, the infrastructure to allow these changes
and developments to occur. It is important that advances
in Surgical Oncological practice should be available to all
those involved in the care of the patient with cancer, no
matter where they are in the world. This is particularly
important to those practicing where there are great chal-
lenges in facilitating these developments, but often there
are lesser resources available to fuel these changes.
The World Journal of Surgical Oncology came into existence
a year ago to provide an additional outlet for publication
and retrieval of important new information pertaining to
cancer. Already it has become popular: the new journal is
the fourth of more than 500,000 listings under 'surgical
oncology' in Google – the most widely used internet
search engine.
The need
There are few journals focusing on Surgical Oncology.
Those that do exist and have been established are availa-
ble at a subscription that is beyond many, especially in
developing and under-developed countries. Moreover,
there was no Open Access journal catering for the surgical
oncologist. As most of the journals are ''print journals''
with space constraints, there was a requirement and a
demand for a journal whose publication did not have the
traditional space-constraints of those currently estab-
lished and hence can publish larger data sets, color photo-
graphs and videos beside being available to as wide a
readership as possible. This journal fits these criteria with
availability to a global readership and without any restric-
tion in its accessibility. Hence, it was appropriately named
as World Journal of Surgical Oncology. There is a world-wide
representation on the Editorial board, and its global reach
due to Open Access offers one of the fastest dissemina-
Published: 12 May 2004
World Journal of Surgical Oncology 2004, 2:14
Received: 30 April 2004
Accepted: 12 May 2004
This article is available from: http://www.wjso.com/content/2/1/14
© 2004 Pandey et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all 
media for any purpose, provided this notice is preserved along with the article's original URL.Page 1 of 3
(page number not for citation purposes)
World Journal of Surgical Oncology 2004, 2 http://www.wjso.com/content/2/1/14tions of new knowledge and technical know-how that
there is. It makes a significant contribution to the surgical
oncological world, truly shrinking us to a new global vil-
lage. To facilitate rapid publication and to minimize
administrative costs, World Journal of Surgical Oncology
accepts only online submissions.
Open Access
World journal of Surgical Oncology's Open Access policy
ensures that its articles become universally accessible
online and this ensures the potential for the widest possi-
ble dissemination. Furthermore, there are no costs to the
reader, only a need for access to the internet which is also
rapidly occurring throughout the world. This also means
that the authors retain the copyright for their work and
can grant anyone the right to reproduce and disseminate
their work, with the following caveats; (i) no substantive
errors are introduced in the process, (ii) proper attribution
of authorship and correct citation details are given, and
(iii) that the bibliographic details are not altered. If the
article is reproduced or disseminated in part, this must be
clearly and unequivocally indicated [1,2].
A copy of the full text of each Open Access article is per-
manently archived in an online repository separate from
the journal. Published articles in World Journal of Surgical
Oncology are archived in PubMed Central [3], the US
National Library of Medicine's full-text repository of life
science literature, and also in repositories at the University
of Potsdam in Germany [4], at INIST in France [5] and in
e-Depot, the National Library of the Netherlands' digital
archive of all electronic publications [6]. Open Access also
guarantees that the articles are available to researchers
desktop any time of the day anywhere [7]. Moreover, there
is now the provision in place for interlinking of articles
and citations.
Benefits of Open Access
Open Access has four broad benefits for science and the
general public. First, as mentioned above is that the
authors are assured that their work is disseminated to the
widest possible audience, given that there are no barriers
to reading their work. This is accentuated by the authors
being free to reproduce and distribute their work, for
example by placing it on their institution's website. It has
been suggested that free online articles are more highly
cited because of their easier availability [8]. Second, the
information available to researchers will not be limited by
their library's budget, and the widespread availability of
articles will enhance literature searching [9]. Third, the
results of publicly funded research will be accessible to all
those who have funded this work, i.e. the taxpayer, and
not just those with access to a library with a subscription
to a particular journal. As such, Open Access could help to
increase public interest in, and support of, research. Note
that this public accessibility may become a legal require-
ment in the USA if the proposed Public Access to Science
Act is made law [10]. Fourth, the economic state of any
individual country, good bad or indifferent, will not influ-
ence its own scientists' ability to access published articles
because the only requirement to gain access to this mate-
rial is access to the internet [11].
Peer review policy
Peer review is not an optional requirement for research
and researchers, it is a necessity. Without peer review, the
research literature may be neither reliable nor navigable;
quality would be uncontrolled and unfiltered. Further-
more, there may be issues of accountability that would be
extremely difficult to understand [7,12]. Therefore, man-
uscripts submitted to the World Journal of Surgical Oncology
undergo a stringent peer review process. Each submitted
manuscript is initially reviewed by the Editorial board and
if it is considered suitable for further consideration for
publication, it is then sent to at least two appropriate
reviewers. Reviewers are selected from the journal's data-
base which has been constructed from experts who have
been identified by their publications in a particular field
from a detailed search of Medline. This electronic review
process is another facet which facilitates rapid publica-
tion, with attempts being made to ensure that the peer
review process is completed within 3–4 weeks of the
online submission of a manuscript to the journal [13]. We
are working towards developing a web-based peer review
system as this will improve further the review process and
thus help in our constant desire to ensure that the time
from submission to the publication of an article is kept to
the minimum possible.
The first year
The journal received 52 manuscripts in its first year of
which 30 were accepted and published. The acceptance
rate at present is 57.6%. On average 19 days were neces-
sary to allow completion of the review process (range 1 to
60 days). It was pleasing to note that the mean time from
submission to publication of an article was 3 months,
which is excellent when compared with most "print" jour-
nals. Where delays occurred, these were mainly due to the
time taken for authors to revise their manuscripts in the
light of editorial and/or reviewers' comments. Many of the
revisions that were requested of authors were simply to
format the article to suit the journal style, in particular the
reference section of the manuscript. Initially very few
authors followed the instructions given for them with ref-
erence to the formatting style for the references! We would
like to emphasise that it is possible to further shorten the
times for submission to publication if all the submitted
manuscripts adhere to the submission guidelines which
are clearly given in the journal. If not, then delays in pub-
lication are, unfortunately, inevitable. All articles are pub-Page 2 of 3
(page number not for citation purposes)
World Journal of Surgical Oncology 2004, 2 http://www.wjso.com/content/2/1/14Publish with BioMed Central   and  every 
scientist can read your work free of charge
"BioMed Central will be the most significant development for 
disseminating the results of biomedical research in our lifetime."
Sir Paul Nurse, Cancer Research UK
Your research papers will be:
available free of charge to the entire biomedical community
peer reviewed and published immediately upon acceptance
cited in PubMed and archived on PubMed Central 
yours — you keep the copyright
Submit your manuscript here:
http://www.biomedcentral.com/info/publishing_adv.asp
BioMedcentral
lished online immediately upon acceptance (after peer
review) and sent to PubMed for referencing immediately.
We would like to thank all our contributors, reviewers,
and the Editorial board members who have all put sub-
stantial time and effort into establishing this journal. We
also sincerely hope that everyone will offer the same level
of support in the future as this will help us fulfil the goals
of Open Access, faster publication, a greater reach and dis-
semination of knowledge beyond the established and
conventional boundaries. Currently the journal is wit-
nessing an average of 195 sessions per day (a 'Session' is
defined as a series of "clicks" on the site by an individual
visitor during a specific period of time. A Session is initi-
ated when the visitor arrives at the site, and it ends when
the browser is closed or there is a period of inactivity),
over 450 page views per day ('Pageview' is a request to the
web server by a visitor's browser for any web page) result-
ing in over 300000 hits a day (a 'Hit' is any successful
request to the web server from a visitor's browser). The
article by Varghese et al [14] is the most accessed article
and it has been accessed nearly 4000 times, closely fol-
lowed by article by Overhaus et al [15] (> 3500 access)
and the article of Kanthan and Trokian [16](> 3400
access).
We thank all our contributors, reviewers, and Editorial
board members and sincerely hope that we will keep get-
ting the same level of help and support in future. This will
help us fulfil the goal of Open Access, i.e. faster publica-
tion, greater reach and dissemination of knowledge,
"Knowledge beyond boundaries".
Competing interests
MP is the editor-in-chief, SDH is section editor and ABL is
research editor of World Journal of Surgical Oncology, pub-
lished by Open Access publishers Biomedcentral, which
depends on Open Access model for substantial portion of
its revenue.
References
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tral.com/info/about/charter]. Accessed on April 21, 2004
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[http://www.inist.fr/index_en.php]. Accessed on April 22, 2004
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14. Varghese BT, Sebastian P, Abraham EK, Mathews A: Pleomorphic
adenoma of minor salivary gland in the parapharyngeal
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2003, 1:11.
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Gland with Crystalline Inclusions: A Case Report. World J Surg
Oncol 2003, 1:12.Page 3 of 3
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[http://www.uni-potsdam.de/over/ homegd.htm].

1st session H.R. 2613. In the house of representatives,

A: Pleomorphic adenoma of minor salivary gland in the parapharyngeal space. World J Surg Oncol

Biomedcentral open access charter [http://www.biomedcen tral.com/info/about/charter].

Free online availability substantially increases a paper's impact. Nature

Hirner A: Desmoid tumors of the abdominal wall: A case report. World J Surg Oncol

Institut de l'information scientifique et technique (INIST) [http://www.inist.fr/index_en.php].

of The Netherlands e-Depot [ h t t p : /

Open access to knowledge in science and humanities. Berlin Declaration

Open access to peer-reviewed research through author/institution self-archiving: maximizing research impact by maximizing online access.

PubMed Central [http://www.pubmedcentral.org].

Scholarly Skywriting and the Prepublication Continuum of Scientific Inquiry. Psychol Sci

Should scholarly societies embrace Open Access (or is it the kiss of death)? Learned Publishing

Tan-Torres Edejer T: Disseminating health information in developing countries: the role of the internet. BMJ

Torkian B: Solitary Plasmacytoma of the Parotid Gland with Crystalline Inclusions: A Case Report. World J Surg Oncol

World Journal of Surgical Oncology. Peer review policies [http://www.wjso.com/info/about]

file:///data/remote/core/dit/data/Springer-OA/pdf/4a9/aHR0cDovL2xpbmsuc3ByaW5nZXIuY29tLzEwLjExODYvMTQ3Ny03ODE5LTItMTQucGRm.pdf

World Journal of Surgical Oncology: One year of Open Access publishing

World Journal of Surgical Oncology: One year of Open Access publishing

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