The Retrovirology Open Access experience after publishing more than 500 articles is discussed

A Savarino

AM Lum

GJ Towers

KT Jeang

Kuan-Teh Jeang

R Goila-Gaur

English

PubMed

Crossref

BioMed CentralRetrovirologyssOpen AcceEditorialThe Retrovirology Open Access experienceKuan-Teh JeangAddress: The National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USAEmail: Kuan-Teh Jeang - kjeang@niaid.nih.govAbstractThe Retrovirology Open Access experience after publishing more than 500 articles is discussed.EditorialAs 2009 comes to a close, it is instructive to reflect uponRetrovirology's experience with Open Access publishing.The journal was started with two objectives. First, therewas a recognition that the robust field of basic retrovirusresearch could benefit from a dedicated rapid-publicationonline journal of good quality. Second, there was a desireto build a journal that would be freely accessible in fulltext to all readers without being restricted by the ability topay for a subscription.Retrovirology launched in February 2004 and since thenhas published more than 550 papers. To maintain a highscientific standard, the journal aims to have no more than10 articles per month or roughly a total of 120 per year.From 2005 through 2009, Retrovirology has averaged ~100published items per year (Figure 1). The quality of thejournal has been monitored stringently by the editors andthe editorial board and has improved over time. The latterassertion is supported by several observations. Forinstance, in November 2004, Retrovirology received 6 sub-missions and published 5 papers that month. By contrast,in November 2008, Retrovirology received 27 submissionsand published 10 papers; and in November 2009, thejournal received 29 submissions and published 10. In par-allel, the rate of annual citations to Retrovirology has alsoincreased steadily with a healthy upslope (Figure 1).Open Access publishing in 2004 was viewed skeptically asa new approach with an uncertain future. In the begin-ning, many colleagues openly questioned whether anOpen Access Retrovirology journal could be successful. Fiveyears later, most subscription-based journals now offertheir authors an Open Access option, and Retrovirology, asmeasured by SCImago journal rating http://www.scimagojr.com/ using data from Scopus, ranks in the top quar-tile of all virology journals. Similarly in data from theJournal Citation Reports of the ISI http://pcs.isiknowledge.com, Retrovirology has a recent Impact Factor [1]which is closely behind that of the Journal of Virology, andahead of Virology, the Journal of General Virology, and AIDSResearch and Human Retroviruses. The visibility of Retrovi-rology papers is attested by the citation numbers torecently published papers. For example, two Retrovirologyreview articles [2,3] published in 2007 and 2008 havealready been cited 54 and 33 times, while two 2007research papers [4,5] have been cited 27 and 23 times.These numbers are competitive with the citation frequen-cies to articles of similar age and similar topics publishedin other highly rated journals.Periodically, emails arrive to me from colleagues in SouthAmerica and graduate students in Africa conveying thanksfor Retrovirology's fee-free full text Open Access format. Asthe journal's editor-in-chief, I am gratified by theseresponses. Perhaps on occasions when you are delayed inan airport lounge and need to read the full text of retrovi-rology papers using your personal lap top computer, youmight be similarly gratified that Retrovirology is OpenAccess. The Retrovirology Open Access experience has beenPublished: 15 December 2009Retrovirology 2009, 6:115 doi:10.1186/1742-4690-6-115Received: 13 December 2009Accepted: 15 December 2009This article is available from: http://www.retrovirology.com/content/6/1/115© 2009 Jeang; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Page 1 of 2(page number not for citation purposes)Retrovirology 2009, 6:115 http://www.retrovirology.com/content/6/1/115Publish 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 UKYour research papers will be:available free of charge to the entire biomedical communitypeer reviewed and published immediately upon acceptancecited in PubMed and archived on PubMed Central yours — you keep the copyrightSubmit your manuscript here:http://www.biomedcentral.com/info/publishing_adv.aspBioMedcentralgood for science, good for authors, and good for readers.The journal is doing well by doing good.Competing interestsThe author is editor-in-chief of Retrovirology.Authors' contributionsKTJ wrote this editorial.AcknowledgementsI thank my fellow Retrovirology editors and editorial board members for their service to the journal. I am grateful to Ben Berkhout and Andrew Lever for critical readings of this editorial. The content of this publication reflects the personal opinions of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views or the policies of the US Department of Health and Human Serv-ices or the US National Institutes of Health, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.References1. Jeang KT: H-index, mentoring-index, highly-cited and highly-accessed: how to evaluate scientists?  Retrovirology 2008, 5:106.2. Towers GJ: The control of viral infection by tripartite motifproteins and cyclophilin A.  Retrovirology 2007, 4:40.3. Goila-Gaur R, Strebel K: HIV-1 Vif, APOBEC, and intrinsicimmunity.  Retrovirology 2008, 5:51.4. Savarino A: In-Silico docking of HIV-1 integrase inhibitorsreveals a novel drug type acting on an enzyme/DNA reactionintermediate.  Retrovirology 2007, 4:.5. Lum AM, Wang BB, Li L, Channa N, Bartha G, Wabl M: Retroviralactivation of the mir-106a microRNA cistron in T lym-phoma.  Retrovirology 2007, 4:5.Graphic representations of the number of published papers per year (left) and the number of citations to Retrovirology papers per year (right)Figure 1Graphic representations of the number of published papers per year (left) and the number of citations to Ret-rovirology papers per year (right). Citation data are from the ISI Web of Science database. The numbers shown for 2009 are the information available at time of writing of this editorial and are not the final year-end numbers.Page 2 of 2(page number not for citation purposes)

The Retrovirology Open Access experience

Springer - Publisher Connector

BioMed CentralRetrovirology
ssOpen AcceEditorial
The Retrovirology Open Access experience
Kuan-Teh Jeang
Address: The National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
Email: Kuan-Teh Jeang - kjeang@niaid.nih.gov
Abstract
The Retrovirology Open Access experience after publishing more than 500 articles is discussed.
Editorial
As 2009 comes to a close, it is instructive to reflect upon
Retrovirology's experience with Open Access publishing.
The journal was started with two objectives. First, there
was a recognition that the robust field of basic retrovirus
research could benefit from a dedicated rapid-publication
online journal of good quality. Second, there was a desire
to build a journal that would be freely accessible in full
text to all readers without being restricted by the ability to
pay for a subscription.
Retrovirology launched in February 2004 and since then
has published more than 550 papers. To maintain a high
scientific standard, the journal aims to have no more than
10 articles per month or roughly a total of 120 per year.
From 2005 through 2009, Retrovirology has averaged ~100
published items per year (Figure 1). The quality of the
journal has been monitored stringently by the editors and
the editorial board and has improved over time. The latter
assertion is supported by several observations. For
instance, in November 2004, Retrovirology received 6 sub-
missions and published 5 papers that month. By contrast,
in November 2008, Retrovirology received 27 submissions
and published 10 papers; and in November 2009, the
journal received 29 submissions and published 10. In par-
allel, the rate of annual citations to Retrovirology has also
increased steadily with a healthy upslope (Figure 1).
Open Access publishing in 2004 was viewed skeptically as
a new approach with an uncertain future. In the begin-
ning, many colleagues openly questioned whether an
Open Access Retrovirology journal could be successful. Five
years later, most subscription-based journals now offer
their authors an Open Access option, and Retrovirology, as
measured by SCImago journal rating http://www.scima
gojr.com/ using data from Scopus, ranks in the top quar-
tile of all virology journals. Similarly in data from the
Journal Citation Reports of the ISI http://pcs.isiknowl
edge.com, Retrovirology has a recent Impact Factor [1]
which is closely behind that of the Journal of Virology, and
ahead of Virology, the Journal of General Virology, and AIDS
Research and Human Retroviruses. The visibility of Retrovi-
rology papers is attested by the citation numbers to
recently published papers. For example, two Retrovirology
review articles [2,3] published in 2007 and 2008 have
already been cited 54 and 33 times, while two 2007
research papers [4,5] have been cited 27 and 23 times.
These numbers are competitive with the citation frequen-
cies to articles of similar age and similar topics published
in other highly rated journals.
Periodically, emails arrive to me from colleagues in South
America and graduate students in Africa conveying thanks
for Retrovirology's fee-free full text Open Access format. As
the journal's editor-in-chief, I am gratified by these
responses. Perhaps on occasions when you are delayed in
an airport lounge and need to read the full text of retrovi-
rology papers using your personal lap top computer, you
might be similarly gratified that Retrovirology is Open
Access. The Retrovirology Open Access experience has been
Published: 15 December 2009
Retrovirology 2009, 6:115 doi:10.1186/1742-4690-6-115
Received: 13 December 2009
Accepted: 15 December 2009
This article is available from: http://www.retrovirology.com/content/6/1/115
© 2009 Jeang; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), 
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Page 1 of 2
(page number not for citation purposes)
Retrovirology 2009, 6:115 http://www.retrovirology.com/content/6/1/115Publish 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
good for science, good for authors, and good for readers.
The journal is doing well by doing good.
Competing interests
The author is editor-in-chief of Retrovirology.
Authors' contributions
KTJ wrote this editorial.
Acknowledgements
I thank my fellow Retrovirology editors and editorial board members for 
their service to the journal. I am grateful to Ben Berkhout and Andrew 
Lever for critical readings of this editorial. The content of this publication 
reflects the personal opinions of the author and does not necessarily reflect 
the views or the policies of the US Department of Health and Human Serv-
ices or the US National Institutes of Health, nor does mention of trade 
names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the 
U.S. Government.
References
1. Jeang KT: H-index, mentoring-index, highly-cited and highly-
accessed: how to evaluate scientists?  Retrovirology 2008, 5:106.
2. Towers GJ: The control of viral infection by tripartite motif
proteins and cyclophilin A.  Retrovirology 2007, 4:40.
3. Goila-Gaur R, Strebel K: HIV-1 Vif, APOBEC, and intrinsic
immunity.  Retrovirology 2008, 5:51.
4. Savarino A: In-Silico docking of HIV-1 integrase inhibitors
reveals a novel drug type acting on an enzyme/DNA reaction
intermediate.  Retrovirology 2007, 4:.
5. Lum AM, Wang BB, Li L, Channa N, Bartha G, Wabl M: Retroviral
activation of the mir-106a microRNA cistron in T lym-
phoma.  Retrovirology 2007, 4:5.
Graphic representations of the number of published papers per year (left) and the number of citations to Retrovirology papers per year (right)Figure 1
Graphic representations of the number of published papers per year (left) and the number of citations to Ret-
rovirology papers per year (right). Citation data are from the ISI Web of Science database. The numbers shown for 2009 
are the information available at time of writing of this editorial and are not the final year-end numbers.Page 2 of 2
(page number not for citation purposes)


Abstract The Retrovirology Open Access experience after publishing more than 500 articles is discussed.</p

Jeang Kuan-Teh

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Retrovirology

The <it>Retrovirology </it>Open Access experience

H-index, mentoring-index, highly-cited and highlyaccessed: how to evaluate scientists? Retrovirology

In-Silico docking of HIV-1 integrase inhibitors reveals a novel drug type acting on an enzyme/DNA reaction intermediate. Retrovirology

The control of viral infection by tripartite motif proteins and cyclophilin A. Retrovirology

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