Malaria J ournal: An open access journal successfully carving out

quality in a neglected area

Marcel Hommel Editor-in-Chief Malaria J ournal BioMed Central Colloquium

Thursday 8th February 2007, The Royal College of Physicians, London, UK

Quantity

13,556 papers worldwide between 2000-2006(average 1,936 papers/year)

Number is growing

2000 1,4952001 1,5822002 1,6412003 1,9122004 2,0622005 2,4592006 2,415

Papers published on malaria

Where are papers on malaria published ?

Am J Trop Med Hyg (112/year)

Trop Med Int Health (59)Mol Biol Parasit (57)Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg (54)Infect Immunity (49)Parasitol Today/Trends (45)

J Inf Dis (38)Lancet (37)Acta Trop (30)

27% of all papers are published in a small numbers of journals, each publishing regularly over 30 papers per annum

Where are papers on malaria published ?

Am J Trop Med Hyg (112/year)

Trop Med Int Health (59)Mol Biol Parasit (57)Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg (54)Infect Immunity (49)Parasitol Today/Trends (45)

J Inf Dis (38)Lancet (37)Acta Trop (30)

27% of all papers are published in a small numbers of journals, each publishing regularly over 30 papers per annum

Malaria Journal

47 5063

127

Malaria in the high impact journals

IF Nb malariapapers/ year

New Engl J Med 44 3Science 30 17Cell 29 2

Nature 29 16Lancet 23 37J Exp Med 13 4

PNAS 10 22(PLoS Medicine 8 25)BMJ 9 13

Quality

How does a small, independent journal, ensure quality ?

� High profile Editorial Board� Quality reviewing� Quality copy-editing

� Conflict between ‘open access philosophy’and high selectivity

� APC + waiver for DEC authors� Retro-effect of Impact Factor

High profile Editorial Board

Paolo Arese (Italy) - J. Kevin Baird (Indonesia) - Guy Barnish (UK)Imelda Bates (UK) - John Beier (USA) - Bernard Brabin (UK)Joel G. Breman (USA) - Carlos C Campbell (USA ) - J Carlton (USA)Ian Clark (Australia) - Maureen Coetzee (South Africa)Marc Coosemans (Belgium) -Michel Cot (France) - Alister Craig (UK)Umberto D’Alessandro (Belgium) - Peter David (France)Martin Donnelly (UK) - Ogobara K. Doumbo (Mali) -Ibrahima Socé FALL (Zimbabwe) - Heather M. Ferguson (Netherlands)Didier Fontenille (France) - Mary Galinski (USA) - Hagai Ginsburg (Israel)Jenny Hill (UK) - Carol Hopkins Sibley (USA) - Lars Hviid (Denmark)Moses J. Bockarie (USA) - Tomas Jelinek (Germany) - Bart GJ Knols (Netherlands)Feiko ter Kuile (UK) - Christian P Lengeler (Switzerland) - Steve W Lindsay (UK)Vicky Marsh (Kenya) - Anne Mills (UK) - François Nosten (Thailand)Milijaona Randrianarivelojosia (Madagascar) - Lisa Ranford-Cartwright (UK)Hilary Ranson (UK) - Pascal Ringwald (Switzerland) - Vincent Robert (France)Joseph Schrevel (France) - Balbir Singh (Malaysia) - Georges Snounou (France)Colin Sutherland (UK) - Marcel Tanner (Switzerland) - Geoff Targett (UK)Madeleine C. Thomson (USA) - Harold Townson (UK) - Marita Troye-Blomberg (Sweden)David Walliker (UK) - David Warhurst (UK) - Nick White (Thailand) -Christopher Whitty (UK)

Difficult balance between high profile, depth of coverage,geographical distribution, effectiveness

High profile Editorial Board

Paolo Arese (Italy) - J. Kevin Baird (Indonesia) - Guy Barnish (UK)Imelda Bates (UK) - John Beier (USA) - Bernard Brabin (UK)Joel G. Breman (USA) - Carlos C Campbell (USA ) - J Carlton (USA)Ian Clark (Australia) - Maureen Coetzee (South Africa)Marc Coosemans (Belgium) -Michel Cot (France) - Alister Craig (UK)Umberto D’Alessandro (Belgium) - Peter David (France)Martin Donnelly (UK) - Ogobara K. Doumbo (Mali) -Ibrahima Socé FALL (Zimbabwe) - Heather M. Ferguson (Netherlands)Didier Fontenille (France) - Mary Galinski (USA) - Hagai Ginsburg (Israel)Jenny Hill (UK) - Carol Hopkins Sibley (USA) - Lars Hviid (Denmark)Moses J. Bockarie (USA) - Tomas Jelinek (Germany) - Bart GJ Knols (Netherlands)Feiko ter Kuile (UK) - Christian P Lengeler (Switzerland) - Steve W Lindsay (UK)Vicky Marsh (Kenya) - Anne Mills (UK) - François Nosten (Thailand)Milijaona Randrianarivelojosia (Madagascar) - Lisa Ranford-Cartwright (UK)Hilary Ranson (UK) - Pascal Ringwald (Switzerland) - Vincent Robert (France)Joseph Schrevel (France) - Balbir Singh (Malaysia) - Georges Snounou (France)Colin Sutherland (UK) - Marcel Tanner (Switzerland) - Geoff Targett (UK)Madeleine C. Thomson (USA) - Harold Townson (UK) - Marita Troye-Blomberg (Sweden)David Walliker (UK) - David Warhurst (UK) - Nick White (Thailand) -Christopher Whitty (UK)

Difficult balance between high profile, depth of coverage,geographical distribution, effectiveness

18/50 Board members amongst the 50 ‘most-published’authors between 2003-2006

Depth of coverage