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was really the result of a build-up of such strength of feeling in the field that the cur- rent status quo is unacceptable,” Stephen said, adding that some research areas are more ready for change than others. “In our case the editors at NeuroImage and NeuroImage:Reports had so much input from people in our area of imaging neu- roscience – including many researchers refusing to review for Elsevier journals, or refusing to submit their own work.” This level of support is vital for a new journal to be successful. “It’s hard to break that cycle, because you have to start from scratch with a new journal, building up a reputation – and it takes a few years for a new journal to be given an impact factor. Fortunately, people are starting to pay less attention to this simplistic ‘impact factor’ rating. Also, in our case, in our field of imaging neuroscience, there has built up such a strong feeling that this change needed to happen. By taking the entire set of 43 academic editors across to start the new journal, with the same aims and scope, we are taking the reputation with us. Indeed, more generally – enough is enough – academics from all disciplines can make such changes with their own journals.”


Destinations When NeuroImage editors looked at their choices the path was not immediately clear: “Several options had been suggest- ed to us very early” Stephen said, adding that they were pointed towards MIT Press by colleagues who had set up journals there before. He said it became “the clear choice in terms of the balance of cost, ability to set up the new journal in a short timeline, and quality/robustness.” Another key factor was transparency, that the new APC is demonstrably based on costs and not on what authors might be prepared to pay: “MIT Press reports transparently on their costs, which we have seen in detail. The current APC will cover actual costs, as well as helping cover costs associated with fee-waived publica- tions from less well-funded countries.”


Speed of change


Does any of this herald a new momentum for other journals to make similar moves? Stephen said: “We’re seeing lots of com- ments, for example on Twitter, suggesting this should happen, and hopefully editors at other journals are indeed thinking about making a similar move away from high-profit publishers. But it does take some time to move forwards like this, starting with lots of discussions amongst a given editorial board, and then discus- sions with the publisher.”


The new journal’s publisher, MIT Press, confirms that there is interest in these routes but not on a grand scale yet. Nick Lindsay, director of journals and open


32 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL


Stephen Smith.


access at the MIT Press, said: “I am often meeting with journal editors and spon- sors who want to learn more about the publishing program at MIT Press, or what a shift to open access publishing might look like, or how to lower costs for their authors and subscribers... Others may well follow and we have had early discus- sions with a small number of other titles interested in making a similar move.”


Slow and steady


For publishers to offer sustainable pub- lishing models, the business case for each journal has to be sustainable.


Nick says: “Our focus is really to identify the best possible journal partnerships for the MIT Press, regardless of where they are publishing now. We are think- ing about what type of content can we successfully bring out to the world in an impactful way.”


The key is enabling journals to find publishers that align with their mission and values. MIT Press’s shift+OPEN programme, which is “designed to flip existing subscription-based journals to a diamond open access publishing model” is an example. “We received a good number of applications from highly qualified and


interesting journals,” Nick said, adding: “There is clearly a lot of interest from the journals side and it will be difficult to select just one journal to flip to open access.”


Advocacy


It is a slow process now but could pick up momentum if supported by funders


Ross Mounce. June 2023


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