Introduction: The ARCDB in the Age of Open Access.

Abstract

Welcome to Volume 35 of the Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology (ARCDB). This issue is filled with expert reviews that synthesize, explain, and discuss the latest developments and technical advances in cell and developmental biology. Each year, the ARCDB Editorial Committee meets to discuss topics of interest and emerging areas that are “ready” for an in-depth review by one of the leaders or pioneers in the respective field. Given the centrality of the cell to all biology, choosing specific topics for inclusion in an issue can be daunting and makes discussions among the ARCDB editorial team a particularly fun and educational experience. Like all research publishing, online publishing has brought changes to how ARCDB publications are disseminated. No longer do we await the yearly printed compilation of review articles, but instead articles come online whenever the final product is ready. A hard-copy volume with all the articles in an issue is still published, but few copies are printed. The articles in the ARCDB are not yet open access, but Annual Reviews (AR) is exploring free online access options without passing on fees to authors. Recently, AR received a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to make the Annual Review of Public Health open access. Open access to this journal launched in April 2017, and it was followed by a huge increase in usage. For example, there were 23,456 downloads from 56 countries in May 2016, before the content became open access. In May 2019, this had increased to 189,508 downloads from 137 countries. This success encouraged AR to explore sustainable open access publishing models for the entire series through an initiative called “Subscribe to Open,” which relies on the buy-in by libraries to continue to defray the cost of publication and thereby enable open access for all. Thus a benefit for all is accomplished by serving libraries’ and institutions’ interests in providing access to their researchers. As a nonprofit organization, AR operates on a balanced budget where revenues need to closely match expenditure. Thus, for AR to go open access, the Subscribe to Open model requires all libraries that presently purchase access to continue to subscribe to the series. It cannot tolerate free riders, as Subscribe to Open is financially viable only with full participation from all subscribing institutions (possibly with a dynamic price scale dependent on the size of the user pool). Other options have been discussed, but independence of the journal content and a guarantee of high quality of production, while avoiding charges to the authors, remain a priority. To learn more about Subscribe to Open, please visit the following page on the AR website: https://www.annualreviews.org/page/subscriptions/subscribe-to-open-faq.