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Volume 56 (1): 1-2, 2008
Copyright ©The Histochemical Society, Inc.
EDITORIAL |
Our Journal, Our History, Our Cytophilia
Correspondence to: Kevin A. Roth, MD, PhD, Division of Neuropathology, Department of Pathology, University of Alabama at Birmingham SC 930, 1530 Third Avenue South, Birmingham, AL 35294-0017. E-mail: johc{at}u.washington.edu
The Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry (JHC) celebrates its 55th anniversary in 2008. Although The Histochemical Society (HCS) began publishing its proceedings in 1950, it was not until 1953 that the Society began publishing full-length articles in Volume 1 of the JHC. In the intervening years, some things have remained constant. The JHC remains dedicated to publishing original articles describing significant advances in histochemical and cytochemical methods and their application to biologically meaningful hypotheses. We would like to think that, 55 years after the first issue of the JHC was published, if the original founders of the JHC could pick up and read the January 2008 issue, they not only would recognize the journal as "their own", but that they would be pleased to see how vital and vibrant the JHC has remained with the passage of time.
However, many things have changed since Volume 1, Number 1 was printed 55 years ago. For instance, the first issue of the JHC contained an announcement for the upcoming HCS meeting to be held in Chicago in April 1953. The advertised rate for a single room in the Headquarter's Hotel was $6.00 per night. The more frugal 1953 HCS meeting attendees had the option of booking a room with hot and cold running water in a nearby hotel for $3.15 (note: for 50¢ extra one could reserve a room with a toilet!). The HCS Annual Meeting will be held in San Diego in April 2008 in conjunction with Experimental Biology 2008 and, as many of you are aware, rooms in the Headquarter's Hotel are slightly more expensive than $6.00 per night. Changes in scientific publishing have been equally or more dramatic, and the most significant changes in scientific publishing have occurred during the last 10 to 15 years.
In the summer of 1995, Stanford University Library launched a publishing division, HighWire Press, whose collaboration with scientific societies and university presses brought about the largest collection of scientific, technical, and medical (STM) journals published online worldwide. As of October 15, 2007, there were 1066 STM journals on the HighWire site and over 1,803,994 free full-text articles.
On November 11, 1997, the JHC became the 22nd journal to go online with HighWire Press. The Publication Committee of the HCS, under the leadership of its chairperson (Dr. Richard Burry, Ohio State University) and the JHC Editor-in-Chief at the time (Dr. Denis Baskin, University of Washington), realized that the future of the JHC did not rest exclusively as a print journal and, like the early proponents of the JHC, they pushed to move the Journal forward. There were few examples to follow and real risks in placing valuable JHC content online. Questions abounded: Would it be safe on a website? Could anyone view it? Or even worse: Could it be stolen? On the other hand, would anyone pay attention that it was even there?
In the ensuing 10 years, it appears that many people and institutions have paid attention; 94% of JHC online institutional subscriptions and 91% of personal subscriptions have been activated for online access. In 2003, the JHC moved completely to online submission of manuscripts. In 2004, because of the added datasets and images found only in the online version of the JHC, the Journal transitioned its version of record to the online JHC.
Beginning in 2005, accepted JHC manuscripts have been immediately published online in JHC exPress, as they are being prepared for print publication, allowing them to be viewed and cited prior to their actual print publication. In 10 short years, the JHC has moved from a print only peer-reviewed journal with standard copyright and subscription models to an online peer-reviewed journal with a print edition. This is only the beginning.
As we begin our 55th year, the JHC is moving ahead with new electronic ventures and expanding the publishing model begun 55 years ago. In 2008, we are moving from a standard copyright to an exclusive license agreement with our contributors. This keeps the Journal in step with requests from authors and their institutions to retain copyright of their research. The Journal has developed a license that allows authors to post their manuscript to their own website and allows them to archive their manuscript in their institution's digital archives. Further, authors may reproduce the work, in whole or in part, in future collections of their works. The license will require only one signature—that of the corresponding author.
Along with benefits to authors, the license will help protect the Journal under international law from licensing infringement. Such protection was neither available under copyright nor was there explicit protection of all formats of content. This is particularly important and helpful to both the Journal and to authors in regard to the misuse of photocopying, digital distribution, and other illegal uses by third parties. A license also allows the Journal to more closely supervise requests from third parties to reproduce the entire contribution or part of the contribution.
In addition, the JHC will begin depositing our content into the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) PubMed Central (PMC) in 2008. PMC is the free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature of the NIH. The JHC will deposit the final copyedited version of accepted manuscripts to PMC 12 months after publication. For some time now, NIH has requested the deposit of all manuscripts that derived funding from NIH. With this move, the JHC fulfills the request of the NIH and expands on it by submitting all of our content. Extending the submission to include non-funded NIH content insures that JHC content is available in the two largest portals of free scientific content, HighWire Press and PMC.
To further assist our authors, beginning with this issue, the JHC has modified its subscription-based publishing model to include an immediate open access option. For authors who choose this option, upon payment of a fee, the Journal will immediately make their published article freely available online. This model satisfies the Wellcome Trust requirement of immediate open access and should satisfy the NIH if their request for immediate open access becomes mandatory. We have designed the immediate open access option to be revenue neutral to the Journal, and we will attempt to keep publication fees as low as possible.
As the generation who has grown up with computers and with the internet increasingly becomes the majority of our readership, we expect that the online JHC will continue to evolve. Our readership will expect and demand innovative forms of delivery and content. The Journal will continue to experiment with new technology for content delivery in attempting to set ourselves apart from other cell biology journals, whether through tagging networks, streaming media, or user-generated content. In the process of implementing these changes, we will continue to honor the mission of the JHC as expressed by its founders: to publish the latest and most innovative research in the field of histochemistry and cytochemistry. We toast those early visionaries—as well as all individuals who have contributed to the success of the JHC—and we pledge to honor their vision during the next 55 years.
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