Through a consortial agreement brokered by the USM Libraries, UMB authors now have free publication access to BioMed Central, a premier open access publisher. BioMed Central is an online publisher with a pioneering policy of providing free and open access to peer-reviewed research papers published in their Journals. This gives authors the benefit of their work being easily accessible and highly visible to a global audience.

Some of the BioMed Central journal titles include Arthritis Research and Therapy, Breast Cancer Research, and Respiratory Research among others. All BioMed Central journals are included in PubMed immediately and archived in PubMed Central. In recent impact factors published by Thomson ISI, the company stated regarding open access journals, "…initial findings indicated that there was no discernable difference in terms of citation impact or frequency with which the journal is cited." In fact, Arthritis Research and Therapy ranked second in the rheumatology field as was Respiratory Research.

BioMed Central does not charge subscription fees for access to their journals. They cover the cost of their services by levying a $500 processing fee on the authors. However, because of the USM consortial membership, these processing fees will be waived for UMB authors. Over 80 UMB authors have already published in BioMed Central, even before the consortial agreement.

Other reasons for publishing in BioMed Central, beyond peer-review and impact factors, include:

• Free global access – anyone with online access can read your papers, ensuring high visibility for your work.
• Immediate publication, if accepted (there is a 50% acceptance rate).
• Author retention of copyright – you can print out as many copies of your work as you need and email copies to anyone.
• Articles are indexed in PubMed and archived in PubMed Central.

HS/HSL support for BioMed Central will start on July 1 with additional information appearing this fall in the library newsletter, HS/HSL Unplugged and on the library web page www.hshsl.umaryland.edu/main. Classes for prospective authors will be developed for the fall.

If you would like to learn more about BioMed Central, please visit BioMed Central's web site at www.biomedcentral.com or contact Alexa Mayo, Assistant Director for Information and Instructional Services at 410.706.1316.

June 28, 2004

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