https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9453-9688
Since its launch in 1990, Platelets has flourished as a strong, unique voice in our field, acting as a trusted channel for state-of-the-art original science, review and opinion. Our global reach and metrics of impact have continued to grow, whilst the journal’s remit has maintained a clear focus. Platelets remains the only journal with a focus solely on platelet and megakaryocyte research.
Ensuring the ongoing success of the journal means we must change with the times, evolving with the wider field and publishing industry. It is an unfortunate truth that it costs money to produce and maintain a journal such as Platelets. At some point in the chain from author to reader, publication has to be financed. As with most journals of the time, Platelets was set up using the traditional subscription model, placing the burden of payment on readers rather than authors.
While this has had the clear advantage for authors of no processing fees, it does mean that access to the articles published in Platelets is limited to those subscribing to the journal. This can be disadvantageous for prospective readers who may find themselves in an institution without a subscription, but also to authors whose work may not get the wider visibility it deserves. Platelets has few personal subscribers, meaning the burden of funding already falls on institutions. Though an optional open access option has been available for some time, this introduces a degree of inequality, and inconsistency that can lead to confusion and frustration when trying to access the whole of our content.
In the last decades, academic publishing has undergone huge change. The advent and proliferation of the internet has completely revolutionized the ease with which the literature can be searched and viewed. Related to this ease of instant delivery of content to a reader is the rise of the open access model of publication. Opinion has now largely shifted to acknowledge that the ‘gold standard’ is a fully open access model, and that in particular the results of publicly funded research should be available to all.
Aside from any ideological arguments, perhaps the most important manifestation of this trend is the requirement of a growing number of funders that outputs resulting from supported projects must be published in a journal that operates on a fully open access basis or one committed to doing so in the near future. This includes the prominent group of public funders known as ‘Coalition S’ [Citation1]. Clearly, it would be a great shame if our authors could not submit their grant-funded work if we were not able to make this commitment.
For these reasons, we can now confirm that the decision has been made to transform Platelets into a fully open access journal. This will be implemented during a period of transition over the rest of 2022, with the switch completed by the beginning of 2023. It will mean that, going forward, all articles accepted for publication in Platelets will attract an Article Processing Charge (APC) and will be fully and freely accessible to all readers. We are pleased that the proposed APC is lower than it has been previously for our journal and is overall a rate competitive with journals of similar scope and stature.
As the outgoing (PH and SW) and incoming (EG and WP, from January 2023) Editors-in-Chief, and Editorial Assistant (GH), who will continue to support the journal, we unanimously support the decision and are confident that now is the right time to make this transition. For the majority, we anticipate this will be a well-received and positive change, greatly enhancing the visibility, availability and impact of the full range of high-quality articles published in Platelets. We do acknowledge that for some, however, such a change may create challenges, with a compulsory APC becoming a barrier to submission. All the time, however, more and more institutions are entering into agreements with publishers such as Taylor & Francis that take the job of budgeting for the APC out of the hands of authors and place it back onto institutions and funders. Nevertheless, we do recognize that authors at some institutions, especially in less well-funded systems or where their funding body is not aligned with Coalition S, may struggle. We have been assured by the publisher that as Editors-in-Chief we will retain a degree of discretion where a case for a waiver or reduction is compelling. We would therefore welcome authors anticipating such difficulties to contact us proactively. It is also our intention that commissioned articles will not generally attract an APC unless that author’s institution has an existing agreement with our publisher.
We have also recently has introduced new manuscript sections and a plain language summary (PLS) into Platelets to increase searchability and to fall in line with other Section Titles used by Taylor and Francis. The plain language summary increases the appreciation and understanding of the research, and supports our Twitter feed.
The new section titles are as follows:
Article Commentaries replacing Commentaries
Brief Reports replacing Definitive Articles
Collection replacing Gene of the Issue
Comment replacing Opinion Articles
Letters replacing Letters to the Editor
Rapid Communications replacing Fast-track Articles
Research Articles replacing Original Articles
Technical Reports replacing Methods and Methods Development.
The titles of other categories, Case Reports, Reviews, Systematic Reviews and Trial Protocols will remain the same.
We remain committed to ensuring Platelets best serves our field. It is our sincere hope that authors, reviewers and readers will continue to offer such warm support for the journal as it moves into this new era.
Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.