Open access publishing: a girder in the success of the Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine.

Abstract

The Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine (SJTREM) has entered its third year as an independent, open access international scientific on-line journal. SJTREM converted into open access (OA) online publishing in July 2008. The decision was based on the importance of making research accessible for all, regardless of financial status or capabilities. This conversion resulted in a substantial rise in submissions, and not least citations. Scandinavian research founders have for the last two years been steadily moving from a supportive attitude for the OA principles, to making policy decisions that have a direct guidance to authors to publish OA. The Scandinavian move is part of the wider global picture where mandates and funding mechanisms, constituting the equivalent of library budgets at many universities, are springing into life. With the support of European Commission, OA are evolving all over Europe. As a result of such initiatives, the list of universities with central funds for OA publications is growing rapidly. The OA conversion of SJTREM was timely, and the number papers cited in other journals are increasing. All published papers reach a significant number of readers, far above what was achievable for the earlier paper version of SJTREM.