Starting a New Open Access Journal: Perspectives from the Front Lines

MODERATOR: Audra Jenson J&J Editorial SPEAKERS: Justin Byrne American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology Carolyn de Court J&J Editorial @CarolynMariePTL Kathryn A Phillips Health Affairs Scholar – Global and Emerging Health Policies @KathrynPₚhd REPORTER: Erin Landis Origin Editorial The CSE 2024 Annual Meeting session, "Starting a New Open Access Journal: Perspectives from the Front Lines, " featured a Q&A format that helped shed light on the myriad considerations for launching an open access (OA) journal. The session featured peer review management professionals and an editor-in-chief, which provided a well-rounded set of perspectives on the topic. Following is an overview of the questions that moderator Audra Jensen posed to the speakers, as well as a summary of their responses. Why start an OA journal? The panelists noted that there are a variety of reasons to start an OA journal, including wanting to keep good research "in the family, " instead of it being published elsewhere, to keep pace with the ever-accelerating shift toward an OA landscape in scholarly publishing, compliance with funder mandates, and providing authors with more choices for where and under what model to publish their research. What pain points have you encountered? Starting a new journal, let alone an OA journal, can present challenges, not the least of which, as the panelists noted, is convincing a society's leadership that a new OA journal is necessary. Other challenges expressed by the panelists included attracting de novo submissions to the new OA journal (vs. having submissions cascade from the "parent" or …