Animal science publication flips to open access, making research findings more readily available
The monthly journal, animal, is to enter into a new publishing agreement with Elsevier. As part of this deal, the publication will move to Gold Open Access.
“animal’s flip to open access in January 2021 is fantastic news for its authors, as their research will now be available immediately, permanently, and be freely accessible worldwide,” said the European Federation for Animal Science (EAAP), in a tweet on the development.
The journal, which issues 250 peer-reviewed articles a year, is published in collaboration with the British Society of Animal Science (BSAS), EAAP and the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE).
Covering research, reviews and opinion pieces related to animal sciences, animal takes account of a broad range of subjects including:
- Breeding and genetics
- Nutrition: Monogastrics, Ruminants
- Physiology and functional biology
- Welfare and behavior
- Health management
- Livestock systems
- Precision livestock farming
- Quality of animal products
Shift away from the subscription model
Those organizations said the current publishing trend is moving strongly in the direction of 'open access' as more and more journals and their authors are seeing the need to remove the ‘pay for view’ restrictions of the subscription model.
In addition, a growing number of research funding institutions and companies are now requesting 'open access' to increase the availability of the research they choose to support financially, they said.
“In keeping with the vision for animal to be the world’s most respected resource for animal sciences, it is believed that the move from subscription-based journals to an open access publishing model, making scientific articles freely available at no expense to the readers, is essential to our securing the availability of animal science results to all in line with the general movement for open science publication.
“Authors will realize the benefits of making their research findings more readily available, more citable and more applicable throughout the animal science sector,” they added.
The largest global publisher of scientific journals, Elsevier currently publishes over 400 peer-reviewed 'open access' journals and has transitioned many other scientific journals from subscription models to 'open access'.
It said it will be working closely with the animal editorial staff and the current publisher, Cambridge University Press, to facilitate a seamless transition to its portal.
A spokesperson for the partners behind animal commented: “We spent considerable time reviewing the way forward for our journal and believe that Elsevier will provide us with the best platform to develop animal both as an open access publication and as a leading animal science publication.”
Chris Hammond, publishing director, International Markets, Elsevier said the publisher recognizes that access to quality research is vital to the scientific community and beyond: “We strive to support our authors to fit their needs. We do this by providing tools and resources, greater author publishing choices and supporting open access implementation across the industry.”
