APS ANNOUNCES AUTHOR CHOICE OPTION FOR ITS JOURNALS

["Martin Frank" <MFrank@The-APS.org>]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JUNE 29, 2007

Contacts:
Martin Frank, Ph.D.
301.634.7118
MFrank@The-APS.org

Margaret Reich
301.634.7071
MReich@The-APS.org

AMERICAN PHYSIOLOGICAL SOCIETY (APS) ANNOUNCES NEW PROGRAM TO 
MAKE RESEARCH RESULTS IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC

"Author Choice" debuts July 1, 2007

BETHESDA, MD - Authors who publish with the American 
Physiological Society (APS; www.The-APS.org) and want to provide 
the public with immediate access to their research results will 
now be able to do so under a plan announced today by the APS.

Under the new program, Author Choice, researchers who publish 
their studies in APS journals can make their results immediately 
available by paying an open access (OA) fee. The plan, which 
takes effect July 1, 2007, also guarantees that researchers who 
are required to provide open access as a condition of funding can 
quickly and easily do so.  Author Choice is one of several recent 
innovations undertaken by the 120-year old scientific society to 
meet 21st century demands.

According to Martin Frank, Ph.D., APS' Executive Director, "The 
history and mission of the APS is to publish research results 
that can be used by scientists and benefit the public.  Ten years 
ago we made online access to our journals immediately available 
for a nominal fee. Seven years ago we made all articles free 
online after 12 months. Two years ago we made articles available 
to all patients in need, at no charge. Now we are letting the 
researchers and their organizations dictate when the results of 
their research are made available to the public free of charge. 
Given today's market forces, it makes sense to let the authors 
decide what timing best suits their needs."

Program Tested Ahead of Roll Out

The plan goes into effect after several years of experimentation 
with the APS journal Physiological Genomics. During a three year 
period, APS offered authors the choice of whether to pay an open 
access fee plus standard author charges. At the end of the test 
period, 18 percent of authors opted for open access.

"It was very interesting to watch the level of interest and 
financial commitment that we found among authors submitting their 
work to this publication," said Margaret Reich, executive editor 
of the APS family of journals. "Based on the results of our 
internal study, we decided to make the choice plan as widely 
available as possible. This means that as publishers we can now 
offer a mixed model for access and payment to support the cost of 
publication."

Ten Journals to Offer Author Choice Option

Authors who choose immediate access for their work will pay the 
$2,000 Author Choice fee, plus the customary author fees. Open 
access choice will apply to all of the APS' 10 monthly research 
publications: American Journal of Physiology - Cell Physiology; 
American Journal of Physiology - Endocrinology and Metabolism; 
American Journal of Physiology - Gastrointestinal and Liver 
Physiology; American Journal of Physiology - Heart and 
Circulatory Physiology; American Journal of Physiology - Lung 
Cellular and Molecular Physiology; American Journal of Physiology 
- Regulatory, Integrative &  Comparative Physiology; American 
Journal of Physiology - Renal Physiology; Journal of Applied 
Physiology; Journal of Neurophysiology; and Physiological 
Genomics.

Some 4,000 Research Articles Have Potential to be "Open" 
According to Frank, the goal of the program is to allow choice. 
"There will be many who do not want to pay the cost of the open 
access fee from their grant funding, and there will be many who 
do want to. As publishers, our duty is to offer them the choice 
and then implement it. We are offering the Author Choice option 
on the approximately 4,000 scientific articles we publish each 
year. We are very interested in how this change will affect an 
industry that is so deeply in transition."

About the APS

Physiology is the study of how molecules, cells, tissues and 
organs function to create health or disease. The American 
Physiological Society is a nonprofit organization devoted to 
fostering education, scientific research, and dissemination of 
information in the physiological sciences.  From its beginnings 
in 1887 the Society has grown to more than 10,500 
researcher-members today.  In addition to being a member-based 
organization, it is a premier not-for-profit publisher in the 
life sciences whose publications are among the most respected and 
frequently cited in the field. APS publishes 13 widely acclaimed 
scholarly journals and recently posted more than 650,000 pages of 
historical scientific studies online, some dating back to 1898.

For further information about the program, log on to 
http://www.the-aps.org/authorchoice/


Martin Frank, Ph.D.
Executive Director, American Physiological Society
9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20814-3991 USA
Tel: 301-634-7118
Fax: 301-634-7241
E-mail: mfrank@the-aps.org
APS Home Page: www.the-aps.org

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