ACR Open Rheumatology Seeks New Editors

Since its March 2019 launch, ACROR, published by John Wiley & Sons on behalf of the ACR, has been a fully open-access journal. In other words, all content is accessible online for anyone to read in full. In contrast, the content of many journals, including Arthritis & Rheumatology (A&R) and Arthritis Care & Research (AC&R), is accessible only to ACR/ARP members or by subscription for a specific time, unless authors decide to purchase open access for their papers on an individual article basis, notes Dr. Katz. ACROR has no paid subscriptions. Any reader may excerpt figures or tables, and share, publish or reuse the content of ACROR articles for non-commercial purposes without obtaining copyright permission.

“We started from ground zero,” says Dr. Katz. She adds that ACROR has quickly gained acceptance in the field and drawn a substantial proportion of direct submissions. “We originally thought the journal would mainly publish papers transferred from the other ACR journals,” she says.

Transfer papers are high-quality research the other journals’ editors deem scientifically important but can’t fit in the limited space of a print publication. The review  completed for a submission to A&R or AC&R can be used for ACROR submission, speeding the path to publication, says Ms. Murphy. To cover the cost of publishing and making articles freely available, authors or their institution are expected to pay an author processing charge (APC) fee.

ACROR now receives roughly the same number of directly submitted papers as transfers, Dr. Katz notes proudly.

Increasing Prestige

With the first impact factor coming this summer, Drs. Katz and Yelin expect ACROR to draw more submissions.

Many researchers depend upon publishing in high-impact factor journals for promotions and career development. Thus, many talented researchers don’t currently choose to publish in ACROR because they need each article to have an impact factor so the perceived significance and reach of their research can be evaluated, says Dr. Katz.

Dr. Yelin

Dr. Yelin noted, however, that ACROR offers other advantages. Because ACROR is an online-only journal, it can publish longer articles and include more backup materials than those in typical print publications. “That’s useful for authors who don’t want to relegate much of their work to the supplemental files,” Dr. Yelin points out.

Additionally, ACROR offers a full range of rheumatology research. For investigators, this means they can avoid being siloed. For clinicians, this means information about the state of the art in all types of rheumatology research, be it basic, translational, clinical or health services research, Dr. Yelin emphasizes.