Welcome with Open arms!

Welcome!

I'm thrilled to launch ERJ Open Research, the latest addition to the European Respiratory Society (ERS) publications portfolio. Our new journal will be built on the following principles: rigorous peer review; rapid responsive publication; open access; and high production values.

The rationale

As with any new publication product, there should be a clear need for it to exist. Market research revealed that there was a gap in the market for a high-quality, open-access respiratory journal that offers low author fees and robust peer review. Basic and translational scientists in particular are under-served in the respiratory journals sector, and the relevance of their work is too often not communicated well to those working on the clinical side. The top respiratory journals, including the European Respiratory Journal (ERJ), have space for only a fraction of the excellent research that is being done, within Europe and elsewhere. That research deserves to be published and to be read.

The European Respiratory Society (ERS), as a broad-based, research-driven society with a strong publishing presence, is ideally placed to meet this need. ERJ Open Research fits neatly into the ERS publications portfolio, alongside the journals ERJ, European Respiratory Review and Breathe [1], which serves authors and readers in every walk of respiratory life, from traineeship to tenure and from bench to bedside.

The launch of ERJ Open Research also ties in well with ERS's strategy [2] to engage respiratory professionals worldwide: it provides free access to brand new research for readers. For authors, open access fees will be kept low and there will be large discounts for those from less economically developed countries – including a complete waiver of publication fees for authors from countries classed as low income.

The content

This introductory editorial accompanies the first set of papers to be published in ERJ Open Research and sets the scene for our publishing strategy.

We will publish well-conducted, properly analysed original research from across the respiratory spectrum, from basic science to clinical studies.

We will also be publishing editorials, perspectives and reviews, with a particular focus on “clinical signposting”: explaining what the results of basic and translational research might mean to those on the front line of patient care, both immediately and in future. In this way, ERJ Open Research will cater to everyone involved in respiratory science and medicine, from laboratory scientists to every member of the multidisciplinary clinical team.

ERJ Open Research will be a continuous-publication, online-only journal, which means it can respond quickly to emerging topics such as emerging disease epidemics or new treatments. Streamlined production processes will mean papers are online quickly with their full citation details, and even enable us to build topic-specific homepages.

ERJ Open Research papers will be published as soon as they are ready, but they will not be presented as a long, undifferentiated stream of articles. Although readers will be able to search for the latest articles, content will be organised into cohesive sections, and bundled into regular issues for archiving.

Meet the team

No woman (or man) is an island and I'm pleased to be able to announce that I will be supported by a superb team of Associate Editors: Ian Adcock (National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, London, UK); Stefano Aliberti (Università degli Studi di Milano – Bicocca, Milan, Italy); Stefan Andreas (Lungenfachklinik Immenhausen, Immenhausen, Germany); Anders Bjerg (University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden); Brendan Cooper (Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, Birmingham, UK); Roland Diel (University Hospital Schleswig Holstein, Kiel, Germany); Mina Gaga (Athens Chest Hospital, Athens, Greece); Felix Herth (University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany); Ildiko Horvath (Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary); William Man (Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust and Imperial College, London, UK); Anne-Pascale Meert (Institut Jules Bordet, Brussels, Belgium); Fabio Midulla (Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy); Laurent Nicod (CHUV, Lausanne, Switzerland); Stylianos Orfanos (University of Athens Medical School, Attikon Hospital, Athens Greece); Fabio Luigi Massimo Ricciardolo (University of Turin, Turin, Italy); Philipp Schnabel (Universitäts Klinikum des Saarlandes, Homburg/Saar, Germany); Johan Verbraecken (Antwerp University Hospital and University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium); and Zaid Zoumot (Cleveland Clinic, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates). With this team at my side, I am confident that we cover the full breadth of the field. Many of my team also bring a wealth of experience as high-level officers within the ERS (including myself as a former editor of the ERS publication, Breathe, and as past Education Council Chair (2011–2014)), so we are very aware of the needs of the Society's membership, as one of the key stakeholders of this new journal.

As the Journal grows and matures, we may seek to add further members to this team to ensure that we maintain a smooth and efficient workflow and first-class author service.

The Journal is also supported by the ERS Publications staff, who provide full publishing services, right from the point of submission up to acceptance and publication (including copy-editing and figure redrawing). The staff can also advise on the most appropriate open access licencing option, depending on author preference or funder mandate.

The future

We want ERJ Open Research to become a first-choice destination for authors and readers. To do that, it needs to bring top-quality, topical, interesting research to a worldwide readership. ERJ Open Research will aim to make a significant contribution to the advancement of respiratory science and medicine, and also to be a forward-looking and fleet-footed venture that can respond to breaking issues and controversies and to the changing needs of researchers and practitioners.

As well as open access, the “Open” in ERJ Open Research should stand for openness to the whole respiratory community. In addition to attracting readers, the journal should inspire people to get involved in respiratory research, to become peer reviewers and to contribute to debate.

We will aim to be indexed in all the major biomedical abstracting and indexing databases as soon as we are able to apply – it is understood that this is an important measure for both authors and readers. It is not, however, the only measure of visibility and impact and, as such, the ERS publications staff team will work alongside authors to help them promote their papers through a variety of means, including social media.

We look forward to serving you, our authors and readers, and encourage your feedback, debate and contributions!