Neoplasia: Where We Have Been and Where We Are Going

Abstract

Neoplasia was launched in 1999 with the mission of providing a high-quality publication venue for the rapid dissemination of novel and exciting advances in cancer research. The journal has grown, in a very rapid fashion, from a bimonthly publication to a monthly publication by publishing a broad-based range of articles ranging from apoptosis to angiogenesis, as shown in Table 1. This table categorizes articles published by Neoplasia by general topic for publication years 2004 to 2006. Cancer genetics, cell and tumor biology, experimental therapeutics, and cancer imaging continue to be significant components of article growth published over these years. The number of submissions and published articles has continually increased over the year, and, next year, Neoplasia will enter its ninth year of publication (Vol. 9). The success of Neoplasia has affirmed to the editorial staff and editorial board that there was and continues to be a significant need for a broad-based cancer journal. During the past year, Neoplasia has further adapted and taken the lead in online peer-reviewed publication of cancer research articles. Table 1 Major Research Topics Published in Neoplasia from 2004 to 2006. In 2006, Neoplasia adopted the open access (OA) model for all articles published. This allows for all articles to be made available free to the scientific and layman communities through online electronic access. All articles are linked through PubMed (www.PubMEd.gov) to a Web-based database, which hosts all Neoplasia articles published to date. Moreover, beginning in 2007, all Neoplasia articles published in Neoplasia will also be freely available through the Biomedcentral portal (http://www.biomedcentral.com/) beginning on the day of publication, rather than after 6 to 12 months like most journals. Of 8700 selected journals currently covered in Web of Science, only 160 are available through Biomedcentral. The effect of immediate OA on the impact of Neoplasia is anticipated to dramatically improve the citation impact factor in terms of the frequency with which an article is cited in the literature (http://dlib.org/dlib/june04/harnad/06harnad.html) [301]. Overall, OA will provide for dramatically increased readership due to access to articles, which would traditionally be unavailable due to costs associated with access tolls to the journal in which it was published because their affiliated institution could not afford the price of subscription. Overall, providing OA to all past, present, and future articles published in Neoplasia should significantly improve the quality and speed at which cancer research advances will be made due to more rapid dissemination of knowledge. Neoplasia is committed to meeting the challenges and emerging needs of the cancer research scientific community. This commitment has been met through the early establishment of a rapid online peer-review system, which has facilitated review of submitted articles. Moreover, the recent OA in 2006, with expansion onto Biomedcentral in 2007, will provide maximal international dissemination of all manuscripts published by Neoplasia. This forward-looking approach allowing for immediate OA availability of all published articles should provide authors using Neoplasia as their publication venue with maximal impact of their exciting research findings.