Marcel Hommel, Editor-in-Chief, Malaria Journal

1. OPEN ACCESS AFRICA:
MALARIA JOURNAL –An Open Access success story
Marcel Hommel
Editor-in Chief, Malaria Journal

2. In 2001, creation of the OPEN ACCESS concept
= creation of Malaria Journal, online and open access journal (no paper
version)
• Peer-review and copy-editing (= quality)
• No cost for the reader, but cost for authors who pay an
‘APC’ (£1,310/US$2,110/€1,630 in 2012)
• From the beginning, no APC or a reduced APC for authors
from the poorest countries (World Bank list)
• Copyright belongs to author not the journal

3. Why a journal on Malaria?
In 2001, in which journal were malaria papers published ?
25% of the 1,660 articles published were in
American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine
Tropical Medicine and International Health
Annals Tropical Medicine and Parasitology
Trends in Parasitology (ex Parasitology Today)
Infection and Immunity
Not a new concept:
Tubercle created in 1919
AIDS created in 1988
J Viral Hepatitis in 1994

5. Number of malaria papers published

6. Number of malaria papers published

8. In 2011, Malaria Journal published 13% of papers on malaria
but is it a quality journal ?
What makes quality ?
• Editorial Board
• Peer-review process
• Quality output – copy-editing papers
• Influence in the discipline
• Metrics : Impact factor, Eigenfactor, etc
• Quality publisher

9. A strong Editorial board, with about 50 top names
in the field, involved in peer-reviewing. Final
decision made by Editor-in-chief
Unique feature: 20% of Editorial board are changed
every year (randomly !)

10. Submissions and publications over the
past 5 years
700
600
500
400
Submissions
300
Publications
200
100
0
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 (year to date)
Average submissions per month in 2012 = 60
Average publications per month in 2012 = 38

11. Impact in the field
• 2011 Impact Factor - 3.19
•Journal is ranked 2nd in Tropical
Medicine (behind PLoS NTD) and 7th in
Parasitology

12. Press releases
Malaria Journal publishes excellent high quality research, which is of interest to a wider audience. It
is therefore, important to make sure that articles are disseminated to the general public as well as
to the scientific community. In the past 12 months, Press Releases have been sent out for the
following articles. Where possible, we have coordinated Press Releases with the authors’ institutes.
•Quality of anti-malarials collected in the private and informal sectors in Guyana and
Suriname
•Implementation of basic quality control tests for malaria medicines in Amazon Basin
countries: results for the 2005–2010 period
•Malaria resurgence: a systematic review and assessment of its causes (Press Released on
World Malaria Day)
•Artemether resistance in vitro is linked to mutations in PfATP6 that also interact with
mutations in PfMDR1 in travellers returning with Plasmodium falciparum infections
•Estimates of child deaths prevented from malaria prevention scale-up in Africa 2001-2010
•A new world malaria map: Plasmodium falciparumendemicity in 2010
•A framework for assessing the risk of resistance for anti-malarials in development

15. Journal quality: IMPACT FACTOR
We all would like to publish in ‘Prestige’ journals

17. Article accesses to Malaria Journal
300,000
250,000
200,000
150,000
100,000
50,000
0
* These are based on accesses from the journal website and do not include accesses
from repositories such as PubMed Central

18. The articles most read in 2011

19. Who reads Malaria Journal ? (October 2011)

20. Overall, for all BMC
journals, the
submission pattern
is:
In 2011, Malaria Journal published 388 papers of which
• 105 had African scientists as first author (27%)
• 52 had African scientists as co-author (13%)
• 14 concerned African issues, without African co-author

21. Based on 2010 published papers

22. Reading rooms with computers ?
Computers in the class room,
the office, the lab, the home ?

23. Over 90% of the mortality due to
malaria occurs in Africa, but (in
2009) only 52 articles of 2586 (2%)
had been published in an
African journal
Is is possible to change this and
regenerate/develop African
medical journal ?

24. Top impact factor ‘prestige’ journals
If you are a young scientist or High quality, high impact journals (IF >5)
medical doctor wanting to publish
first paper or case study :
Professional specialist journals
Where do you send your paper ?
Regional journals, often non-English, non
IF-rated
Nationaljournals

25. There is a need for national and regional journals
• they contribute to the overall framework of academic
life
• authors are often more interested in their work being
seen by colleagues nationally, in their own language, than
internationally
• all data do not necessarily justify publication in an
international journal, but may be of quality and local
interest
• the Open Access ‘movement’ could encourage their
development