<i>BJUI Compass</i> and open access

Abstract

There is no doubt that the publishing landscape is rapidly changing around us. The BJUI is a world leading surgical journal, serving 10 international organisations, with 90 years of history (1929–2019). So why are we launching, BJUI Compass an online, open access (OA) journal, now? In September 2018, cOAlition S, a predominantly European consortium of research funders, launched Plan S. In its current form, this plan requires that from 2021, scientific publications from research funded by public grants through funders who have signed up to cOAlition S must be published in full OA journals or platforms. This is a model whereby publication of science is paid for by authors, or their funders, rather than by readers to whom access is free 1. The Wellcome Trust, one of the largest funders of research in the UK, is a major supporter of Plan S and has its own OA policy for 2021 2. However, the practical implementation of Plan S continues to be a subject of debate. In other parts of the world, there is increasing interest in OA but the approach to implementation is likely to vary considerably. Our own publisher, Wiley, in readiness for Plan S, announced an agreement with Projekt DEAL, a representative of nearly 700 academic institutions in Germany 3. Most academic institutions in Germany under this project can publish articles in OA or hybrid journals published by Wiley, including BJUI, a hybrid journal. These initiatives in OA are another factor in the increasing debate about scientific impact, bibliometrics beyond the impact factor, and translating research for public benefit rather than purely the career progression of academics 4. In this environment, we are excited to bring you BJUI Compass. This new journal will be part of the overall academic BJUI family to include the flagship BJUI journal, BJUI Compass, and our e-learning platform, BJUI Knowledge. BJUI Compass will be online only and all of its content will be OA. An overriding theme to the journal will be the support of ‘Sound Science Criteria’. This means that every piece of research that has been conducted in a sound and rigorous manner should be published somewhere. Therefore, while the BJUI will continue to focus upon the most ground-breaking papers, BJUI Compass will have more of the sound science emphasis and a four directional theme. Rather than a traditional sub-specialty outline to the journal, that is oncology and functional, we are considering a more ‘themed’ format consistent with the ‘Compass’ name, i.e., directional. Each article will be selected and featured based upon where it ‘takes us’ as a reader. The four proposed directions will be: (i) ‘To the Journals…’, which will be reviews and consensus statements, (ii) ‘To the Patient Side…’, which will be clinical practice refinement topics, (iii) ‘To the Drawing Board…’, which will be academic-oriented topics, and (iv) ‘To the Future…’, which will be innovation type topics. In keeping with our continued theme of the highest quality, clinically relevant papers, in this issue of the BJUI we present two MRI-based prostate cancer papers, showing that while we could avoid biopsies in many men without missing significant disease 5, in African-American men on active monitoring, the cancers can be upgraded more frequently and careful follow-up is thus warranted 6. None declared.

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