Volume 82 - 2019 - Fasc.1 - Editorial
The future of Acta Gastro-Enterologica Belgica
Recently, public availability of medical manuscripts free of charge was subject to a national discussion, pledging for obligatory open access journals (1). The idea is based upon the fact that many researches in medical sciences are (partially) funded by the government, and thus by tax payers. Therefore, all tax payers should have free access to the published results. However, the traditional publishing model is based on authors submitting their research results free of charge to a medical journal, and when accepted and published, only subscribers to the journal are allowed access to its content. Commercial publishers are thus financed by the subscribers (libraries and individuals) to their journals and by selling publicity of pharmaceutical companies. Because of the high subscription rates more and more publishers embarked on the open access model, also known as the author-pays model (2). The principle of open access journals requires authors to pay for the publication of their accepted manuscript, which then becomes freely available to the world. It is currently unclear which of the two financial models is more profitable for the publishers. However, the number of open access journals is steadily increasing with new releases on a weekly base. And all these journals need manuscripts (and publication fees) to financially survive. SO. the open access model has led to the danger of predatory publishing with questionable journal integrity and problematic peer review process (3).
