Abstract

Open access journals have now been in existence for several years. These journals fund their activities predominantly through fees charged to the authors of articles, rather than through the traditional route of institutional and individual subscriptions. For authors, the main advantage of open access is that their articles can be freely accessed, with the potential to enhance their likely scientific impact and influence on health policy or clinical decision making. In recent years, the importance to authors of open access has been increased by the policies of major research funders in many countries, requiring that the publications arising from the work they fund should be freely available to all. In this context, we thought we should outline Value in Health’s current approach to open access publication.

Although Value in Health is a traditional subscription-based journal, authors can choose to have their article published with open access provided they pay the prescribed fee. In this sense, for the individual author Value in Health is no different from any “open access” journal. The current fees are accessible on the journal’s Web site (https://www.elsevier.com/journals/value-in-health/1098-3015/open-access-options). In addition, because Value in Health is a society journal, all the published content automatically becomes open archive (freely accessible to all) 1 year after publication. Therefore, authors needing their articles to be open access to meet the requirements of various research competitions and awards may not need to pay for open access publication in Value in Health, depending on the precise requirements of their research funders.

In addition, the co-editors-in-chief of Value in Health nominate selected articles to receive immediate “free” access on the journal’s Web site (http://www.valueinhealthjournal.com). This applies to all the articles nominated as “issue highlights,” plus any other articles that are deemed likely to have high impact. Furthermore, all International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) Good Practices for Outcome Research Task Force reports have immediate “free” access through the ISPOR Web site (http://www.ispor.org/workpaper/practices_index.asp).

Finally, to meet the open access requirements of research funders, Value in Health gives permission for authors to place the final submitted (unedited, unpublished) version of their article on their institution’s local research repository so that researchers, funders, and other interested individuals can have access to the work.

We believe that it is important for authors, subscribers, readers, and members of ISPOR to understand the journal’s policies regarding open access publication in Value in Health. Should you have any other queries, please feel free to contact us at vih@ispor.org.