The researchers, authors, reviewers, editors, and readers of the
MPMI journal represent an international
community, and APS leadership believes it is important that the journal serve this global community. In light of this vision and the recent movement in Europe toward open access publishing, the
MPMI journal is going gold open access. Beginning January 2021, all MPMI content will be open to everyone.
According to Krishna Subbarao, the chair of the APS Publications Board, MPMI’s move to open access was triggered by a group of primarily European funders known as Coalition S, who introduced publishing recommendations under Plan S. This plan requires that, beginning in 2021, any project funded by the members of the coalition be published in journals that provide immediate and free access to all published content.
“Because of Plan S, it was especially vital to move MPMI to open access because many of the journals in the molecular area were already gold open access,” Subbarao said. “We hope that the European authors who already submit to MPMI will continue to do so and that this move to gold open access attracts authors from every part of the world as well.”
Jeanne Harris, the
MPMI editor-in-chief, envisions the journal as a place to tackle the big questions in molecular plant-microbe interactions. “We want to position
MPMI to be a place where the community discusses these big questions. Not just what we’ve done but looking forward at the big questions that face us.” She sees this move to open access as a way to foster inclusion, drawing all voices into the discussion.
Since Harris took over as editor-in-chief in 2018, MPMI has transitioned from being a print publication to online-only delivery and made all technical advances freely available, which were important first steps toward becoming open access. “Plants live all over the world, microbes live all over the world,” Harris said. “When we look at the people who make up our IS-MPMI community, we see that the members are from all over the world and not every place has subscription access. It was clear that MPMI had to go open access to reach our entire community.”
MPMI currently makes both resource announcements and technical advances open access so that they can be a resource for the community and review articles are freely available for a month. However, Harris has championed the move toward fully open access. “These ideas and the findings really should be shared,” she said.
With the gold open access launch in 2021, the MPMI journal will become more accessible than ever and can serve as a community meeting place for all. Authors are encouraged to submit their articles now to be included in the first open access issues. Articles submitted today will be openly available for everyone in our community as they are published.
Learn more about the journal.
