10 years of open access publishing at the BIR

"BJR is the world’s oldest radiology journal, and for 117 years any non-member of the British Institute of Radiology (BIR) wanting to read articles published in BJR was charged a subscription. This model changed a decade ago, in 2012, when an open access option was launched for BJR and DMFR. Specifically, in exchange for an article processing charge (APC), authors could have their article made immediately available, allowing anyone worldwide with an internet connection to read the research without the barrier of a paywall.

For some authors, the option to publish open access fulfilled a desire to make their work more widely accessible to readers, and for others, it satisfied a requirement from their funding bodies or institutions. Offering this option to our authors was a key milestone in the life of BJR and to mark this event, we will be celebrating 10 years of open access throughout 2022.

Currently, BJR and DMFR offer a hybrid open access model where some journal articles are offered open access whilst others remain available only to subscribers. This model has now become the norm for many other journals and allows authors, depending on their circumstances, different options to publish their work. The model has proved successful. In 2012, we published just a single open access article in BJR, increasing to almost 20% of published content in 2021 (Figure 1)...."