The role of open access in a changing academy: reflections on a new publishing paradigm: Regional Studies, Regional Science: Vol 4, No 1

"Now that Regional Studies, Regional Science is into its fourth year of publication, we feel it is a good time to reflect on the progress of the journal to date in relation to the wider publishing context and changing expectations about the role of open-access (OA) publishing. This editorial also marks the departure of Alex Singleton, one of our founding editors-in-chief, and the arrival of Stephen Hincks as a new editor-in-chief. Stephen joins Alasdair Rae and Heather Stephens (North American editor) on the senior editorial team and we welcome him to the RSRS family. At the same time, we extend warm wishes to Alex and formally thank him for his role in taking the journal from initial concept to the stage where we now have a growing corpus of interdisciplinary papers and very strong download figures. In fact, as we explain below, some of our papers are among the most viewed across the social sciences, thanks to the OA model and continued support from our publisher (Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group) and, of course, the Regional Studies Association. We are pleased to report that in March 2016 RSRS was accepted for inclusion in Scopus, the world’s largest abstract and citation database. This is an important milestone as we are one of the few OA journals in the social sciences to achieve this. Below, we also say more about who we are ‘open’ to, since this is often a subject of some debate and more than a little mystery."