Abstract
I am pleased to announce the launch of Nutrition and Metabolic Insights—a new peer reviewed open access journal published by Libertas Academica. Nutrition and Metabolic Insights is focused on all aspects of nutrition and metabolism, including the biochemistry of metabolism, exercise, and associated physical processes. The journal encompasses research at the molecular, cellular and organismal levels and also covers clinical articles that relate to metabolism, such as obesity, lipidemias and diabetes. Other areas of interest include gene-nutrient interactions, the effects of hormones, models of metabolic function, macronutrient interactions, outcomes of changes in diet, and pathophysiology.
The last few decades have shown tremendous changes in the health and lifestyle habits of people in various populations across the globe (1). We are suddenly faced with a rapid rise in the obesity prevalence, huge changes in dietary habits and patterns of physical activity, and increasing proportion of older people living longer (2). The impact of these changes on bodily function and human health is less understood and therefore brings about new scientific challenges and pose exciting opportunities to produce novel research particularly in the field of nutrition and metabolism.
Furthermore, there is a need to keep at pace with the expanding knowledge on the genetic basis of various common metabolic diseases. Unravelling how these genes relate to metabolic processes, be it at molecular, cellular, tissue and clinical level, would help us better understand disease mechanisms and hopefully provide more effective forms treatment (3). Understanding how environmental factors influence disease expression of genetic and metabolic processes also becomes more relevant. Although we know the importance of environmental and many lifestyle factors, particularly diet and physical activity, in the aetiology of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes (4-6), mechanisms linking food components or nutrients with disease remain to be elucidated (7-9). The importance of nutrition to improve health of some vulnerable groups—the very young and the elderly—requires further investigation. Much research is certainly needed in these areas.
In this journal, we provide an opportunity for scientists across different disciplines in nutrition and metabolism to share their findings and expertise to a wider range of audience. The reason for this is because all journal articles will be accessible without any access boundaries to all internet users throughout the world. The journal will certainly be competing head-on with a number of existing subscription-based journals but clearly there is a niche for the new journal.
Nutrition and Metabolic Insights is published exclusively online. Articles will follow a consistent format so that the visual impact will be high and equal to that of the best hard-copy publications. In contrast to paper-based journals, however, the electronic format allows the full use of digital technologies and permits the inclusion of large data sets, from field and laboratory studies, links to other web pages, animations, slide shows, video clips and unlimited colour, all at no additional charge. Open access means that all articles are freely available to all, worldwide, and at no cost to the reader. The readers are also able to access information as soon as the study has been published online. More importantly, authors retain copyright of their work and can grant anyone the right to reproduce and disseminate it, provided that it is correctly cited and no errors are introduced, under the Creative Commons “CC-BY” licence.
In hard-copy journals, the costs of publication are met by subscriptions, paid by the reader. In Nutrition and Metabolic Insights, as in other open access journals, these costs are borne by the author in the form of a publication processing fee (PPF). Many grant-awarding bodies recognise the value of open access publishing by allowing their funds to be used for PPFs. Waivers and discounts are available on a case-by-case basis, and we shall make every effort to ensure that lack of funds does not impede the overall objective of publishing the best science, irrespective of authorship or country of origin.
I do not foresee that open access, online journals will totally replace the traditional print format in the immediate future, although this may be an increasing trend with time. I am certain, however, that the benefits of online publication, and the extra opportunities that digital technologies give to authors, will be increasingly recognised. Open access is of huge benefit to the researchers working in institutions around the world where institutional libraries are unable to afford subscription fees for a full range of journals. Indeed, we hope that open access to this journal would contribute in some way in improving scientific research in developing countries.
I expect that Nutrition and Metabolism Insights will attract manuscripts of the highest quality which are of the greatest possible benefit to readers. The scientific standard is maintained as we offer rigorous, fair and prompt standards of peer review, which will be undertaken by at least two leading experts in the area of the manuscript.
I therefore look forward to authors to consider submitting their work through this journal. For further information on what we hope will be an exciting and highly useful new journal, please click on the “About This Journal” links on the journal's web page.