Abstract
Dear Cartilage Readership,
It is with great pleasure that I announce the new Open Access ICRS Journal—The Journal of Cartilage & Joint Preservation (JCJP). What makes the JCJP unique among medical journals is the focus on whole-joint health. By recognizing the continuum of disease from joint injury to osteoarthritis, the JCJP will reflect the mission of the ICRS (International Cartilage Repair Society) by publishing new insights into preserving joint health and maintaining joint function for our patients around the globe.
The JCJP was launched by the ICRS in partnership with Elsevier Publishing and will complement Cartilage in attaining our Society’s goals to advance science and education in the prevention and treatment of cartilage disease worldwide. As the inaugural Editor-in-Chief of JCJP, I will work in collaboration with Cartilage Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Mats Brittberg. As I mentioned, the new ICRS journal will be open access, to support the ICRS’ commitment to open access and authors complying with Plan S 1 and other funder mandates. We recognize that funders, such as the World Health Organization, the Gates Foundation, and Wellcome Trust, are implementing new funding requirements as of January 2021, 2 and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute recently joined Coalition S, with the requirement that their funded authors will need to publish open access starting January 2022. 3
As an author, you will find that JCJP offers a broad platform for dissemination of knowledge including the following article types: original research (basic science and clinical studies), narrative reviews, white papers, systematic reviews or meta-analysis, state-of-the-art invited papers, technical notes with video, case series with patients’ perspectives, brief reports, invited commentaries, and letters to the editor. Just as when Dr. Roy Altman launched Cartilage in 2009, 4 we have a diverse and global editorial board, and we are seeking our loyal members’ support of this new open access journal. Our pledge to members is to make JCJP the highest-ranked open access cartilage journal with a strong commitment to an ethical and rapid review publication process. We will use a double-blind review process, which shields the identities of both the author and the reviewer and lessens the possibility of reviewer bias. As this open access journal aims to publish the best global studies and approaches toward whole joint health, one of our Associate Editors will be participating as one of the peer reviewers, to ensure a rigorous peer-review approach that benefits authors and readers.
To assist the ICRS in achieving our global objectives, the new journal will waive the article processing charge for authors in countries that qualify as part of the Research for Life (R4L) program. If you are author, you can verify your eligibility in this program by visiting https://www.research4life.org/access/eligibility/.
I look forward to working with Prof. Mats Brittberg and the Editorial Board of Cartilage as we collaborate to support the needs of our community and our patients. If you are looking for more information and would like to get involved with the new ICRS journal, please refer to the winter 2020 ICRS newsletter, https://cartilage.org/newsletters/winter-2020/, or visit www.cartilagejournal.org. To submit a paper, please visit https://www.editorialmanager.com/jcjp.