The Journal of Tissue Engineering (JTE) was set up just over 3 years ago and is one of the first open-access journals in the field of tissue engineering. Science, technology and medicine publishing is going through a major transition; open access is becoming a mandatory choice for work arising from a number of major funders such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Research Councils UK (RCUK) and the Wellcome Trust. Open access offers a number of major advantages, and the JTE is embracing the new changes and challenges with the support of SAGE, the journal’s publisher. The JTEauthors retain copyright to their work, and so, authors may freely disseminate their final typeset papers and upload them to websites. Additionally, with unfettered access to the JTE papers, via, for example, PubMed Central, means that open-access papers have very high levels of visibility. The first papers published in the journal have received many citations which have enabled the journal to achieve an impressive, unofficial impact factor of 2.7921.
The JTE ensures high academic standards in the papers published as well as having an actively managed peer-review process. All articles submitted to the JTE are refereed by at least two experts from the particular subject area of the article, and if the referees’ reports are supportive, the article may be accepted for publication following revision.
We understand that rigorous peer review and speed of publication are top priorities for our author and the research community, and so, we strive to balance these factors. The Editorial Board and I actively manage the peer review and publishing process so that authors receive one of the best and shortest time from submission to online publication in Tissue Engineering averaging just 103 days (see graphic comparing the JTE with other journals in the field2).
This short time is due to active management of the review process coupled with rapid and accurate typesetting, meaning proofs get to the authors in a timely way, and this also means that proof corrections are minimised. Also, the JTE is published online only in a continuous mode, so the first publication is the final publication; there’s no need to delay for issue compilation or for a backlog to be cleared.
Overall, the JTE offers significant advantages to authors as well as readers, which I am sure will lead to the journal’s expansion and further success. I thank those authors and referees who have contributed so far. Join us in our success and submit today to be part of the open-access movement in Tissue Engineering!
Jonathan KnowlesEditor-in-Chief, Journal of Tissue EngineeringUniversity College London, UK
References
1.
The JTE’s unofficial impact factor was established by dividing the number of times the JTE articles published in 2010 and 2011 were cited in 2012, based on a search of the Science Citation Index database, by the number of the JTE articles published in 2010 and 2011.
2.
Average days from submissions to online publication data was collected from a sample of original research papers published over a 12-month period (July 2012 - June 2013). Special Issue papers were excluded.
