IDSA Announces New Open-Access Journal

The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) has named Paul Sax, MD, to be the first-ever editor-in-chief of the societys new peer-reviewed, open access journal, Open Forum Infectious Diseases (OFID). Oxford University Press (OUP) will begin publishing the new journal in early 2014.

OFID will provide a global forum for the rapid publication of clinical, translational and basic research findings in a fully open access, online journal environment, meaning all content will be available for anyone to read immediately upon publication at no cost. The journal will reflect the broad diversity of the field of infectious diseases (ID), and will focus on the intersection of biomedical science and clinical practice, with a particular emphasis on knowledge that holds the potential to improve patient care in populations around the world.

Fully peer-reviewed, OFID will be positioned to consider articles directly submitted to it, or cascaded from Clinical Infectious Diseases or The Journal of Infectious Diseases, as well as articles in a special track for Fellows of IDSA (FIDSA). Members of IDSA and the HIV Medicine Association will receive discounts on article-processing fees.

Sax was selected as editor after a comprehensive search that generated applications from 20 highly qualified candidates. He is the clinical director in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Womens Hospital and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Since 1992, Sax has maintained an active clinical practice at Brigham and Womens Hospital in both inpatient and outpatient infectious diseases. His academic and research activities have primarily focused on HIV disease, while his inpatient experience has immersed him in general ID.

Sax is an experienced editor and writer, having served as editor-in-chief of Journal Watch AIDS Clinical Care (published by the Massachusetts Medical Society and the NEJM Group) and author of the popular blog, HIV and ID Observations.

Paul has an impressive knowledge of editorial processes and an established track record for engaging readers with innovative online strategies, says Bruce Polsky, MD, chair of the OFID Editor Search Work Group. We were impressed with his vision for the new journal, as well as his experience as a clinician, researcher, editor and author.

Sax has outlined plans to establish OFID as authoritative, rapid, engaging and entertaining. This new journal must take advantage of the fact that an ever-growing proportion of clinicians and researchersespecially younger clinicians and researchersget virtually all of their medical information from a screen, not a printed issue or textbook, says Sax. The online-publication model offers almost limitless opportunities for innovation, which should fulfill the goal of increasing engagement with contributors and readers.

For example, Sax has proposed using OFID as venue for featuring not only interesting and innovative research papers, but also diverse images, expert commentaries, interviews with authors, downloadable podcasts, and videos. Through a moderated forum, reader comments on the site would be strongly encouraged.

Source: Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA)