Major Announcement: Schizophrenia Bulletin Open
Year: 2019
Type: editorial
Abstract: Schizophrenia Bulletin was launched in 1969 by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to provide the scientific, clinical, and education communities with a reputable source for following the science and illuminating the experience of persons afflicted with this mental disorder. In 2005, responsibility for the Bulletin moved from the NIMH to a joint collaboration between Oxford University Press (OUP) and the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center (MPRC). Two hallmark features of the Bulletin, the cover artwork and First Person Accounts contributed by people with lived experiences, help foster awareness and understanding of the human experience of psychosis. Nonclinical scientists have a source for “what is it like” that was not otherwise available. Clinicians can gain new insights that increase understanding and empathy. Patients, families, and advocates have access to a broad and inspiring range of experiences that promote understanding and appreciation for the challenges faced by patients. And the lay public has a unique resource to understand the many issues related to this disorder and “humanize” this knowledge in contrast to the media depictions that create apprehension and stigma. Our field now regards schizophrenia as a clinical syndrome rather than a disease entity. Implicit in this reconceptualization is the understanding that schizophrenia is a poor target for therapeutic discovery and that deconstruction is essential for identifying more robust targets for etiological, pathophysiological, and therapeutic discovery. The concept of positive and negative symptoms was introduced and 6 domains of psychopathology identified. Specific aspects of psychopathology were viewed as important in schizophrenia but not as unique to schizophrenia. Introduced in the Winter, 1974 issue of the Schizophrenia Bulletin (1), this view has become predominant in the 21st century and explicit in DSM-5 (2) and the NIMH Research Domain Criteria initiative (3). In recognition of the validity and importance of this paradigm shift, in 2017, we added a byline Schizophrenia Bulletin: The Journal for Psychoses and Related Pathology and featured reviews and commentaries related to transdiagnostic issues concerning hallucinations, delusions, disorganization of thought, negative symptoms, motor disorders, and developmental psychopathology. The Bulletin is the flagship journal for psychoses and related psychopathology. The Impact Factor has risen dramatically since 2005 and the Bulletin is a top tier journal for the field. There are 3 challenges that we now hope to address. As a subscription-based journal, we need to address issues related to a shift toward online and open access journal content. Second, author interest in publishing in Schizophrenia Bulletin is very strong. Our acceptance rate is 10%. As a result, a large number of very high-quality manuscripts are not accepted, most of which are published in other high-quality peer-reviewed journals. While peer review with the Bulletin can help authors to revise and submit elsewhere, inevitably, a new review cycle is instituted without the benefit of prior review. This results in a loss of effort by reviewers and time by authors and a delay in providing the reports to the public. A third challenge relates to the need to increase the publication of clinical trials and replication studies that are placed in “file drawers” rather than submitted for publication. The field needs access to these studies despite perceived problems in methods, statistical power, or negative results. Consider the effect on reviews where positive results are more likely to be published than negative results. The tight page limits in a print journal makes addressing this issue very difficult. For some years, the OUP/MPRC collaboration has considered launching an Open Access online-only journal. We are now pleased to announce the launch of Schizophrenia Bulletin Open or “SBO” as a fully Open Access journal. Articles published in SBO will be made freely available to everyone the moment they are published, and the new journal will be fully compliant with Plan S and cOAlition S, a global consortium of research funding agencies. As a “gold” Open Access journal, the costs of publication will be borne entirely by the authors, ideally by the authors’ funders and/or institutions. In an effort to retain high-quality material submitted to Schizophrenia Bulletin and to use the value of reviews, we will offer authors of high-quality manuscripts the opportunity to have their paper considered for publication by the editors of SBO with potential for an expedited peer review process. SBO will provide details regarding costs and instructions for submitting content in the coming weeks. SBO will publish informative reports and reviews related to schizophrenia, other psychotic disorders, and related psychopathology. A broad range of biological, psychological, and social sciences and issues of relevance for clinical care, organization of services, and policy will be considered. Dr Silvana Galderisi and Dr Stephen Marder have agreed to serve as Co-Editors-in-Chief of SBO and have engaged in a separate contractional relationship with OUP to launch the new journal. Both are well known for their contributions to new knowledge and for their involvement in challenging issues for the field of psychosis research and clinical care of patients. Dr Galderisi and Dr Stephen Marder will have sole responsibility for all editorial matters relating to the new journal and will work directly and independently with OUP to produce and publish the content of SBO. Their shared reputation for competence, fairness, wisdom, and judgment assures all concerned that SBO is in good hands for serving the needs of the field of psychosis research. The Schizophrenia Bulletin is proud of the launch of the SBO as an independent cascade journal.
Source: Schizophrenia Bulletin
Institution: University of Maryland, Baltimore
Language: English
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2982194387