Since transitioning the Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (JCMR) to an Open Access publication in 2008, the Impact Factor of the journal has steadily climbed and has been >5.0 for three of the past four years, ranking it among the top tier of medical imaging journals. Approximately 110 papers are published in JCMR each year, with over half submitted by SCMR Members. As most of you are aware, the cost of publication in an open access journal is typically borne by the authors as an Article Publication Charge (APC) that is on the order of $2,000 – $5,000 for high quality journals. The current APC charge for JCMR is $2,500, and full coverage for SCMR members represents a substantial cost to the Society each year which it can no longer sustain, especially as it directly benefits a very small percentage of the SCMR membership. Open access publishing has matured since 2008, and not only can APC charges be included in grant budgets, but funding organizations and universities strongly encourage or even require open access publication of results.
The Board of Trustees has evaluated the cost to the Society within the context of the entire SCMR budget, and has decided to set the APC charge for articles submitted by SCMR members at $500 (an 80% discount to the full APC of $2500). While the cost of publication will now be shared between the authors and the Society, this still represents a substantial SCMR member discount.
This charge in APC payment will begin with all articles submitted on or after July 1, 2018. As in the past, in no case shall financial hardship be an obstacle to publication in JCMR. Fee waivers will continue to be available for certain countries, and individual situations of economic hardship will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. We thank you for your prior and ongoing support of the JCMR.
