https://doi.org/10.36866/pn.90.37

What is Physiological Reports? How is it different from other journals published by The Physiological Society and the American Physiological Society (APS)?

Sue Wray: Physiological Reports is a joint initiative between The Physiological Society and the American Physiological Society (APS). It will cover the whole of physiology, not just muscle, or neuroscience, or cellular – it’s physiology in all its glory! A new open access journal will be of benefit, I would say, to the whole physiological community.

In my opinion, as a jobbing physiologist, there is a gap in the market. I currently have a couple of papers in PLOS ONE. What you get with PLOS ONE is a rapid turnaround, and as long as the work is scientifically and ethically sound, of a good standard and adds value to the literature, it can be accepted. There isn’t the equivalent of PLOS ONE that serves our community, and again as a physiologist, I’d really prefer something that had ‘physiology’ or ‘physiological’ somewhere in its title to show that this work that I’ve submitted has been seen by experts in my field. The expertise we will get through the affiliation with the two societies will add an extra soundness and an extra degree of satisfaction that I’m published in something that bears their marks.

Tom Kleyman: We’re looking for manuscripts that cover all areas of physiology, including manuscripts that are translational in nature. The story they tell may not be as complete as those papers published in one of the other APS or PhySoc journals. We’re looking for solid science, but it may be an opportunity for authors to publish negative findings, which we think should be an important part of the literature, and also an opportunity for authors to publish findings that are primarily confirmatory of an important finding.

What is your background and how has it led to your leading this new journal?

Sue: I’m a professor of physiology at the University of Liverpool. I’m a smooth muscle physiologist. I guess my favourite smooth muscle is in the uterus, the myometrium, but I’m also interested in vascular and ureteric smooth muscle. I’m interested all the way from single cell studies – calcium handling by the sarcoplasmic reticulum for example – through to work on whole tissue – measuring contractility, for example – going through all the way to studies of human tissue and looking at human populations, especially with respect to child birth and labour outcomes. I think in modern parlance that makes me a translational physiologist, but for me that’s what physiology has always been about; how the body works.

I’ve served on the editorial board of The Journal of Physiology and indeed I was Secretary to the Board. (I was the last person in that position – I hope that’s not a bad omen!) Then, until the end of 2012, I served on the editorial board of Experimental Physiology. I was also on the editorial board of News in Physiological Sciences, the APS publication that went on to mutate into The Physiologist. So I have experience of acting as an editor for journals produced by both societies.

Tom: I am a Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. I’m a physiologist as well as a nephrologist. I work on ion channels that are found in epithelial cells, primarily epithelial sodium channels, with a focus on structure-function studies.

I served for six years as an associate editor of the American Journal of Physiology: Renal Physiology, and I’m currently completing a six-year term as Editor-in-Chief of that journal. I have also served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Biological Chemistry and Journal of Clinical Investigation. I was on the APS committee that considered whether we should pursue an online, open-access journal and became very interested in participating in the project.

Is the trend towards open access a positive one?

Sue: I do think it’s a positive, yes, and that’s why, as I say, I’ve forked out money to publish in PLOS ONE. I think what’s distinctive about Physiological Reports is that we’re going to be gold standard open access for our societies. As I’m sure our Members are well aware, you can pay other PhySoc or APS journals to have your work published open access. However, not all authors choose to do so and thus there is a delay before content is available to all. Whereas in Physiological Reports everything will be accessible to everybody throughout the world from the moment it’s published. So, people will have ready access to your work and it gets the message out there quicker about your research, and so you can actually move projects along faster, which is good for the subject. Our societies are also interested in teaching, and not all teachers can afford a subscription to journals to get the content they need. Also in developing countries it’s a great resource for them to be able to have complete open access to what will be cutting-edge physiological research.

It is controversial, though. I mean within our own societies, we’re all very grateful for the income generated from our conventional journals. What’s going to happen to that income in this fluid publishing environment? I think from that point of view both societies have been extremely smart in launching Physiological Reports. It allows the societies to adjust their publishing portfolios to whichever way the future of academic publishing goes. It’s not that we’re in open access because we’ve been dragged there – we’re here because we want to be, because we see this as a positive.

Tom: There has been an explosion of open access journals over the past decade. Authors are clearly seeking the open access format and I think both societies felt it was important to provide this type of venue for their Members and for the physiology community.

What is your vision for Physiological Reports and what challenges lie ahead?

Sue: Starting with obstacles, it’s getting people to know about the journal and to test it. So we’ve got to have clear criteria for acceptance and we’ve got to bring our colleagues on side. People are going to be asking, “How do we know this isn’t going to fold in two years’ time?”, or saying, “This journal will not have an impact factor for two years”. We’ve got to sell the vision to overcome those obstacles. I think also, because there has been a glut of other open access publications by publishers who are only interested in money, we’re all fed up of emails coming through – “Oh, here’s the new open access journal of blah, blah, blah, send us your papers”. So I think an obstacle for us is to show how we are different. I think to have the imprimatur of both societies is hugely beneficial. It puts a clear line between us and some of the other enterprises.

We’re in the process of appointing associate editors and there’s been such enthusiasm from the people we’ve approached. They’ve instantly got the idea of it and want to be part of it. Physiological Reports will be able to really take advantage of all that is coming up in the technology of web publishing and open access. I think that’s exciting for many of our Members. We are scientists and we do get a bit turned on by such things!

I also hope Physiological Reports will bring all the physiological community together. There are some areas of physiology that you rarely see represented in our other journals. So whether what you’re doing is considered ‘of the moment’ or not, we will be interested in that work. We won’t have page limits. We won’t say “We can only accept 20 per cent”.

My vision is also that this will be a service to physiologists. By getting your work out in a prompter manner, you stand a better chance of getting a grant, or to progress the work.

Tom: We need to incorporate the best aspects of journal management from both societies, and from our publisher, Wiley, who obviously has extensive experience in launching scientific journals. The staff at both societies are wonderful. They’re really working hard, and working together, to make this a smooth operation.

We will work with Members of both societies to encourage submissions to the journal. Society Members are key, as they are the ones who are going to be using the journal. They are going to be submitting manuscripts, they are going to be reading the manuscripts, and they are going to be reviewing the manuscripts.

There’s a very positive vibe within the societies about starting this journal. I’m starting to get feedback from people who are very interested in sending manuscripts to the journal. It’s very exciting.

Published simultaneously in Physiology News and The Physiologist, the magazine of The Physiological Society and the newsletter of The American Physiological Society.

Join us for the UK launch of Physiological Reports at IUPS 2013 in Birmingham, 21–26 July.

Physiological Reports is now open for submissions. Publication fees will be waived on the first 100 papers submitted.

Visit the website www.physiologicalreports.org