{"paper_id":"0047c26d-0a2a-440c-a664-ff6cd58e35fe","body_text":"E D I T O R I A L Open Access\nOpen access publication in the fields of human\nfertility, infertility and early pregnancy\nDanny J Schust 1* and Elizabeth S Ginsburg 2*\nAbstract\nThe study of human fertility has expanded dramatically since the birth of IVF and with it, the body of literature.\nThat said, the availability of open access publication in the field remains somewhat limited. Fertility Research and\nPractice offers a new open access, peer-reviewed venue for quality clinical, basic science and translational studies\nand scholarly reviews in human fertility, infertility and early pregnancy. The journal specifically encourages works\nfrom international contributors and from investigators in less-resourced environments and has gathered an editorial\nboard with a breadth of geographic representation to support this mission.\nTogether with Biomed Central, Drs. Elizabeth S. Ginsburg\nand Danny J. Schust are pleased to announce the launch\nof a new peer reviewed open-access online journal entitled\nFertility Research and Practice . We hope that readers\nenjoy this new, relevant addition to the medical literature\nand welcome submissions.\nIn an era notable for rapid expansion in the choices\nan investigator, clinician and author has available for\npublication of a particular manuscript, it is important\nto distinguish a new entry by it s unique characteristics,\nand Fertility Research and Practice has many. We\nunderstand that the experiences and interests of basic\nscience and clinical researchers, medical and paramedical\npractitioners and thought leaders from all regions of the\nworld have the potential to instruct and impact healthcare\nlocally and more broadly. We therefore encourage a wide\ndiversity of submissions.\nThe scope of Fertility Research and Practice includes\nmale and female fertility and early pregnancy. While our\nfocus is on human work, we appreciate that much of\nwhat we know about humans was first learned through\nthe study of animal models and/or through in vitro\nmodeling, so we also welcome experimental work with\ntranslational applications. We welcome basic science,\ntranslational, clinical and epidemiological studies that\nmay be presented as traditional data-based manuscripts,\nbrief reports, reviews and commentaries, case reports\nand case series. Fertility Research and Practice also has\nthe capability to accept video submissions. Our interests\nin fertility and early pregnancy are also broad, diverse\nand inclusive. Among our many areas of interest are the\ndiagnosis and correction of endometriosis and congenital\nand acquired anomalies of the male and female reproduct-\nive tracts. We have additional interests in reproductive\ninfectious diseases, male and female fertility diagnostics\n(including imaging) and assisted reproductive techniques,\nincluding embryology. Unlike some fertility journals,\nour scope has a specific emphasis on early pregnancy,\nincluding implantation, and diagnosis and treatment of\npregnancies of unknown location and sporadic and recur-\nrent early pregnancy loss. We have a particular interest in\nthe effects of environmental exposures on fertility and\nearly pregnancy and on epidemiology and welcome novel\nand cutting-edge diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.\nDrs. Ginsburg and Schust have been fortunate to have\nassembled a very skilled and respected group of inter-\nnational scholars on their editorial board whose expertise\ncovers the breadth and depth of Fertility Research and\nPractice’s scope of interest.\nFirst and foremost, we are an open access journal\nwhose mission includes wide distribution without geo-\ngraphic or cost barriers. As an open access journal, au-\nthors are requested to contribute to publication costs,\nan unavoidable mandate of the open access business\nmodel that is rapidly expanding into non-open access\n* Correspondence: schustd@health.missouri.edu; eginsburg@partners.org\n1Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women's Health, University of\nMissouri School of Medicine, 500 North Keene Street, Suite 203, Columbia\nMO 65201, USA\n2Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Brigham and Women's, Hospital,\nHarvard Medical School, 75 Francis Street, ASB1 3rd floor, Boston, MA 02115,\nUSA\n© 2015 Schust and Ginsburg; licensee BioMed Central. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the\nCreative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use,\ndistribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public\nDomain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this\narticle, unless otherwise stated.\nSchust and Ginsburg Fertility Research and Practice 2015, 1:1\nhttp://www.fertilityresearchandpractice.com/content/1/1/1\n\njournals as well. To satisfy this financial business\nmandate while encouraging the greatest possible geo-\ngraphic and economic diversity among submitted and\npublished manuscripts, however, BioMed Central has a\npolicy of reducing or waiving publication fees for submis-\nsions from less developed/less resourced authors and in-\nstitutions. This integral part of their business plan makes\npublication in a BioMed Central Journal such as Fertility\nResearch and Practice an option for all authors and from\ninstitutions of all sizes.\nBioMed Central has an illustrious history in the open-\naccess publication field and is committed to rapid and\nsupportive review (usually in less than 14 business days;\nif not an explanation of the delay is forwarded), wide-\nspread distribution not limited by mail access or library\nsubscription, and access to readers without cost. Open\naccess publication benefits authors by increasing access\nand readership when compared to subscription-based\npublication [1], which enables the potential for increased\ncitations [2,3]. Open access articles also fulfil the mandates\nof most funding agencies for distribution of research find-\nings. Attributes of the open access model should not be\ntempered by a reduction in the quality of the published\nmanuscripts; this is assured within Fertility Research and\nPractice by the demanding standards of BioMed Central\n[4], the expertise, training and experience of the journal ’s\neditorial board and editors-in-chief and the journals\ninclusion in the CROWN Initiative. The Core Out-\ncomes in Women ’s Health (CROWN) initiative is led\nby an international group of journal editors who are\nmaking a concerted effort to reduce the heretofore\nwidespread inconsistencies in the reporting of outcomes\nin women’s health research. Such inconsistencies make\nstudies of a particular intervention or its outcomes\ndifficult to compare and therefore hinders our ability to\nmake recommendations based on the literature. We at\nFertility Research and Practice are committed to redu-\ncing such inconsistencies in our own published articles\nand will help the initiative in creating recommendations\nwhen they apply to our scope.\nIn the inaugural edition of Fertility Research and Prac-\ntice, we present four articles that exemplify the breadth\nof our scope of interest. Two of the inaugural articles\naddress surgical issues within reproductive medicine.\nBrady and Styer [5] provide a case report and literature\nreview surrounding a vexing patient with recurrent\nidiopathic ovarian torsion while Bailey, et al. [6] report\non an animal model that uses omental flaps to aid in\nadhesion prevention after abdominal surgery. The third\nmanuscript in the inaugural issue is epidemiology-based\nand illustrates the journal ’s international interests. In this\nmanuscript, Rabbi and Kabir [7] assess changes in birth\nintervals and mean age of childbearing in Bangladesh.\nOur final inaugural manuscript [8] reports on a clinical\nstudy of time to pregnancy in patients with recurrent\npregnancy loss stratified by spontaneous versus assisted\nconception.\nPlease enjoy the launch edition of Fertility Research\nand Practice . We welcome your submissions.\nReceived: 27 February 2015 Accepted: 27 February 2015\nPublished: 21 April 2015\nReferences\n1. Suber P. Open access, impact and demand. Br Med J. 2005;330.\n2. Hitchcock. The effect of open access and downloads ( “hits”)o nc i t a t i o ni m p a c t :\na bibliography of studies. http://opcit.eprints.org/oacitation-biblio.html.\n3. Broady T, Harnad S. Earlier web usage statistics as predictors of later citation\nimpact. http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/10713/02/timcor.htm.\n4. BioMed central Open Access Charter. http://www.dlib.org/dlib/june04/\nharnad/06harnad.html.\n5. Brady PC, Styer AK. Laparoscopic uteroovarian ligament truncation and\nuterosacral oophoropexy for idiopathic recurrent ovarian torsion: case\nreport and review of the literature. Fertil Res Pract. 2015;1:2.\n6. Bailey AP, Schutt AK, Pastore LM, Stovall DW. Pelvic pedicled omental flaps and\nautologous free omental grafts in a rabbit model. Fertil Res Pract. 2015;1:3.\n7. Rabbi AMF, Kabir M. Explaining fertility transition of a developing country:\nan analysis of quantum and tempo effects. Fertil Res Pract. 2015;1:4.\n8. Perfetto CO, Murugappan G, Lathi RB. Time to next pregnancy in\nspontaneous pregnancies versus treatment cycles in fertility patients with\nrecurrent pregnancy loss. Fertil Res Pract. 2015;1:5.\ndoi:10.1186/2054-7099-1-1\nCite this article as: Schust and Ginsburg: Open access publication in the\nfields of human fertility, infertility and early pregnancy. Fertility Research\nand Practice 2015 1:1.\nSubmit your next manuscript to BioMed Central\nand take full advantage of: \n• Convenient online submission\n• Thorough peer review\n• No space constraints or color figure charges\n• Immediate publication on acceptance\n• Inclusion in PubMed, CAS, Scopus and Google Scholar\n• Research which is freely available for redistribution\nSubmit your manuscript at \nwww.biomedcentral.com/submit\nSchust and Ginsburg Fertility Research and Practice 2015, 1:1 Page 2 of 2\nhttp://www.fertilityresearchandpractice.com/content/1/1/1","source_license":"CC-BY-4.0","license_restricted":false}