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Some time ago, I wrote an editorial discussing a series of articles in the Journal of the American Medical Association on how to use the medical literature in an evidence-based fashion. One of our readers later wrote to me asking the most legitimate of questions: How do I get access to these articles? As many of you already know, JAMA is a subscription-based journal, and unless you either pay for the subscription or have institutional access, acquiring the articles is impossible without somehow  breaking copyright laws.
Fast-forward a couple of years. I was recently listening to an interview with Dr. Randy Sheckman, the 2013 Nobel Prize winner for Physiology or Medicine.1 Along with his important work determining how vesicle transport in cells works, he is also an advocate of open access science literature. In fact, he argues that all scientific research should be free to the public.
I find his argument very interesting, considering the apparent universality of this topic. It's not just medical journals we're talking about, but other types of scientific peer-reviewed journals as well. One important argument that Dr. Scheckman makes is that much of the research in the United States is paid for by government funding, AKA you and me – the public. By publishing these research studies in subscription-based journals (such as Science, Nature, and Cell, among others), the public is forced to pay twice – one for the government funding and the second for article access. Dr. Scheckman has taken his view two steps further and not only publishes exclusively in open access science journals (step one), but is also involved in the creation of a new open access journal named eLife (step two).
 In foot and ankle medicine, most of our peer-reviewed journals are subscription-based. For example, Journal of Foot and Ankle Surgery, Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association and Foot and Ankle Specialist are subscription-based, as are their orthopedic counterparts Foot and Ankle International and Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. Some of the journals I mentioned are available for free for members of their respective societies, but the interested non-member lay persons must pay for access. Also, similar to many journals, certain older articles are available free of charge. However, one might not be inclined to wait 6 months or more for a study to become available.
At this point, I have to throw out kudos to Dr. Robert Frykberg, the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Diabetic Foot Complications, published by PRESENT e-Learning Systems. This is the first open access peer-reviewed journal started by a podiatrist of which I am aware. This journal's premier edition in 2009, focuses, as the name aptly states, on diabetic foot complications. I urge all of you to take a look at the site and consider submitting your next article to this journal. We need to support more of these types of publications.
Another more broad open access lower extremity related publication is the Journal of Foot and Ankle Research. This journal is based in the United Kingdom, and is also an excellent reference for the foot and ankle specialist.
Here are some other links that will bring you to open access journals (more or less) pertinent to the practicing podiatrist. Some of these journals have subscription versions with an open access part.
In the future, I hope to see more journals become open access, but this is a movement unlikely to occur in the immediate future. The largest issue is that these journals still have to pay their expenses, just as any journal does, and it's not cheap to run a journal. Current open access journals may generate income in the following ways: corporate or academic sponsorship, advertising, and author submission fees. It will be up to some creative people to develop alternate revenue streams to make universal open access a reality. Well, creative people, get to work!
Best wishes,
Jarrod Shapiro, DPM
PRESENT Practice Perfect Editor
[email protected]
REFERENCES
- "Randy W. Schekman - Facts". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2013/schekman-facts.html. Last accessed 4 Jan 2015.
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