The future of <scp>JSR</scp>: Hybrid or Open Access publishing, and launch of a sister journal?

Welcome to the fourth edition of the Journal of Sleep Research in 2024, which will be published online as a full issue in August 2024. This issue contains a broad variety of new publications related to different areas of sleep medicine, including sleep and neurology, sleep-disordered breathing and insomnia. Furthermore, we do have new investigations aiming at sleep and glucose regulation, new methodological approaches, sleep and light exposure, and many other interesting areas of sleep science. This editorial, however, will focus on the future of scientific publishing concerning the Journal of Sleep Research. Together with the Board of the ESRS, I would like to inform the ESRS members and our readership about ongoing or impending changes regarding different aspects of JSR. The JSR is owned by the ESRS members and published by the publishing company John Wiley & Sons, Inc. This editorial will update the ESRS membership with ongoing developments in scientific publishing that are highly relevant for the ESRS and may lead to changes in the publishing activities—we will also discuss these issues at the ESRS business meeting at Sleep Europe in September in Seville (https://esrs.eu/event/sleep-europe-2024/). You may ask yourself after this introduction if there is anything going wrong with JSR—well brief answer: no! The JSR is going strong after starting over 30 years ago in 1992. 2023 has seen an unprecedented number of submissions, around n = 1200 (keep in mind that in 2016 we still just had 407 submissions). This does prove that researchers and clinicians worldwide assume that JSR is an adequate outlet for their work. Our Impact Factor (IF) has been 4.4 last year, after a peak the year before with 5.3, which probably was “Corona-inflated”. Given the fact that at present there are more than 10 sleep journals boasting an IF, JSR is well positioned. Just recently, under the leadership of Hans-Peter Landolt, together with INLEXIO (an experienced company offering independent publishing consulting services), a poll was conducted among ESRS members about the journal. The key-outcomes of this survey were published online and discussed in Sleep Science Friday of May 10, 2024. In short, the results were very satisfactory—further details will be discussed at Sleep Europe 2024. So, why talk about possible changes? Well, the world of scientific publishing is changing rapidly and decisively: Open Access (OA) publishing is one of the main drivers of this development. You will also have noted that in the last decade probably more than 10 new online sleep journals in the OA field were inaugurated. Thus, in order to keep abreast of these developments, the ESRS as owning body of JSR, needs to plan ahead and contemplate adapting to the changing publishing environment, also keeping in mind that the ESRS wants JSR to remain an asset of its members and a profitable enterprise. Now what exactly does OA publishing mean (for overview, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access)? Publishing OA refers to the practice of making scholarly research outputs freely available to anyone with an internet connection, without requiring payment or subscription fees. The aim is to remove barriers to accessing knowledge and promote the widespread dissemination of research findings. The OA comes in two modalities: (a) Gold OA: the final version of the research article is made openly accessible immediately upon publication. Authors or their institutions often pay a fee (article processing charge; APC), to cover the costs of publishing and peer review. The articles are usually published under licences that allow users to freely distribute and reuse the content, such as Creative Commons licences. (b) Green OA: also known as self-archiving, this model involves authors depositing a version of their manuscript in an online repository, typically after an embargo period set by the publisher. This version may be the authors' accepted manuscript or a preprint. While the published version may still be behind a paywall, interested readers can access the author's version for free through the repository. The OA publishing offers several benefits, such as increased visibility and impact, accelerated progress, public engagement and equity and inclusion. The OA publishing, however, also poses challenges, such as developing sustainable funding models for Journal owners and publishers, and ensuring the quality and integrity of research outputs. Overall, it represents a significant shift in the way scholarly information is disseminated, and has the potential to reshape the academic publishing landscape. Furthermore, in contrast to classical publishing, it comes with costs for the authors of scientific articles: the APC, which sometimes can be very high, has to be covered. Some public or governmental funding agencies now grant respective publication fees. From an overarching research political point of view, OA publishing is absolutely desired—some funding agencies oblige their grant holders to publish OA, otherwise they receive no funding. The JSR is not a full OA Journal, but presently follows a hybrid publishing model. Hybrid publishing refers to a model where a traditional subscription-based journal offers authors the option to make their individual articles OA upon payment of an APC, while the majority of the journal's content remains behind a paywall. In this model, some articles are freely accessible to anyone, while others require a subscription or payment to access. Here's how hybrid publishing typically works. (a) Subscription-Based Model: the journal operates primarily on a subscription basis, where readers or institutions pay for access to the journal's content. Subscribers can access all articles of the journal. (b) OA Option: Authors who wish to make their articles freely available to anyone can choose to pay an APC to the journal. This payment covers the costs associated with the publication process, including peer review, editing and production. In return, the article is published under an OA licence, allowing anyone to read, download and distribute it freely. Hybrid publishing arose as a response to the growing demand for OA while still maintaining revenue streams from subscriptions. It offers the following benefits to both authors and publishers. (a) Increased visibility: OA articles typically receive more views, downloads and citations compared with articles behind a paywall. Authors who opt for the OA option may benefit from increased visibility and impact of their research. (b) Funding Flexibility: authors who have funding available to cover the APC can choose to make their articles OA, even if their institution or funding agency does not mandate it. (c) Revenue Generation: publishers can generate additional revenue from APCs while still maintaining their subscription-based business model. This hybrid approach allows publishers to adapt to the changing landscape of scholarly communication while continuing to generate income from traditional sources. The ESRS, as owner of the JSR, also benefitted from these revenues in recent years. Hybrid publishing, however, has also been subject to the following criticism and concerns. (a) Double-dipping: some critics argue that hybrid journals engage in “double-dipping” by charging both subscription fees and APCs for the same content. This raises questions about the fairness and sustainability of the model. (b) Cost: APCs can be costly, particularly for authors who do not have access to dedicated funding for publication fees. This can create barriers for researchers from lower-income institutions or countries to publish their research OA. (c) Inequity: hybrid publishing may perpetuate inequalities in access to research, as only authors who can afford APCs can make their articles openly accessible, potentially exacerbating disparities in global knowledge dissemination. Overall, hybrid publishing represents a compromise between the traditional subscription-based model and the push for OA, but it also raises important questions about sustainability, equity and transparency in scholarly publishing. So that is where we are standing with JSR now. We are faced with deciding whether to stay hybrid, or to flip to OA. Given the current general political climate concerning scientific publishing, a shift to OA will probably be unavoidable. Practically all public or governmental funders of research have more or less declared to favour the OA model. Where does Wiley, our current publisher, stand with respect to OA publishing? Wiley clearly encourages the ESRS to flip JSR to full OA (see also: https://www.wiley.com/en-us/network/publishing/research-publishing/open-access/wiley-working-to-create-a-more-equitable-open-access-system), and has developed several models how to negotiate OA publishing with separate countries (e.g. Germany: https://deal-konsortium.de/vertraege/wiley). Thus, we are convinced that Wiley, and other Publishers alike, could help us to cope with a transition to OA, if we decided to go this way. Another topic the Board has been discussing, is the question whether the ESRS should launch a kind of twin journal to the JSR; like, for example, SLEEP and SLEEP Advances. Given the high and increasing number of submissions to the JSR, there would be enough material for a twin or spin-off Journal. This Journal would deal with submissions that did not succeed acceptance with JSR. As our rejection rate for JSR is extremely high, many of the rejected papers do not represent “bad science”, but they seemed just not perfect or interesting enough for JSR. Thus, these submissions are considered worthy of publication. A second Journal would also create space for new article types that cannot currently be published in JSR—certainly, we will have to clearly define the scope for such a sister Journal: as examples, should it be purely clinical or become a new outlet for actual and sustainable areas within the sleep field? As you see, there are many open questions to deal with concerning the future of JSR, and we are looking forward to discuss them with you at Sleep Europe 2024 in Seville (https://esrs.eu/event/sleep-europe-2024/). Dieter Riemann: Conceptualization; writing – original draft. Pierre-Herve Luppi: Conceptualization; writing – review and editing. Vladyslav Vyazovskiy: Conceptualization; writing – review and editing. Dirk Pevernagie: Conceptualization; writing – review and editing. Erna Sif Arnardottir: Conceptualization; writing – review and editing. Giuseppe Plazzi: Conceptualization; writing – review and editing. Fran Pilkington-Cheney: Conceptualization; writing – review and editing. Samson Khachatryan: Conceptualization; writing – review and editing. Hans-Peter Landolt: Conceptualization; supervision; writing – review and editing; writing – original draft. This text was partly created/inspired with the help of ChatGTP, especially the passages about OA and hybrid publishing. None. No conflicts of interest are reported by any of the authors. Non applicable.

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