In November 2018, Elsevier decided to introduce a new concept and to launch a new open access journal, Sleep Medicine X (Sleep X); which in actuality is an alternative Open Access (OA) mirror journal of the parent Sleep Medicine journal founded in 2000. The reason for this special editorial is to make sure that all potential contributors to Sleep Medicine are aware of an option to submit their best science to either Sleep Medicine or Sleep Medicine X. Initially at the time of submission the author's option will remain “blind” to the editors and reviewers, and then after acceptance of the article the authors will be given a choice for their preference to publish in either journal. However, if there is no response from the author the accepted article will be published in Sleep Medicine. Publication in the gold OA journal (Sleep Medicine X) will insure that the results of their valuable scientific work will be available for free to a much wider pool of researchers to download from Science Direct. An article publication charge (from institutions, funding agencies or individuals) will incur (see “promotional waiving the fee” further on).
Let me now give some background information behind this exciting and important decision to bring on a new OA mirror journal. For some time now there has been a growing interest in online only (particularly among young researchers and educators) OA articles in the scientific publishing community, especially in the world of medical publishing. Therefore, over time more and more journals have opted for OA publications.
The decision to launch several “Model X” gold OA mirror journals published by Elsevier was dictated by a strong push from several European-based (EU) funding organizations (In the USA, the National Institute of Health [NIH] already requires that all research data derived from funding from the NIH be published as OA articles). The EU recently mandated that beginning in 2020 all EU-funded research data be published in full OA publications. It was quickly realized that a subscription journal like Sleep Medicine would not be able to meet this upcoming requirement. In response, Elsevier started several new initiatives for a number of journals published by them to address the concerns of the EU, assuming that these requirements will in fact be mandatory by 2020. Thus was born the idea of OA mirror journals. Sleep Medicine is one of the first Elsevier journals to accept this challenge. The publisher of Sleep Medicine at Elsevier, Amsterdam, fully supported this concept and worked hard to bring it to fruition. As a result, this journal will be split into two parts: A subscription journal (published in Sleep Medicine) and a fully OA part (published in Sleep Medicine X). The editors (editor-in-chief, field, associate and section editors), editorial board members, aims and scope, all other remaining editorial policies and standards, as well as the submission process (through the EES system) will remain unchanged, for both the parent and mirror journals. Sleep Medicine X will, of course, not have an impact factor initially but it is hoped that soon the journal will be indexed by PubMed Central and that it will be indexed in Science Citation Index, and will have an impact factor in the not too distant future. To celebrate and promote this new launch, Elsevier has decided that the article processing charge of a first batch of (invited) papers including reviews that will be published in Sleep Medicine X may be waived at the editor's discretion.
As a promotional introduction, the first virtual special issue (VSI) introductory text and other articles on “Pediatric Sleep around the world” initially focusing on Canada (“Pediatric Sleep Medicine in Canada”) [Guest editors: Oliviero Bruni, MD and Reut Gruber, PhD] will be published in both Sleep Medicine and Sleep Medicine X. This series of special articles will provide a comprehensive overview and easy accessibility of these important research data to a wide spectrum of the pediatric community.
In conclusion, the intention to launch twin journals is not to have two classes of articles for publication in parent and mirror journals; but to encourage a wider discussion and easy accessibility of important research articles, and to address the impending mandatory requirement by significant funding agencies. I realize that we are embarking on a somewhat uncertain territory. Despite initial apprehension by many in the sleep community about the fate of this venture, I believe that this exciting experiment will enable Sleep Medicine to lead the way for OA publications building on the journal's strong brand and reputation. Time will tell whether this experiment will be a failure or an eventual glorious success, which may be a boon for promoting sleep medicine and sleep health worldwide.