As President of NASS, it is a great honor to write about the opening of NASSJ, the Open Access Journal of the North American Spine Society. This has been a project that has been many years in the making, and I clearly recall the early discussions amongst NASS leadership regarding the critical need to have this publication. I was thrilled that Jonathan Grauer, MD agreed to be the inaugural Editor-in Chief.
Many of you may think of Open Access Journals as somehow predatory in nature, or associated with poor quality, non-peer reviewed content. I can assure you; this is not the intent of NASSJ. The vision outlined by Dr. Grauer is clear: NASSJ will be the most reputable and highest-impact open access spine care journal in the world. We have a great outlet for publication as well as an excellent resource for clinical and research knowledge. With the launch of NASSJ, NASS is pleased to expand opportunities to the growing worldwide community of researchers and practitioners who are devoted to advancing spine care.
Why was this necessary? As the top peer-reviewed spine care journal and official Journal of NASS, The Spine Journal (TSJ) receives many more high-quality manuscripts than it could possibly publish. We're happy NASSJ can offer authors a companion journal with the same credibility that TSJ and NASS publications are respected for worldwide. NASSJ will provide authors with a new high-quality, peer-reviewed, outlet for publication, as well as the opportunity to publish in an open access format, a requirement for increasing numbers of our international colleagues. This is one part of the goal to improve knowledge dissemination and advance global spine care. In addition to original research, review articles and case reports, NASSJ will also offer other novel content, critiques of the classics, spine education, practice of spine care, and video content.
NASSJ OA publishing costs are competitive, but even more so for NASS members who will receive a substantial discount. I encourage you to consider submitting to NASSJ as a way to continue your contributions to the spine community. We look forward to this exciting opportunity as well as your efforts to continue to make a difference.
Footnotes
Supplementary material associated with this article can be found, in the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.xnsj.2020.100001.
Appendix. Supplementary materials
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