Biophysical Society Bulletin | April 2020

Publications

Know the Editor Chris Chipot

Open Access at the Biophysical Society

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), University of Lorraine Editor, Channels and Transporters Biophysical Journal

If you publish your science, you know that the open access movement has gained significant ground and attention in the last few years. You also know that it can be a confusing landscape filled with many terms being used interchangeably, multitudes of options, funder restrictions, and policies still being formed. Numerous surveys support the notion that researchers want Societies to support more open access op- tions and research also tells us that open access is particular- ly attractive to early career researchers. Like most publishers, the Biophysical Society has been studying, discussing, and tracking developments in order to respond strategically and position the Society’s publications in the best way to serve its membership, as well as its extended author and reader community. To be successful, a publisher must provide options for re- searchers to publish within their field. The BPS is committed to serving biophysics by offering a range of publishing options in terms of access and cost. In such an environment, when you’re ready to publish your work, you can choose between two models: subscription and open access. Under the sub- scription model, the cost of publication is covered by readers — spread across thousands of institutional and individual subscribers or license holders —who pay to receive access and also — in the case of Biophysical Journal — authors who pay page charges. In the case of gold open access, individuals or institutions pay an Article Processing Charge (APC) up- front to cover the cost of publishing. These articles are made immediately and permanently available to the rest of the world upon publication. Readers do not pay for a subscription to access these articles. There are a few reasons why APCs are typically much higher than page charges: (1) Open access does not change the cost of publishing an article (the invest- ment in peer review, typesetting and composition, editors and proofreaders, technology, webhosting, software engineers, staff, and ancillary services such as Crossref for linking DOIs, etc. remains), (2) in the open access environment, the publish- er is working to replace the lost subscription income, and (3) APCs are charged only on accepted articles. Open Access Options at the Biophysical Society Biophysical Journal is currently a hybrid journal which means it is supported by a combination of subscription fees and APCs. Authors may elect to publish gold open access for a fee. By doing so, the author’s work is open to the world immediately, thereby avoiding the 12-month embargo for articles behind a subscription paywall. This option was introduced to the jour- nal in order to provide choices for authors who want or are required by their funder to publish open access. The number of authors opting for open access is on the rise in the journal.

Chris Chipot

What are you currently working on that excites you? I am a theorist by training. My research focuses on the development of original strategies for the investigation of rare events in large biological objects by means of comput- er simulations. These events typically span the millisecond timescale, and are rare from a theoretical perspective only because brute-force atomistic simulations seldom exceed the microsecond timescale. Our methods are applied to the study of recognition and association phenomena, and the function of membrane proteins. We are in exciting times for computa- tional biophysics, as simulations are viewed with less skepti- cism and have become a powerful complement to experimen- tal approaches by furnishing a dynamic view of the molecular interactions at play. More than 20 years after the joint Nobel prize of John Walker and Paul Boyer , I am still fascinated by the exquisite complexity of ATP synthases, and invigorated by the combination of statistical mechanics with the high-reso- lution structural information supplied by our collaborators to decrypt the motor action of these membrane enzymes. How do you stay on top of all the latest developments in your field? In recent years, the landscape of scientific publishing has evolved dramatically, with the number of published papers growing at a rate of nearly five percent per year, making it difficult to keep track of the exciting science conducted across the world. With over 2.5 million articles published yearly, separating the wheat from the chaff has become nearly im- possible, and the chance of overlooking a good paper is sadly inevitable. I regularly browse through the table of contents of the journals where I usually publish my work and have set up alerts, which is admittedly far from sufficient. Scientific events like the BPS Annual Meeting are an inexhaustible source of information. Editorial and peer-reviewing duties have helped me stay afloat and not miss the latest stimulat- ing developments in the field.

FollowBPS Journals on Twitter @BiophysJ and@BiophysicistJ

April 2020

8

T H E N E W S L E T T E R O F T H E B I O P H Y S I C A L S O C I E T Y