‘I am indexed, therefore I am’ Open Access

Human Reproduction Open is now indexed in PubMed Central (PMC). This means that all papers published since its launch 2 years ago have been retrospectively recognized and are now visible in PubMed. Although the Journal has always been very discoverable in search engines such as Google and Google Scholar, which we know from usage data are used by many readers to find articles, PMC indexing is a key milestone for discoverability for readers who rely on PubMed for their day-to-day literature searches. Applications are also in progress for further indexing in other major databases, such as those produced by Clarivate Analytics—including the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), which is an essential step towards the award of a future Impact Factor which, we are confident, will follow. This news is very welcome to all of us in the editorial team and everyone who believed in us from the very start.

HROpen has always aimed to make high-quality, clinically relevant reproductive science accessible to our readers who are clinicians, scientists and patients. Although we are excited by new discoveries, we are aware that most advances in research are incremental in nature and see the value of replicating studies to establish the truth. We are also concerned about errors in research and are keen to minimise the risk of unplanned analyses by publishing research protocols. Our ultimate goal remains the improvement of patient care by publishing scientific findings that inform clinical decision-making. Our papers go through a stringent peer review process and, crucially, have a section aimed at patients which explains the key message in plain English. Our free online access has allowed us to venture beyond the academic community and encourage a wider community of stakeholders to engage with published research and make informed decisions about health care. HROpen’s Open Access model also permits researchers to read and build on the findings of others (almost) without restriction.

Our next goal is to receive an Impact Factor. Our success will depend on how well our papers are cited by the academic community. The early signs are encouraging for a journal that is just 2 years old and has chosen not to focus on the novelty of research findings alone. It is particularly heartening for us to note that the most cited articles include reviews, primary research and protocols. The most cited paper (Messerlian et al., 2018) is a description of a cohort, set up to study the impact of environment, diet and lifestyle factors on human reproduction. Rather than focus on primary findings, the authors focus on the cohort itself and its potential value for future research. Another highly cited paper by Anderson et al. (2017) reviews the current status of ovarian tissue cryopreservation in girls and young women facing fertility loss as a result of treatment for cancer, while a third (Shenfield et al., 2017) is a survey exploring the practice of oocyte cryopreservation revealing the diversity of practice across Europe. Finally, a paper by Duffy et al. (2018) describes a protocol for development of a core outcome set for infertility research by an international group of healthcare professionals, researchers and fertility patients.

This small selection of papers demonstrates the diversity of our output and our unconventional approach to curating and presenting scientific thought. Rather than focus exclusively on showcasing new discoveries, HROpen has demonstrated how a modern scientific journal not only disseminates scientific discoveries but also encourages better quality research by publishing a priori plans for collecting, storing and analysing data for future research. Contrary to general concerns about the modest citation value of such work, our experience clearly shows that these articles are being read and cited. We hope this trend continues in the coming months as our visibility rises and you, our readers, are able to find our articles on PubMed.

We are very grateful to ESHRE who had the vision to consider an open access online addition to the Human Reproduction family, and our publisher—Oxford University Press—for all the support we have received in launching the journal. Most of all, we are particularly grateful to all the authors who entrusted their work to HROpen, to the editors and reviewers who provided their expertise and knowledge and to our readers who have embraced our values.

Ability to pay for access or familiarity with scientific terminology should not be a barrier to knowledge exchange. We are steadfast in our aim to make sure that we continue to improve clinical care by making science accessible. As a new online journal, there have been times when some may have felt we were less visible than our more established sister journals in the ESHRE family—Human Reproduction, Human Reproduction Update and Molecular Human Reproduction. This has now changed. Being indexed in PMC provides empirical proof of our existence, and another route to the full-text articles in the Journal should readers prefer; this will hopefully encourage a new generation of authors to cite our papers. Two years into our journey, we could not have asked for more.

Siladitya Bhattacharya Editor-in-Chief, Human Reproduction Open