The American Chemical Society instituted a new program last fall called ACS AuthorChoice, which enables authors to purchase immediate and permanent Open Access status for their accepted manuscripts in ACS journals. Pricing is on a sliding scale, depending on whether the author is an ACS member and/or is affiliated with an institution that has a site license to ACS journals. The highest price is $3000, and the lowest price is $1000. ACS AuthorChoice is the Society's response to the Open Access movement, which has been the subject of much sound and fury over the past few years. Open Access in its purest form is the free dissemination of published articles over the Internet to anyone who can access a publisher's website. Philosophically, it's a great idea, but practically, it's a big challenge. How does one pay for the cost of publication if one doesn't charge for one's products? Different publishers use different models, but basically, there are only two sources of funding to support publication: (i) grant support passed through authors or (ii) institutional funds from libraries. The Public Library of Science uses an author-pays system, whereas the ACS uses a library-pays system. Some other society-based publications use a hybrid system made up of a combination of library subscriptions, author submission fees, page charges, color charges, etc. The ACS doesn't charge submission fees, page charges, or color charges for any of its journals.

The Society has taken some steps toward Open Access through author-directed reprints, but no content is freely downloadable from an ACS journal website. In contrast, articles published by some other societies are freely downloadable 6–12 months after publication, and articles published by the Public Library of Science are downloadable immediately. With ACS AuthorChoice, the ACS has taken a very interesting step toward opening up its journals. The Society is blending its conventional subscription revenue with a small amount of AuthorChoice revenue (at least at the outset) to offset the cost of peer review and publication. The solid institutional subscription base for ACS journal publications has enabled the Society to institute the very reasonable rates noted above ($1000 for an ACS member at a subscribing institution).

So how is the experiment going? It's a little early to tell, but some very interesting data have already been generated. So far, there aren't many ACS AuthorChoice logos sprinkled around the tables of contents of ACS journals (all ACS AuthorChoice articles are available at http://pubs.acs.org/4authors/authorchoice/articles.html). So, at first glance, it looks as though our authors aren't too committed to Open Access, at least when they have to pay for it. If that is true, it's too bad, but even if it is true, I think authors should reconsider because they are missing an important point.

Why do authors publish papers? So people will read them, and ACS AuthorChoice is a great way to get them read! I've published five articles via ACS AuthorChoice since last October and have been monitoring the downloads in consultation with ACS staff. It's too early to determine statistical significance, but so far, the trends look very good. In fact, the first article that I published as an ACS AuthorChoice article (in October 2006) ranks as one of the top downloaded articles in CRT for 2007. My other articles have only been published since March, so we are still gathering the download data, but the preliminary trends look good. I'll provide the data in a future editorial.

I am planning to make all of my publications in ACS journals AuthorChoice—It's a no-brainer. If my papers are downloaded more, they will be read more and will be cited more. That's real impact. In fact, I can't get away with not publishing ACS AuthorChoice any more because the people in my lab now ask for it when we get the galleys. Students and postdocs know a good thing when they see it. Frankly, the cost of publishing an article as ACS AuthorChoice is a real bargain and a good reason to join the ACS. One-thousand dollars is trivial as compared to the cost of conducting the research that we are reporting. Think about all of the salaries, reagents, and core facility charges that go into completing a project. Designating an article ACS AuthorChoice is the equivalent of buying three vials of a restriction enzyme or half a vial of a radiolabeled precursor (depending on its structure). By comparison, I have spent well over $1000 on the page charges, color charges, and reprints for some of the articles that I've published in other societies' journals. Because ACS doesn't charge an author ANYTHING to publish in its journals, the ACS AuthorChoice charge is all one has to pay, and one can forget about reprints. That is a deal that is hard to beat.

There is another subtle point about ACS AuthorChoice of which authors need to be aware. Designating an article ACS AuthorChoice means that it is freely downloadable as soon as it is mounted on the web, and with ASAP publishing, this is often several weeks before the print version appears. It is now generally recognized across scientific publishers that the heaviest downloads of articles are in the first months after their publication. Thus, articles that are made available after a 6–12 month waiting period miss the initial interest in the article and the burst of demand to download it. This suggests that the ACS AuthorChoice model may provide higher “impact value” for authors than the delayed free access that other societies offer. So, I congratulate ACS Publications for listening to its editors and authors and for formulating a realistic policy to Open Access that accomplishes the most fundamental goal of journal publishing—getting articles read!