The Society are immensely proud of the Journal of Tissue Viability (JTV), a peer reviewed journal with a current impact factor of 2.4.

The journal has been published and printed quarterly since 1990 with a copy/ies being sent by post to each Society member and industry partners.

Traditionally, The JTV has been made up of both subscription only and open access articles, although the trend to open access has been increasing year on year (37% in 2023) and general market trends suggest this will continue to accelerate.

We are therefore delighted to share our news that, further to careful consideration, and a lengthy consultation by Trustees with members, the publisher, editor and editorial board, the JTV will change to gold open access on 1 October 2024 and will be available in digital form only from 1 January 2025.

This positive move brings a huge range of benefits to the Society and its members, but why have we decided to make this change?

What is gold open access?

• Gold open access allows free and permanent access to scholarly articles for everyone. The final published version of an article becomes immediately accessible to all
• Readers do not have to pay to access articles and can freely share them with others
• Authors, funders or institutions pay an open access fee (called an article publishing charge) to cover the cost of publishing the paper and making it freely available

Why are we changing to an open access model and digital form only?

• The Society strives to platform the best new thinking and practices in skin health and wound healing, ensuring it reaches the people that need it. The JTV is an important tool in sharing expertise and becoming gold open access will greatly expand its reach and impact
• Open access helps authors by making it easier for them to publish and share their work in a highly ranked, peer reviewed journal
• Articles are freely and permanently accessible which boosts their reach and impact worldwide and opens up the opportunity to be discovered by potential collaborators, including those in other fields and disciplines
• Open access fosters collaboration among researchers worldwide; breaking down geographical barriers is known to have a profound impact on knowledge sharing and facilitating new discoveries
• Through a generous waiving and discounting policy (meaning some authors do not need to pay), including introductory waivers plus Research4Life, the SoTV will ensure that publishing in the JTV is accessible to all, including authors in developing countries
• The SoTV are a member led Society and over recent years, there has been an upturn in members declining to receive a hard copy of the JTV by post. Additionally, feedback from our members’ survey indicated many members would be happy with a digital JTV version only
• Sustainability – as an open access journal, the JTV will switch to a digital only format which will greatly reduce the JTV’s environmental impact – printing and despatching a physical journal are the biggest contributors to carbon emissions

The practicalities – when and how?

• From 1 October 2024, the JTV will only be accepting articles submitted after this date to be published gold open access
• The November 2024 version will be the last printed issue
• Members will retain access to the JTV online and to all back issues dating back to 1991 via a direct link on the members’ only area of our website
• The membership fee is not affected by this change
• Members will receive a 20% reduction in the article publishing charge and will be eligible to apply for further financial support and waivers

We hope you will agree that this is a positive move for the Society and our members and if you have any questions or would like any other information, please do not hesitate to get in touch.