Planta Medica Letters

Times are changing, and this certainly is true for scientific publishing! As Editor-in-Chief of Planta Medica – Official Organ of the Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research (GA) – since 2007, I have witnessed the ever increasing importance of electronic media and electronic publications, as well as the rise of Open Access journals. “Open Access” refers to the fact that every person with an internet connection can access and read these articles. No fee is levied on the reader; the articles are free to read and download. Costs associated with scientific publishing (editorial processes, submission systems, production editing, typesetting, hosting on servers, long-term storage, marketing etc.) are covered by an “article-processing charge” (APC). An increasing number of (public) funding agencies request that results of their projects are made freely available to the public.