Thank you reviewers - CytoJournal 2011.

CytoJournal, with its continued contribution of scientific cytopathology literature to the public domain under open access (OA) charter, thanks its dedicated peer reviewers for devoting significant efforts, time, and resources during 2011. The abstracts of poster-platform submissions to the 59(th) Annual Scientific Meeting (November 2011) of the American Society of Cytopathology (ASC) in Baltimore, MD, USA, were peer reviewed by the ASC Scientific Program Committee.

Based on the “close peer review” policy of CytoJournal, all reviewers are anonymous.[1] This formal annual public acknowledgment is an important thank you note from the entire CytoJournal team to all peer reviewers and academic editors assigned to both accepted and rejected manuscripts [Table 1].[2-4] We thank all CytoJournal reviewers for participating in the peer review of manuscripts during 2011,[5-24] with an overall acceptance rate of 33%. We also thank the American Society of Cytopathology (ASC) for publishing the issue consisting of the abstracts for poster-platform submissions to the 59th ASC (November 2011) Annual Scientific Meeting. These submissions were peer reviewed by the ASC Scientific Program Committee.[25] This issue is available FREE on the web in computer searchable HTML format and in book-like reading flash format as eBook on the web.[2627] In addition, a printable and searchable PDF version is also available to all Cytopathology Foundation (CF) members[28] and individual members of CytoJournal (CytoJ) OA Stewards-Plus organizations.[29]

Table 1

2011 CytoJournal peer reviewers and academic editors

If a potential of conflict of interest is perceived, CytoJournal manuscripts are assigned to “academic editors.”[1424] The academic editors execute the process independently from the initial step of appointing the peer reviewers to the final conclusion of accepting or rejecting a particular manuscript.

We also thank readers and academicians to increasingly join as CF members[28] and support the OA charter of CF and CytoJournal. Exemplary initiative of various organizations, societies, and departments-institutions by joining as CytoJ OA Stewards-Plus organizations to allow their constituent members to benefit from the OA charter in cytopathology is highly appreciated.[29] These benefits include total waiver of Article Publication Charge (APC) of $1500 for authors and FREE download of all CytoJournal articles by readers.[28]

CytoJournal has provided a robust OA platform to all authors for publishing their high-value cytopathology and related scientific literature as a freely available resource all over the world without losing their hard-earned copyright. Under OA charter, the authors agree to share the copyright in the public domain.[30] Additional benefits include demonstrated higher access to OA articles, leading to enhanced visibility and increased downloads with bolder impact.[31-33] The chances of citation and perpetual referencing in the web matrix, although dependent on the actual quality and stature of the individual study article, are at least similar to conventional old model commercial journals. However, Moore's law for the internet suggests a higher potential with a huge long-term impact.[3435]

The manuscripts are assigned through an online process by the CytoJournal editorial team to the reviewers selected from the core reviewer panel.[36] CytoJournal invites cytopathology experts around the globe via “Reviewer Corner” on CytoJournal home page (www.CytoJournal.com) to join this expanding group through “Join as CytoJournal Reviewer” link.[37]

Our gratitude to all authors, readers, and supporting personnel in making CytoJournal one of the premier sources of cytopathology articles in open access for the public and academia around the globe. We wish all CytoJournal editorial board members, reviewers, authors, and readers a very prosperous academic year.