And Then There Were Two
Authors: Robert M Frederickson
Journal: Molecular Therapy (2011)

Molecular Therapy (MT) was conceived in the latter years of the last century as an important project of what is now the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT). Now into our second decade, it has been an exciting, if occasionally bumpy, ride. Launched during the heady early days of the field of gene therapy, there were those who might have thought it risky to start a brand new journal during a period of uncertainty for the business of science publishing. However, thanks in no small part to the vision and efforts of the journal's early Editors-in-Chief (EiCs) and the tremendous support of the Society and its members, we find ourselves thriving more than 10 years on. Institutional subscriptions to the journal have never been higher, and submissions continue to climb. And in 2010 our impact factor hit 7.15, allowing us to compete ever more effectively with a host of high-quality journals serving the various subfields falling under the molecular therapy umbrella. It is in this context that we are thrilled to announce the launch of a new sibling journal, Molecular Therapy—Nucleic Acids (MTNA), which will operate under a Web-only, fully open-access model. We are equally thrilled to announce that John Rossi will serve as the inaugural EiC of the new journal. John has served as an adviser to MT since its inception and currently serves as a Deputy Editor; his involvement and leadership will greatly facilitate the development of MTNA. As the second official journal of the ASGCT, MTNA will publish top-quality basic, translational, and clinical research and cutting-edge reviews and commentaries targeted to advances in oligonucleotide- and gene-based therapies. Subject areas covered will include the development of oligonucleotide-based therapeutics and their derivatives, biomaterial and viral-vector development for the delivery of such therapeutics, and applications of gene-modifying agents, including triplex-forming oligonucleotides and enzymes such as zinc-finger nucleases. Each of these fields is undergoing tremendous growth, and MT will continue to publish papers falling within these subject categories when the findings are of broad general interest and potential impact. However, MTNA will afford authors a second option for papers of more targeted interest to the nucleic acids therapeutics community. Of course, the new journal will retain an international editorial approach and a similar rapid and fair review process. As pointed out by EiC Malcolm Brenner in a recent editorial in these pages,1Brenner MK Midlife moments.Mol Ther. 2011; 19: 815-816Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (2) Google Scholar these are interesting times for science publishing, and for the publishing industry in general. In fact, these have been interesting times for well over a decade as the advent and expansion of the Internet have fundamentally changed the standard business models that served the industry for much of the past century. The society journal of the past was a large, relatively expensive, hard-copy entity distributed to libraries and individual subscribers. It contained little editorial or commentary coverage and was certainly not interactive—it was in fact an archive. Most editorial commentary and analysis was published in the more exclusive and privately held generalist journals, such as Nature and Cell and their derivatives. This all changed in the last decade of the twentieth century, however, as journals moved online and the rationale for storing so much archival material as hard copy was questioned. In addition, an ever-increasing number of society journals began experimenting with “front half” editorial and news coverage. The business model has moved toward online library subscriptions to consortia of journals offered by ever-larger publishers as the industry rushed to consolidate. MT launched very much in the midst of this transformation and, despite early editorial success and acceptance by the community, found itself in a broken business model at a publisher far too distracted with swallowing up others to try to fix it. This all changed with the move in 2007 to Nature Publishing Group, which developed a sustainable and successful business plan for the journal that is providing significant revenue to fund ASGCT projects. The Internet is having another—perhaps, eventually, substantially more important—transformative effect on science publishing: that of democratizing it and opening it up to greater availability and interactivity and perhaps even less distinction between the roles of author, reviewer, editor, and reader. The open-access model of publishing has gained credibility and proven itself viable, and Web-based publishing has greatly reduced costs and expanded interactivity and is essentially free from the artificial page limits imposed by hard-copy journals. We envisage MTNA as the first of a series of MT siblings, with a view to growing the society's publishing portfolio. It is also important to stress that these will be independent journals with editorial boards that will independently guide each journal's development—and the choice of where to publish will remain with authors. The MTNA launch website will go live in early September, and authors and readers are encouraged to contact the editorial team ([email protected]) with inquiries regarding possible submissions. The first issue will appear in early January 2012. As for MT, readers may have noticed the ongoing development of greater front-half coverage, and more exciting changes are coming. We launched our podcast series in 2010 and will soon introduce author-generated video and audio capabilities. The website will undergo some important changes in 2012, and we are developing venues for readers to provide more feedback on what is published in our pages and elsewhere. Stay tuned!