Beginning next January, the FDI World Dental Federation's official scientific journal, the International Dental Journal, which is marking 70 years of continuous publication this year, will change to a gold open access journal with no subscription charges.
Reflecting a wider trend in scientific publishing towards open access formats, the move makes a digital version of the journal, which promotes "FDI's global mission to be the global voice of the dental profession and to improve the oral health of people worldwide", freely available to anyone going to the journal's website, a change from the old subscription model.
If an author's article is accepted for publication in the IDJ, they will be charged an Article Publication Charge or APC, which means the cost of publishing is borne by the author or their organisation who retain ownership of their published work.
The major advantage of this approach is that it vastly increases the number of people who can access a particular published paper with research now permanently accessible worldwide.
One consequence of the move to this new model is that the IDJ will no longer have printed versions available; instead, individuals will be able to print and share copies under a Creative Commons license.
