A Major Milestone for Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery—Global Open: Indexing and Archiving in PubMed Central

Give me but a firm spot on which to stand, and I shall move the earth. and I set sail on a new adventure with the launch of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery—Global Open (PRS Global Open). 1 It was a voyage into unknown territory for some of us: PRS Global Open was one of the first open-access surgery journals in the world, and the first new academic journal for ASPS in more than half a century. When PRS Global Open began, we knew we had our sights set very high: we wanted to bring regional news, advances, case reports, and original research in plastic and reconstructive surgery to anyone, anywhere in the entire world with an Internet connection. PRSGlobalOpen.com and the iPad application have been free since the beginning , while content and readers have come from all over the world. But the potential reach of PRS Global Open—and the true beginning of our intended voyage—could not be fully realized until the Journal was easily discoverable and highly visible. As you have likely heard already, PRS Global Open attained our first milestone in being " on the map " —as of Oc-tober 2014, PRS Global Open is completely and retroactively indexed in PubMed Central (PMC). PMC is not only an index but an archive of (already 3 millions) articles that can be accessed immediately and free of charge. Now, after a very brief period of existence, our new Journal is standing on a new, firmer spot, and we anticipate that you—our readers, authors, and reviewers—will be able to move the plastic surgery world through PRS Global Open. The initial response to PRS Global Open has been incredible: articles were submitted from more than 20 countries during PRS Global Open's first 6 months. That number has grown to 36 countries through October 2014, including articles from plastic surgeons in Australia, China, Japan, and Taiwan 2 (Fig. 1). More than 60% of all submissions to the Journal have come from outside the United States. The initial readership has been impressively globalized as well, with more than 63% of unique visitors to PRSGlobalOpen. 3 Although we predict that even more nations and areas of the globe will join the readers and authors of PRS Global Open as time goes on, we also predict that the indexing in PMC and discoverability in PubMed will initiate a precipitous increase in the sheer number of submissions …