BJGP Open: a new, online-only, open access journal

A NEW OPEN-ACCESS JOURNAL Next month will see the launch of BJGP Open, our new open access, online-only journal of primary care research, practice, and policy. BJGP Open will have original, high-quality, peer-reviewed primary care research at its core, complemented by case studies, clinical reports, policy analysis, and the opportunity for discussion and debate. CONTINUING TO BUILD THE EVIDENCE BASE For some time we have been aware that the BJGP receives far more high quality original material that it can publish: less than one in four research articles is accepted, pressure on the non-research sections of the Journal is intense, and many of the research articles that we decline are of good scientific quality. The same goes for articles submitted to other sections of the Journal. Primary care everywhere needs to continue to build an evidence base for health care and clinical practice, and to continue to make its political and health policy arguments in all health systems. Peer-reviewed publication is an important means of achieving this. The same is true for education and training in general practice and primary care, and we will welcome original observations and analysis in these fields. BJGP Open provides a new opportunity for primary care researchers, clinicians, and policymakers to publish and read a wider scope of original articles of direct relevance to practice, research, teaching, and healthcare delivery. DEVELOPING INNOVATIVE MATERIAL We hope that we can develop other, more innovative features in our new Journal. For instance, rather than seeing case reports simply as ways of reporting unusual occurrences or as illustrations of well-known principles, we would like to see them interpreted and used more broadly, to illuminate other aspects of care, such as the doctor–patient relationship, continuity and discontinuity, biopsychosocial dimensions of diagnosis and management, new professional roles in primary care, ethical dilemmas, and health policy issues. We hope that, in future issues of BJGP Open, the research section will contain, in addition to original clinical and primary healthcare research, protocols for trials and other planned research studies, and reports of well-conducted educational research. We will also be interested in receiving accounts of novel approaches to delivering primary care services, new directions in primary healthcare policy, and political challenges encountered in primary care, from countries around the globe. This will all be supplemented by a rapid response eLetters facility, enabling readers to debate important topics with authors and with each other, and …