Open Mind

As our open access program grows, we check in with Dr. Richard Aslin, Director of the Rochester Center for Brain Imaging (now at Haskins Laboratories, Yale University). Dr. Aslin is at the helm of the forthcoming OA journal Open Mind: Discoveries in Cognitive Science, which will launch in 2016.

What will set Open Mind apart from other journals in cognitive science?

The most exciting findings in cognitive science are coming from teams of researchers who use a combination of behavioral, computational, and/or cognitive neuroscience methods to address key questions about the mind. Our goal is to publish the best research in cognitive science in a forum that rivals the highest ranked journals in the field.

What major themes will be addressed in Open Mind?

The broad array of content areas within cognitive science will be covered, including learning and memory, attention, linguistics, language processing and development, causal reasoning, judgment and decision-making, and many others. These content areas will be studied using methods from cognitive psychology, computer science and mathematical psychology, cognitive neuroscience and neuropsychology, comparative psychology and behavioral anthropology, and decision science. The sole format of the journal will be novel empirical and/or computational contributions (no reviews, opinion pieces, or commentaries), with a 4,000-word limit plus supplemental materials.

Who is the ideal audience for Open Mind?

Any researcher, educator, or student of the broad field of cognitive science, as well as fact-based policy-makers, will comprise the readership. Our goal is to become the most highly cited journal in cognitive science by emphasizing the best research in all relevant sub-fields. To that end, we have assembled an outstanding set of associate editors and a world-class editorial board. Every submission will be vetted by two or more members of the editorial team to determine if a full review will be undertaken, with this triage decision made within one week of submission.

Why was it important to you that Open Mind be open access?

Open Access is the best way to rapidly and widely disseminate research and scholarly findings without relying on the high subscription rates of commercial publishers and the restricted access placed on readers via university libraries. Typically, researchers have already paid once for the privilege of conducting their scholarly projects (by obtaining grant funds), and institutions via their library subscriptions are then asked to pay a second time for the privilege of accessing those findings in for-profit journals. When done correctly – using a non-profit publishing model that adheres to the highest quality science and the archival professionalism of a university press – we can assure readers that the best work is being made available to all potential audiences in a timely and cost-effective manner.

You’re now the editor of Open Mind, but you’ve long been a professor, researcher, and leader in the field of cognitive science. What most excites you about the journal and the discipline?

There is nothing more satisfying that seeing the best findings in our field published in a highly visible forum and in a format that is accessible as soon as it has been peer reviewed and typeset. Although articles will be bundled into quarterly issues for archival purposes, each article will be available on-line as soon as it is in final PDF format with a DOI designation. I look forward to promoting the best minds in our field by enabling their cutting-edge research to be reviewed, refined, and published rapidly so that it can be shared with the larger community of scholars.