Welcome to MWJ: the MalariaWorld Journal

With hundreds of journals that publish articles on malaria it seems, a priori, not justified to launch another journal with a focus on malaria. We nevertheless, based on consultation with many of the MalariaWorld users, have defined a number of compelling reasons to proceed with the launch of the MWJ (the abbreviation of MalariaWorld Journal, by which we hope the journal will become known):

• On average, half the articles published in the field of malaria are open access and can be read for free by anyone interested. However, this also means that for the other half access remains (partially or fully) restricted. MWJ is a full open access journal without access restrictions.

• Most open access journals require the author(s) to pay a publication fee. Although waivers exist for developing country scientists (to a certain extent) these fees could be used better for research. MWJ does not charge publication costs - publishing is free for authors.

• MalariaWorld, being the first online scientific and social platform for malaria professionals, is the first to integrate a scientific journal, MWJ, with the ability to discuss the research in discussion forums, and provides both authors and readers with the option to write about their work through weblogs or submit comments. Publication in MWJ is not an endpoint for your work - it is the starting point for interaction and debate with thousands of other malaria professionals.

• As of October 2010, MalariaWorld has more than 6000 subscribers in 105 countries. On a weekly basis we have more than 2200 unique visitors on the platform, a number that is growing rapidly. This ensures that publications in MWJ will be exposed to the global malaria community almost instantly. Publishing in MWJ means instant and wide exposure of your research findings to the global malaria community.

• Although we appreciate the importance of impact factors and citation indices, these figures mean very little in terms of malaria control in the real world. We have therefore decided to add a unique indicator: the relevance factor (see below). MWJ values the contribution of research articles to solving the malaria problem. We consider relevance and appropriation of knowledge more important than impact factors or citation indices.