Beginning in April 2005, The American Phytopathological Society (APS) will offer free access to research articles after 24 months of publication in Phytopathology, Plant Disease, and Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions
(MPMI).

For each journal, a two-year-old issue will gain free-access status when the current month’s issue is published on APS's website at www.apsnet.org. 

"Allowing free access two years after publication will open a lot of useful research to many who may not have had access to our online journals before," said Jim MacDonald, APS president. "It is vital to the health of the journals that more scientists cite, use, and become acquainted with Society journals," MacDonald said.

In allowing free access to some of the published APS journal content, APS is not relinquishing copyright. The Society will retain copyright, ensuring that the research remains protected from misuse.

Another improvement, the digitization of all APS journal research published prior to 1997, is planned for the APS online journals. Currently, only issues from 1997 to the present are available online. The initiative to publish the APS journal research archive going back to the very first volumes is possible through a partnership with the University of Wisconsin Library. The first of this archival research will be posted in early 2006 and will be available for free.

About the Journals: For nearly 100 years, Phytopathology has been considered the premier international archival journal for publication of articles on fundamental research that advances understanding of plant diseases, the agents that cause them, their spread, the losses they cause, and measures that can be used to control them. Plant Disease is an international journal for reports of original research; for rapid reporting of new diseases and epidemics; for reviews of needs, approaches, accomplishments, and for exchanges of opinions. All with the emphasis on the applied or practical aspects of maintaining and improving plant health. MPMI is the groundbreaking journal for publication of original, refereed research on the molecular biology and molecular genetics of pathological, symbiotic, and associative interactions of microbes with plants and insects with plants.

The American Phytopathological Society (APS) is a nonprofit, professional scientific organization. The research of the organization’s 5,000 worldwide members advances the understanding of the science of plant pathology and its application to plant health.