The Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy moves towards Open Access

It has been decided that The Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy (SJOT) will move over to Open Access. "This is a historic decision," says SJOT Foundation’s chairperson, Ida Kåhlin, President of the Swedish Association of Occupational Therapists.

The transition to Open Access means that everything published in the journal will be freely available in fulltext to everyone, without requirement for subscription or access to closed scientific databases. Open Access makes research covered in SJOT available, free of charge, to all occupational therapists and other interested parties.

From left are Ida Kåhlin, chair of the Swedish Association of Occupational Therapists / chair of the SJOT Foundation, and Anita Björklund Carlstedt, editor-in-chief of SJOT.

From left are Ida Kåhlin, chair of the Swedish Association of Occupational Therapists / chair of the SJOT Foundation, and Anita Björklund Carlstedt, editor-in-chief of SJOT.

-  The guiding principle in the board's decision is that we want to promote evidence-based occupational therapy worldwide, says Ida Kåhlin. The transition to Open Access means that all occupational therapists can have access to the latest research published in our journal, no matter where they are situated in the world. This not only means that dissemination of the latest knowledge will increase but also, hopefully, implemented in clinical practice.

Within worldwide research fields, there is an growing development towards research results and data being openly available.

-  Transition to Open Access has been discussed for a long time, but now that SJOT is the highest-ranked scientific journal in Occupational Therapy, we have a good starting point and are able show the way towards a more open research culture in occupational therapy. Transition to Open Access also contributes with a repositioning shift so that even those on who research is based will be able to access results.

Originally SJOT was created with the aim to increase the opportunity for Nordic researchers in occupational therapy to publish their research. Since the first issue, published by Taylor & Francis in 1994, SJOT has become an important source of high-quality knowledge for occupational therapists worldwide. The Nordic Associations of Occupational Therapists, through the SJOT foundation, own and publish the journal.

Ida Kåhlin continues

-  In close collaboration with Taylor and Francis Editing Services we are planning the transition to Open Access in the beginning of 2023 and are continuing to work to make the transition as user-friendly and successful as possible.