UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State University Libraries’ Open Publishing program has partnered with the Association of Neurovascular Clinicians (ANVC) to launch a new open access clinical journal, Stroke Clinician. The interdisciplinary publication provides clinically relevant articles for health care professionals caring for patients who are at risk for or have suffered a stroke.
“Stroke Clinician is the only journal of its kind, offering important clinically relevant content to interdisciplinary health care professionals who provide care to stroke patients,” said Anne Alexandrov, the journal’s editor-in-chief. “We aim to empower bedside clinicians with knowledge that can improve the care they provide to these highly vulnerable patients.”
Alexandrov is a professor and National Institutes of Health (NIH)–funded researcher specializing in acute stroke at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center at Memphis, and program director of NET SMART — Advanced Practice (AP) in Fountain Hills, Arizona, the largest advanced-practice stroke fellowship training program in the world. (NET SMART stands for Neurovascular Education and Training in Stroke Management and Acute Reperfusion Therapies.)
Stroke Clinician is exclusively publishing clinically relevant papers that cover all aspects of neurovascular disease practice and are of interest primarily to practicing interdisciplinary clinicians and stroke administrators. The journal will publish all issues open access and without any article processing charges. The first quarterly issue launched in February 2024.
“We have several regular columns featuring content that supports excellence in stroke health care services,” said Alexandrov. “These include recommendations for hospital leaders as they pursue recognition as a certified stroke center; case studies that educate clinicians invested in improving their interpretation of computed tomography, angiograms and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans; sample test items for clinicians who aim to certify as an expert stroke practitioner; and opportunities to showcase different specialized stroke units around the world. Collectively, these columns, along with original research manuscripts and review articles, provide a wealth of valuable information for our readers.”
The journal’s manager, Karen Seagraves, brings a wealth of clinical and administrative expertise to her role. Having managed large, complex stroke systems in Atlanta, Georgia, and Charlotte, North Carolina, as well as working as a stroke center certification reviewer, Seagraves also has substantial practical knowledge focused on what it takes to excel as a stroke health care provider and a stroke specialty hospital.
“Stroke Clinician is well positioned to provide practical, actionable, cutting-edge guidance to improve the care of stroke patients globally,” said Seagraves.
Both Alexandrov and Seagraves are excited about the journal’s open-access digital platform, as well as authors not having to pay high fees for publication of their work.
“While some health care professionals can afford high publication fees, many others cannot, yet have important knowledge and information worthy of dissemination,” said Alexandrov. “Having the opportunity to offer a journal that is literally free for all — both readers and authors — allows us to make articles available that are loaded with important clinical knowledge and advice to benefit stroke health care services.”
Penn State Libraries Open Publishing, the Libraries’ open access imprint, is a unit within the Research Informatics and Publishing department. Open Publishing provides tools and support for Penn State–affiliated authors and groups to publish full-featured electronic scholarly journals, searchable annotated bibliographies and monographs using a variety of digital platforms. All publications are free to view online and download. Copyright is retained by the individual authors where possible, or by the journals or sponsoring entity. Almost all are licensed for use under a Creative Commons license.
For more information about the program, visit the website or contact the Open Publishing team at openpublishing@psu.edu.