On May 21, 2009, our Council unanimously voted to enter into a new agreement with AMI/Springer in the ownership/publication of the Molecular Imaging and Biology (MIB) journal. In addition, Council agreed to maintain a relationship with the Molecular Imaging (MI) journal provided there is no financial obligation.

The implications of this decision for our Society are important, and despite the fact that it was a unanimous decision, it was a difficult one. I am writing this message to communicate the background of the decision, and to highlight the opportunity of this new situation.

The Society’s journal is a primary benefit of membership and a major source of information within our field. The founding members of SMI put tremendous effort into establishing the Molecular Imaging journal. The current situation is that SMI has a contract with the owner of the journal of MI, publisher BC Decker Inc, which would automatically renew on December 31, 2009 for three more years unless either party terminates the relationship by formal notification on or before June 30, 2009. Several additional factors, such as subscription costs per member, societal ownership vs. publisher ownership, and performance evaluation (e.g. impact factor), prompted a thorough review of the situation with the help of an outside publishing consultant.

In the meantime, SMI has been working very closely with AMI, as well as the ESMI and FASMI, towards a common annual meeting, the World Molecular Imaging Congress (WMIC), which is growing rapidly. AMI’s scientific journal, Molecular Imaging in Biology, is owned by AMI and published by Springer under a contract also expiring in 2009. It enjoys an impact factor of close to 3. Because of the excellent collaboration within the WMIC, and many common objectives, AMI offered co-ownership of MIB to SMI under very generous terms. The SMI Council discussed the situation in January 2009 based on a detailed report of our outside consultant, and charged the Scientific Communications Committee (SCC) to review some specific options and negotiate with publishers with the help of our consultant. The SCC, under the leadership of Professor Silvio Aime and assisted by Charles Metzger in our central office, carried out a detailed review over the Winter and Spring of 2009. The SCC provided the recommendation which was unanimously approved by Council.

On one hand, this new situation provides a tremendous opportunity for SMI. It reduces subscription costs, achieves co-ownership of a promising scientific journal, but perhaps above all it puts our collaboration with AMI on even more solid ground, thus bringing enhanced unity and strength to the field and establishing the World Molecular Imaging Congress as an essential venue for molecular imaging researchers and clinicians from around the globe.

On the other hand, Molecular Imaging has been for years “our” journal, several of us have published in the journal, and it was created with major help of our charter members. Therefore, we can all understand and respect a feeling of sadness and reluctance in the decision. This is also why SMI will try to maintain a relation with Molecular Imaging albeit at a different level and without financial obligations.

With best regards,
Chrit Moonen, President SMI