American Health Assistance Foundation Announces New Partnership with Open-Access Scientific Journal, Molecular Neurodegeneration
CLARKSBURG, MD—The American Health Assistance Foundation (AHAF) today announced a new partnership with BioMed Central’s open access journal, Molecular Neurodegeneration (MN) in which MN will be the official journal of AHAF. The open access publishing model provides articles for free to the general public as well as scientists, clinicians and other healthcare practitioners.
Molecular Neurodegeneration publishes peer-reviewed, original scientific research on the causes of neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s, and on the pre-clinical testing of potential therapies for these devastating diseases. According to the ISI Web of Knowledge by Thomson Reuters, MN was ranked in the top 16 percent of journals among the ‘neurosciences’ category.
“This is an important milestone in the history of AHAF to partner with Molecular Neurodegeneration, one of the top journals in neurodegeneration research,” said AHAF President and CEO, Stacy Haller. “The open access nature of this peer-reviewed journal will quickly deliver ground-breaking research which may accelerate the discovery of new treatments and cures for neurodegenerative conditions, like Alzheimer’s disease.”
Guojun Bu, Ph.D., Co-Editor-In-Chief for Molecular Neurodegeneration, Professor of Cell Biology and Neuroscience at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO, said, “This agreement will help the journal to more effectively publish cutting-edge research about the mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases and the development of new diagnoses and therapies. We look forward to continuing to publish high-quality discoveries and broaden our reach in the research community. Having MN as the official journal of AHAF will help us to do just that.”
The open-access model strives to overcome barriers by traditional scientific publications that restrict distribution to those who can afford the fees for electronic access (sometimes a charge of $30 per article). The articles published in MN will be free and will not only help patients and healthcare providers stay abreast of the latest progress, but will also enable scientists to rapidly communicate their important research to the global community.
“We are very excited about this partnership,” says AHAF’s Vice President of Scientific Affairs, Guy Eakin, Ph.D., “Having Molecular Neurodegeneration as the official journal is important to AHAF’s longtime history of support for ground-breaking aging research.”
About Molecular Neurodegeneration
Molecular Neurodegeneration (www.molecularneurodegeneration.com/) is an open access, peer-reviewed online journal that encompasses all aspects of neurodegeneration research at the molecular and cellular levels. Neurodegenerative diseases are collectively disorders that result from permanent damage or loss of nerve cells and include, but are not limited to, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, and prion diseases. These diseases, which are often associated with advanced aging and varying degrees of dementia, have become a significant public health issue as humans live longer and the aging population grows larger.
About BioMed Central
BioMed Central (www.biomedcentral.com) is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector.
About the American Health Assistance Foundation
The American Health Assistance Foundation (www.ahaf.org) is a non-profit organization dedicated to finding cures for age-related and degenerative diseases by funding research worldwide on Alzheimer’s disease, macular degeneration and glaucoma. AHAF also provides the public with free information about these diseases, including risk factors, preventative lifestyles, and current treatments and coping strategies.