Shaheen Emmanuel Lakhan

Shaheen Emmanuel Lakhan is the Executive Director of Global Neuroscience Initiative Foundation (www.gnif.org). He applies innovative and high-throughput genomic and proteomic approaches to investigate neuropsychiatric disorders, particularly schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and severe depression. In addition, he has published extensively in the medical education field and is an authority in medical school affirmative action and faith-based bioethics. He and his international colleagues are also in the process of starting their own BioMed Central journal, Brain Sciences & Neuropsychiatry.

What prompted you to submit an article?

Certainly, there were numerous journals covering topics from medical ethics to legal medicine studies that I could have submitted my paper to as it concerns affirmative action implementation in medical schools. However, BioMed Central's open access policy and article promotion efforts guided me to BMC Medical Education. Instant and free open access online without registration hassles, an increasingly reputable journal in the field, and a broad scope to account for vast topics are just a few characteristics of BMC Medical Education. These characteristics inherently extend to other BMC journals.

What was your assessment of the electronic submission and peer review process?

The submission and review procedures were rapid, easy, and painless, unlike some other manuscript submission engines off- and on-line I have encountered in my publication journey. The peer review process encompassed knowledgeable experts in the field of my article who furnished constructive commentary in a timely and professional manner. I was provided with an opportunity to address the reviewers' concerns, distribute private comments to the editorial board, and elegantly upload the revised version.

What do you think you gained from publishing in an open access journal?

I am certain I have gained maximum visibility and exposure for my article. BioMed Central has a unique counter system that displays the access counts for each article. Immediately after my article was published online, thousands of accesses were logged. My article covered a pressing issue, as the US Supreme Court had just made its decision on the legality of affirmative action, so the access count reached over 13,000, with consistently well over three hundred visits each week.

If disseminating your research to an expansive audience is a key goal, then I would recommend that you submit your manuscript online to a BioMed Central journal. With their enormous expansion, BioMed Central will soon have quality journals to accommodate every pressing scientific field. Open access truly equals highest coverage.