We are delighted to introduce BMJ Open Respiratory Research, an online peer-reviewed open access respiratory medicine journal published by the BMJ in partnership with the British Thoracic Society. The journal is dedicated to rapid publication of high-quality research from all areas of respiratory medicine, including respiratory science and critical care.

Publication bias and a preoccupation with journal impact factor mean that currently available research findings in respiratory medicine are likely to represent only the ‘tip of the iceberg’, with many more preliminary, small-scale or negative studies remaining unavailable to the research community. Open access journals have their proponents1 ,2 and detractors3 ,4; however, it is a priority that all well-conducted research on respiratory medicine is made freely available in order to portray a representative picture of the research landscape. BMJ Open Respiratory Research aims to meet this gap, without compromising on integrity or standards of peer review. A central aim of the journal therefore is to combine the benefits of open access with a commitment to maintaining scientific rigour through the process of stringent peer-review. In this way the journal will maintain high standards of publication and uphold the scientific reputations of the BMJ and the British Thoracic Society, while allowing freely available unrestricted and immediate online access to research globally, with the article copyright retained by the author.

All articles published in BMJ Open Respiratory Research will have been approved following external peer review by at least two expert reviewers selected by our international editorial board. We aim for a rapid peer review service, with the majority of first decisions available within 30 days of submission. Publication of accepted articles will be continuous, with research published online as soon as the article is ready.

The emphasis of the peer review will be the scientific and ethical validity of research, rather than its perceived potential impact. We are interested in publishing all research study types, including small or specialist studies, important negative results, and replication studies, with the aim of adding to the overall body of knowledge available in the public domain. We envisage that readers and the wider respiratory research community will determine the impact of published research articles on an individual basis, and in order to encourage this we will provide article-level metrics including counts of views and citations. The journal will maximise visibility of authors’ research by ensuring free online access to a global audience using the well-established bmj.com host site. As the journal becomes established we aim to gain listing in the PubMed database and ISI Current Contents (Web of Science) and indexed by Scopus and Google Scholar. Accompanying editorials will be provided to aid interpretation of selected articles of particular interest, and exceptional articles will be press-released.

We plan an interactive journal experience and hope to provoke scientific debate and encourage interaction, with the opportunity for readers to comment on published research. We look forward to reading your research submissions and welcome your feedback on all aspects of BMJ Open Respiratory Research.