Introduction: Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy (SJOT) is a well-established international journal targeting occupational therapy (OT) and occupational science (OS). The journal has transformed into Open Access (OA) in 2024. This may influence different matters. These are important to identify, discuss and elaborate to continuously advance the communication of OT/OS knowledge and SJOT as an OA journal.
Objectives: Based on statistics displaying the development of SJOT over the past years, this presentation invites readers, authors, reviewers and editors to meet and share experiences about SJOT, including implications for having become an OA journal.
Methods: Descriptive statistics and frequency distributions were employed to illustrate recent trends in impact, submission and publication.
Results/Implications: SJOT ranks number 2 among OT journals, with an impact factor of 1.9. A comparison between the years 2023 and 2024 shows the submission numbers have increased from 132 to 151; the acceptance rate has decreased from 38% to 32%; and download numbers have developed from 432,000 to 480,000. Further interesting statistics about submission and publication trends, including potential consequences of OA will be presented with numbers from 2024.
Conclusion/Significance to the Occupational Therapy Profession: With OA, SJOT supports equal opportunities and rights to access new knowledge for the benefit of students, researchers, clinicians, clients and society at large. There are still challenges related to OA, such as high publication fees in countries without a golden OA agreement. Yet, the increased number of downloads may reflect a positive result of OA.