In a recent editorial we announced some important forthcoming developments for the Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine (JRM).

The first change, a major one, is to adopt an open access policy. The background to this decision is that the owner of JRM, the Swedish Foundation for Rehabilitation Information, and the Chief Editors strongly believe that research results should be accessible to, and readable by, all – not only researchers, but also clinicians, health consumers and health policymakers.

Most research projects are funded by hospitals, governments, charities or companies. Research thus depends on public resources, and there should be no barrier between new scientific knowledge and those who have paid to generate that knowledge.

Secondly, we are proud to announce a more cosmetic change. The traditional front and back cover of JRM will be replaced by a more attractive, upbeat and colourful design (Fig. 1A and B).

The third change is that JRM will introduce a plain-language, or lay, version of the abstracts in 2017.
Authors will be asked to provide a short summary of their article, written to be understood by the general public.  With these lay abstracts JRM hopes to accommodate readers who find an article through an internet search, but who might not immediately be able to understand its essential message from the regular abstracts.

We fully expect that open access, the new design and lay abstracts will contribute to the quality, attractiveness, readability and accessibility of JRM.

Is there more to come? Absolutely; we will keep you informed of future plans to improve JRM and we look forward to your comments and suggestions.