A new kind of journal was launched in December, 2012. eLife is an open access funder sponsored journal. Their mission statement says "We are a joint initiative of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society, and the Wellcome Trust. Along with a growing number of public and private research funders worldwide, these three organisations recognise that the communication of research results is as fundamental a component of the research process as the experiments themselves. Disseminating new findings as widely and effectively as possible maximises the value of research investments. The first step in the initiative is to establish a new, open-access venue for the most important advances — from basic biological research through to applied, translational and clinical studies.". This is a recognition by these powerful bodies that open access publishing increases the speed of scholarly communication,the advancement of knowledge and assists impact. Is this the start of a new trend in publishing?