The papers published in the Journal of Smooth Muscle Research have been opened to the J-Stage, and anyone could access, read and download the articles through the internet freely. The number of download for each paper has been reported monthly from the J-Stage to the Editorial Office of the Japan Society of Smooth Muscle Research. Based on the reports, the society decided to award the paper which had been down-loaded most within a year, as the Best Download Prize, the rule being effective from 2007. The number of download was considerably large for review articles compared to original articles. Therefore the count was made separately and the prize was given to the most down-loaded paper in each article. The top number of downloads in 2006 counted to 268 in original article and 1, 543 in review article, both published in Volume 41 (2005). When the number of download was plotted against the time of publication for all articles appeared between 2000 and 2006, it tended to increase with time, which seemed to be accelerated after starting the publication of review articles in the journal. Before Volume 39 (2003), the number of download was approximately 50 times a year, while after this volume the number increased to over 150. The Journal of Smooth Muscle Research began to publish invited review articles from Volume 39 (2003), and this seemed to stimulate the download of original articles. The Editorial Boards consider that the publication of attractive review articles stimulates smooth muscle researchers to read original articles as well.

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