New journal PeerJ offers authors an alternative, more affordable model for open access publishing by asking authors to pay a one-time fee to freely publish peer-reviewed research papers. From the article:
“Science-publishing ventures continually battle for market space, yet most operate on one of only two basic business models. Either subscribers pay for access, or authors pay for each publication — often thousands of dollars — with access being free. But in what publishing experts say is a radical experiment, an open-access venture called PeerJ, which formally announced its launch on 12 June, is carving out a fresh niche. It is asking its authors for only a one-off fee to secure a lifetime membership that will allow them to publish free, peer-reviewed research papers.”
It will be interesting to see how this pans out for researchers, but regardless, it’s nice to see alternative models for information dissemination being explored. Information wants to be free!
–Annie, Communications Librarian
