New Model Threatens Scientific Journal Publishers

Storm clouds are gathering over the lucrative scientific journal business. A new non-profit initiative, the Public Library of Science, is out to turn the research publishing business on its side and make scientific and medical literature a freely available resource. PLoS represents a hugely disruptive force that could diminish the power and profits of large scientific and medical publishers, such as Elsevier, Blackwell, and BertelsmannSpringer.

Instead of paying subscription fees, readers will have free access on the internet to all articles that PLoS publishes. Costs would be covered instead through fees paid by the scientists whose articles are published by PLoS.  The estimated fee is around $1,500 per article.

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