Public Library of Science Goes Live

A bold and controversial experiment in academic publishing–which may have ramifications in commercial publishing–will go live on Monday: The first of a proposed cluster of journals from the Public Library of Science, PLoS Biology, is launching next week. Its arrival is already causing a stir: unlike other journals that record research about biology and medicine, this one is free. It charges contributors… Once your paper is accepted, you owe PLoS $1,500.

This is not the first to try so-called open-access publishing…but PLoS Biology is shooting for the big time. Promoted by an American television advertising campaign this summer, it aims to compete head-on with top-tier scientific journals such as Science, Nature and Cell. Unlike these, it does not charge readers for online access.

LA Times (reg. req.): “Eric Merkel-Sobotta, director of corporate relations for Amsterdam-based Elsevier, the world’s largest for-profit publisher of scientific journals, said: ‘We don’t think it’s a sustainable business model'”.

Related:

PLoS Biology launches

Intro to Open Access: The Public Library of Science

Publish and be praised

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