PeerJ to launch PeerJ Computer Science

We have previously blogged about the innovative PeerJ Open Access publisher specialising in biomedical science. Responding to community requests, the folks at PeerJ are launching PeerJ Computer Science to bring greater Open Access and a speedier publishing cycle to this research area while maintaining robust peer review:

• Submissions open February 12th 2015; Free PeerJ PrePrints submission is open now
• All authors on the paper must purchase a publishing plan by the time of acceptance. The cheaper $99 rate is available to authors purchasing at the time of submission. An additional $40 is charged if payment is on acceptance. 
• For St Andrews researchers the Library Fund for Open Access will pay these charges. Please contact us if you would like to publish or need more information open-access-support@st-andrews.ac.uk

Further details
Register your interest to obtain a free $99 credit for one author.

St Andrews academic Akira O'Connor joins PeerJ

Yesterday, the 11th of November, Akira O'Connor got his paper published in PeerJ; an open access journal with a very innovative publishing system. Akira publishes fascinating research on, amongst other things, the sensations of memory such as déjà vu experiences. His latest paper published in PeerJ concerns the conflictive relationship between two neurological stimuli, novelty and familiarity, which define the déjà vu memory experience. PeerJ recently invited Akira to comment on his research and also his experience publishing with the journal. The interview, which is on the PeerJ blog, makes for a fascinating read as it delves into Akira's research interests, his motivations to publish open access, and his thoughts on Open Peer Review. See the full interview here.

The vast majority of open access journals charge APCs (Article Processing Charges). The rationale being that because content is freely available, journals need to adopt APCs to cover the loss of subscription revenue. These APCs can range from a few hundred pounds to as much as £4000!

PeerJ on the other hand is a fully open access journal that does not use APCs, instead opting for one-off lifetime membership payments. Authors simply choose a subscription based on how much they would like to publish on a yearly basis. All the paid options are one-off payments that result is a lifetime of free publishing with the journal. This obviously represents fantastic value for money when compared to a £4000 APC for a single publication.

Copyright 2014 PeerJ

If you would like to publish in PeerJ, contact the Open Access team as we will cover the cost of Basic membership. More information about this can be found here.

Open Access opportunities from a Learned Society and a Cheeky Monkey

It's obvious that Open Access is becoming ever more mainstream when one of the world’s oldest and most reputable publishers is broadening its open access opportunities. Following quickly after the launch of their first purely open access journal Open Biology in 2011, the Royal Society have now announced that they will be launching their second. The new open access journal Royal Society Open Science will cover the entire range of science and mathematics and aims to publish work without the length and scope restrictions observed by more traditional journals. What is of particular interest is that the publishing model aims to offer open peer review as an option, will offer open access to data, implement article level metrics and offer researchers the opportunity to add post-publication comments.

In contrast to the historic Royal Society is the relatively youthful PeerJ, an open access publisher that has invented one of the most daring and innovative open access business models in years. PeerJ uses a model which differs enormously from the major open-access publishers in that the publication fees are levied not per article but per publishing author and at minimal cost.

PeerJ's 'Cheeky Monkey' mascot

Essentially, an author is charged a one-time membership fee that allows them to publish in the journal for the rest of their life. Authors are charged $99 to publish one paper a year, $199 for two papers a year and $299 for unlimited publications per year. Submitted research is judged solely on scientific and methodological soundness and there is a facility to view peer reviews alongside published papers. The PeerJ model is proving increasingly popular with researchers and was judged 'Publishing Innovation' of 2013 by the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers.

The good news is that St Andrews is currently offering its researchers support to publish open access with these two very distinctive publishers. The Library has recently renewed its Open Access membership with Royal Society Publishing and this will continue to give University St Andrews authors a 25% discount on standard article processing charges. Open access charges for Open Biology and Royal Society Open Science are waived by the publishers for an initial period.

We have also initiated a PeerJ Basic Plan for St Andrews authors. The Library will support the cost of individual membership for grant funded and non-funded researchers. The Basic Plan will allow individual authors to publish one peer-reviewed publication per year for life. A quick reminder as well (see recent blog post) that PeerJ are offering a free submission period for authors until 31 March 2014.

For further information contact open-access-support@st-andrews.ac.uk

PeerJ extends free OA publication offer

From now to 31 March 2014, any article that is submitted to PeerJ PrePrints can go on to be published in the innovative open access journal PeerJ entirely for free.

PeerJ is an open access, peer-reviewed, scholarly journal covering the Biological Sciences, Medical Sciences, and Health Sciences. It aims to reduce the costs of open access to authors by offering publishing plans starting at $99 for life. In order to encourage interest in this new model, the journal is offering a free submission period based on using its related preprint archive.

PeerJ PrePrints - rapid communication & early findings
A PeerJ 'PrePrint' is a draft that has not yet been peer reviewed for formal publication. Similar to preprint servers that already exist (for example arXiv.org), authors can submit draft, incomplete, or final versions of articles they are working on.

By using this service, authors establish precedent; they can solicit feedback, and they can work on revisions of their manuscript. Once they are ready, they can submit their PrePrint manuscript into the peer reviewed PeerJ journal (although it is not a requirement to do so).

Provided you upload a preprint before 31 March, you can go on to submit to the PeerJ journal for free. Your manuscript will then undergo peer review in the normal way. (See PeerJ's editorial criteria.)

For authors who haven't previously made their draft manuscripts publicly available, the PeerJ folk have pointed out that most journals accept manuscripts previously published as a preprint. So using the PeerJ PrePrint server means you could still submit for peer-review elsewhere if you wish (check your chosen publisher's policy to be sure via http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/).

For St Andrews authors interested in a PeerJ lifetime publishing plan, contact Open Access Support

PeerJ introduces radical new business model for OA

Yesterday saw fascinating news of a new open access journal that may shake up a business model or two. The scientific journal PeerJ has revealed its pricing plans that are based on author membership rather than a per-article fee.

The ‘headline’ publishing cost for PeerJ is ‘$99 for life’, though in actual fact every author on a paper (up to 12) would need to have paid the $99 and the cost is more if you want to submit more than one paper a year. Details of 'author plans' are provided on the website. Lifetime membership also hinges on contributing at least one review per year.

PeerJ will open for submissions soon, and publish its first articles around Dec 2012. It has respected founders and is stirring up a lot of interest. The platform will also provide a preprint server and both are initially targeting biological and medical sciences.

See below for blogs and news stories. With PeerJ's co-founders coming from PLoS ONE and Mendeley, comments suggest this model is credible and the journal likely to succeed:

http://occamstypewriter.org/scurry/2012/06/12/peerj-brave-new-world/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/12/peerj-oreilly-open-access-publishing_n_1589638.html

http://www.nature.com/news/journal-offers-flat-fee-for-all-you-can-publish-1.10811 

http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/06/new-open-access-journal-aims-to-disrupt-scholarly-publishing/