Thursday, July 14, 2011

A New Model in Scientific Publishing

I have just read an article in the Chemical and Engineering News titled Research Funders to Start Journal.  The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Max Planck Society, and Wellcome Trust are launching a new open access biomedical journal to commence next summer.  It will be different since the peer review will be speeded up so that decisions will be made within three to four weeks.  Mark Walport, the director of the Wellcome Trust, states that the current process is too slow while the editors are no longer practicing scientists.  This new journal will be supported by the three funding agencies and will not charge author fees.

Time will tell if other funding agencies will follow and publish their own journals.  Will this yet unnamed journal attract top notch researchers?

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