- © 2004 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors
A new scholarly journal joins the galaxy of medical publications this month, but unlike nearly all the others, it's Web-based and access is free.
PLoS Medicine (www.plosmedicine.org/) goes online Oct. 19. Like its sister publication, PLoS Biology, which was launched a year ago, PLoS Medicine will be peer-reviewed.
Both ventures belong to the Public Library of Science (PLoS), a non-profit, San Francisco-based coalition committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a free public resource.
Instead of charging subscription fees to readers, PLoS charges the authors of accepted articles US$1500 to help cover the cost of editing and publishing their work (CMAJ 2003;169 [7]: 700). The fee may be waived for researchers who can't afford it.
Whether this funding model is sustainable is something PLoS intends to discover. Observers at other journals insist that the up-front charge is too low to maintain a high calibre of editing and presentation. Barbara Cohen, senior editor for PLoS, says additional revenue could come from educational grants as well as carefully defined forms of advertising, nor does she rule out increasing the author fee.
“At the moment we think that this is a figure that is reasonable,” she says. “We will have to learn over time whether it's realistic.” Meanwhile, PloS has a US$9-million start-up grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
Cohen says the online publication movement points to a need for systemic change, where science funders understand that the publication charge … should become an integral part of doing the research.”
That change is starting to take hold. Last month, the US National Institutes of Health proposed a new policy of insisting on free Internet access for papers based on work funded by the agency, regardless of whether that work appears in a paid subscription journal. The NIH argues that public funds paid for this work, and members of the public should not have to pay to read about it. — Tim Lougheed, Ottawa