A World Elsewhere: PLOS’s Community Action Publishing Model
Can community-action publishing prove to be a viable alternative to market-based publishing?
Poor Financials Pushes PLOS To Ponder Future Prospects
PLOS’ latest financial report depicts an organization trying to reinvent itself, focusing less on disruption and innovation and more on efficiency and collaboration.
Journal Growth Lowers Impact Factor
Phil Davis examines how publication timing can affect annual Journal Impact Factor scores.
PeerJ Waives APCs and Pivots Again
Why would a for-profit, VC funded publisher celebrate by committing itself to a full year’s worth of additional expenses with no additional revenue?
Future of the OA Megajournal
Predicted to radically consolidate STM journals, the OA megajournal has found a successful niche market. The same can be said for MOOCs.
Study Reports Open Peer Review Attracts Fewer Reviews, Quality Suffers
Open online review has the potential to attract many more eyes to a new piece of research than conventional peer review. In reality, it may do far worse in attracting the eyes you want.
PeerJ Membership Model and The Paradox Of The Loyal Customer
Pivoting away from individual memberships to sources of institutional funding, PeerJ has entered into a crowded market of low-cost megajournals. Can it survive?
Scientific Reports Overtakes PLOS ONE As Largest Megajournal
The open access megajournal is a proven success, but its future may lie in the hands of commercial entities.
PLOS ONE Output Drops Again In 2016
Output in PLOS ONE dropped by 6000+ papers in 2016, calling into question the sustainability of PLOS’ business model.
Are Journals Lacking for Reviewers?
There is sufficient supply of reviewers to meet demand, a new paper suggests. It’s just not evenly distributed.
The Fallacy of ‘Sound’ Science
“Sound methodology” suggests an ideal match to a scientific question that never quite exists. So why do some publishers use it?
Can Highly Selective Journals Survive on APCs?
Are the APC levels set for high-end OA journals too low to be sustainable? Are there other ways that might help high-end OA journals pay their way?
Old Media, New Media, Data Media: Evolving Publishing Paradigms
We typically classify publishers as Old Media and New Media, but now we have companies that are part of a new paradigm, the Dat Media company. Such companies sit above both Old and New, studying patterns in usage and in the databases of information aggregated by publishers.
Scientific Reports On Track To Become Largest Journal In The World
Higher Impact Factor, faster publication, and weaker data availability policies may be drawing authors away from PLOS ONE.
For Scholarly Communications, Double-dipping is Double the Fun
The much-maligned practice of “double-dipping,” in which a publisher received revenue from both subscriptions and APCs, is likely to remain with us for some time, as publishers learn to turn APCs into larger and more varied revenue streams, even as they create the impression that the APCs offset subscription costs.