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December 21, 2006
PLoS ONE ... the long tail of scientific research
Posted by David Weinberger
Public Library of Science has gone beta with PLos ONE, a peer-reviewed journal that publishes everything that passes the review, not just what it considers to be important. So, if it’s good science about a nit, it’ll find a home at PLoS ONE.
Articles are all published under a Creative Commons Attribution License. It does, however, cost a scientist (or her institution) $1,250 to be published by PLoS ONE. This is, alas, an improvement over what traditional journals charge scientists. PLoS ONE will waive the fee for authors who don’t have the funds.
Readers can discuss and annotate the articles. But the site could really use tags ‘n’ feeds. Maybe after beta…
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1. Kartik Agaram on December 21, 2006 11:57 PM writes...
Hey, who switched the RSS feed to feedburner? Article links are FUBAR'd -- the item links are all under feedburner.com
Permalink to Comment2. Vincenzo on December 22, 2006 6:34 AM writes...
I think the novelty of PLOS ONE stands in side of what you mentioned. Apart that traditional journals do not charge for publications (but yes, charge for subscription), PLOS already has some open access journals since years, and BiomedCentral many, many more (with fees around the PLOS ONE value).
Permalink to CommentEven publication of scientifically sound articles even if not innovative is not news (check on BiomedCentral), although here it appears in a more clear manner in the form of a second chance publication (if your paper is rejected by another PLOS journal, you can ask to be published there). Unfortunately, this way a precise hierarchy is going to be configured between A-series journals and B-series ONE.
I would focus more on the social aspects. Even discussions are not news: the British Medical Journal allows for online correspondence since many years; the most interesting online letters then are printed on the printed journal.
I think annotations are news: the possibility of setting comments around the paper and sharing them with other readers could be interesting, though it may add some noise. It could become a sort of post-peer-review, in some way, with less formality than letters (i.e., discussions) but more focused on details (e.g., steps in the methods, and so on).
3. scientaestubique on December 28, 2006 8:06 AM writes...
PLOS One does have a feed:
http://www.plosone.org/static/rssFeeds.action
The link is in the top right-hand corner, next to feedback.
Permalink to Comment4. David Weinberger on December 28, 2006 11:17 AM writes...
It needs more feeds, by topic if nothing else.
Permalink to Comment5. Danny on December 30, 2006 12:01 AM writes...
It charges $1250 to publish? That doesn't sound kosher to me. Even if there is no pressure among its editors to accept articles (and therefore cash), there will always be a perception that such is a possibility.
I can't imagine the P&T Committee at my school taking that journal seriously.
Permalink to Comment6. Shawn on January 2, 2007 1:29 AM writes...
I've been looking for the feed. Thanks for the link.
Permalink to Comment7. scientaestubique on January 8, 2007 10:51 PM writes...
Danny, that's a lot less than many journals charge and the articles are free to view, unlike most journals (even when the research was publicly funded, articles are usually charged for viewing).
Publication Charges are detailed here:
http://www.plosone.org/static/information.action
See this paragraph: "We offer a complete or partial fee waiver for authors who do not have funds to cover publication fees. Editors and reviewers have no access to payment information, and hence inability to pay will not influence the decision to publish a paper."
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