Open Access PLoS Biology Most Cited Journal
As I grabbed an article on the emerging role of mathematics in the biological sciences a few weeks back from the Public Library of Science (PLoS), I was thinking about how wonderful it was to be able to access the article (and their entire archive) for free. For the previous four years, I had taken the cost of obtaining research for granted since I had the resources of a top research university at my fingertips. The influence of the organization’s choice to abandon the traditional publishing model and move to an open access plan, however, runs deeper than just helping a former bio student keep up on current research. Today, the Boston Globe published an article noting that after only two years one of the organization’s journals, PLoS Biology, has become the most cited journal in the biological sciences. Certainly, this top rating shows that their alternative and controversial-since authors pay for their articles to be published-business model for journal publication may prove to be a success. The model will be tested even further in the coming months, as PLoS rolls out more journals beyond their initial two (PLoS Biology and Medicine) with PLoS Computational Biology, Genetics, Pathogens, and Clincal Trials.