Scholarly Publishing 2012: Meet PeerJ

Use the link to read the interview transcript introduced as follows: “Over the past decade, the open access movement has grown by leaps and bounds, with increased awareness and a slew of institutional, funder, and government mandates. But the real sign of maturity may be in how the business models associated with open access publishing have evolved. And this week comes a fascinating new entry into the field: PeerJ. Founded by scientists and academic publishing and technology professionals Jason Hoyt (formerly v-p, R&D and chief scientist for the desktop and Web organizer Mendeley), and Peter Binfield (former publisher of PLoS ONE), PeerJ offers a new twist on open access publishing. ‘PeerJ is an Open Access journal publisher which, for a single low price, gives researchers the ability to publish future articles with us for free,’ explains cofounder Peter Binfield. ‘Basic membership allows members to publish one ‘private’ preprint per year,’ he explains, meaning they can restrict who can access it, ‘with higher tiers allowing members to publish unlimited ‘private’ preprints.’ The privately held company will launch with two publications: a peer-reviewed journal, PeerJ, and a preprint server called PeerJ PrePrints. If it sounds ambitious—it is. But the company has captured the attention of leaders in the open access movement. Jan Velterop, a pioneer in open access publishing with BioMed Central, says he has no doubts the company will succeed. ‘PeerJ is more than just an innovative publishing initiative,’ he says. ‘It pulls scientific publishing back from the career-advancing service it has primarily become, restoring its origins: scholarly communication.’ PW contributing editor Peter Brantley recently caught up with PeerJ cofounder Peter Binfield...”