A tale of three cities: three upstart OA journals want to own “open” and “biology”
I received a copy of the publicity for a new open access journal from Royal Society Publishing, Open Biology®. The registration symbol (®) is attached to the name, and with good reason. There are a couple of other open access journals that have very similar names, as you can discover with a google search:
- The Open Biology Journal (ISSN: 1874-1967)from Bentham Open
- Biology Open (ISSN: 2046-6390)from The Company of Biologists
Bentham Open started Open Biology in 2008, and publishes over 239 other titles. The Company of Biologists started Biology Open in September 2011. The Royal Society’s Open Biology also launched officially in September 2011. Here is a brief comparison of these three journals and their most formidable open access competition, BMC Biology and PLoS Biology. The last quarter article count is for research articles only.
Open Biology and the Competition
| JOURNAL NAME | PUBLISHER | REGULAR FEEE | SEPT-DEC 2011 RESEARCH ARTICLES | EDITOR | Editor h Index |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open Biology | Royal Society Publishing | $1932/£1200/€1440 * | 8 | David Glover | 43 |
| Biology Open | Company of Biologists | $1350 | 16 | Jordan W. Raff | 22 |
| The Open Biology Journal | Bentham Open | US$800 | [0] | Francisco Ciruela | 39 |
| BMC Biology | Biomed Central | £1445 €1735 US$2265 | 17 | Miranda Robinson | -- |
| PLoS Biology | PLoS | US$2900 | 52 | Jonathan A. Eisen | 6 |
*all author charges for Open Biology will be waived for submissions received before the end of February 2012
So it appears that the three upstarts have recruited a significant editor in chief, and their article processing charges are certainly not out of line, considering where the fees are with the two established leaders of biology open access. Please remind me to revise this chart in another 6 months to see where submissions are going.
You missed another one that was announced recently – FEBS Open Bio. See http://pharmalive.com/News/Index.cfm?articleid=818077