As an Open Access journal dedicated to promoting technological innovation in plant biology, Plant Methods occupies a unique niche amongst plant journals. To fund its open access policy, and to enable it to continue to serve the plant sciences community, Plant Methods will be introducing an article processing charge (APC) from March 1st 2006. This charge will cover the costs of making the article freely and universally accessible online and the costs involved in its inclusion in PubMed and its archiving in public repositories. In some circumstances, waivers of the APC may be granted and authors whose institutions are BioMed Central members will incur no, or reduced, charges.
(PS: PM is an OA journal from BioMed Central making the transition from an APC-free business model to an APC model. If this is surprising, remember that not all BMC journals charge APCs. Some are subsidized by the organizations standing behind them and some take six months or so after launch before introducing APCs. Currently, 23 of BMC's OA journals do not charge APC's. Among OA journals overall, fewer than half charge APCs.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 3/07/2006 12:18:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
