Oxford University Press said it plans to launch a new online-only publication that will provide a platform for “novel ideas in database research surrounding biological information” and also “aims to strengthen the bridge between database developers and users.”
The journal, entitled Database: The Journal of Biological Databases and Curation, is scheduled to launch in January 2009.
Computational biologist David [Landsmann] is the journal’s editor-in-chief. He is at NIH’s computational biology branch....Associate editor [Francis] Ouellette of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research told BioInform that...the journal will only cover open-access databases.
Oxford University Press bioinformatics journals editor Claire Bird said the idea for the journal originated with Richard Roberts, the editor of Nucleic Acids Research, and Alex Bateman, the editor of Bioinformatics, and that it is partially an outgrowth of the popularity of NAR’s annual database issue....
Comment. The focus on OA databases makes Database blogworthy. But I wish I could tell you more about the journal's own access policy. The OUP page on Changes to the journals listing in 2009 says that Database will be "online-only and fully open access during 2009." So at least it won't merely be a hybrid OA journal in the Oxford Open series. But is the plan to keep it OA, like OUP's NAR, or to offer just a teaser year of OA and then introduce subscription fees?
Update (7/28/08). OUP's Kirsty Luff has answered my question and allowed me to post her answer. (Thanks, Kristy.)
We plan for Database to be an open access journal, funded by author charges like the NAR model. The website for Database with all the details are coming soon.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 7/26/2008 10:29:00 AM.
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.
