PeerJ: Another open access challenge to existing publication business models

Excerpts from an excellent article by Reuters - A new low-cost scientific journal [PeerJ] unveiled on Tuesday with an unusual business model will add to the pressure on publishers like Reed Elsevier and Springer Science+Business Media, and stoke the debate over free access to research.

The founders of the new journal, called PeerJ, come with a pedigree. Peter Binfield previously worked for PLoS One, the most successful part of the not-for-profit Public Library of Science, which has pioneered open access to scientific papers, and Jason Hoyt comes from the research database group Mendeley.

It is backed by venture capitalist Tim O'Reilly and will publish research in biological and medical sciences using a revenue model based on a one-off payment ranging from $99 to $259 for lifetime membership per researcher, rather than payment per paper or subscription by readers.