Have the “mega-journals” reached the limits to growth?

A “mega-journal” is a new type of scientific journal that publishes freely accessible articles, which have been peer reviewed for scientific trustworthiness, but leaves it to the readers to decide which articles are of interest and importance to them. In the wake of the phenomenal success of PLOS ON...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bo-Christer Björk
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: PeerJ Inc. 2015-05-01
Series:PeerJ
Subjects:
Online Access:https://peerj.com/articles/981.pdf
_version_ 1827609154164883456
author Bo-Christer Björk
author_facet Bo-Christer Björk
author_sort Bo-Christer Björk
collection DOAJ
description A “mega-journal” is a new type of scientific journal that publishes freely accessible articles, which have been peer reviewed for scientific trustworthiness, but leaves it to the readers to decide which articles are of interest and importance to them. In the wake of the phenomenal success of PLOS ONE, several other publishers have recently started mega-journals. This article presents the evolution of mega-journals since 2010 in terms of article publication rates. The fastest growth seems to have ebbed out at around 35,000 annual articles for the 14 journals combined. Acceptance rates are in the range of 50–70%, and speed of publication is around 3–5 months. Common features in mega-journals are alternative impact metrics, easy reusability of figures and data, post-publication discussions and portable reviews from other journals.
first_indexed 2024-03-09T07:27:11Z
format Article
id doaj.art-6526927b5f8d4887a0a35bb8e741039b
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2167-8359
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-09T07:27:11Z
publishDate 2015-05-01
publisher PeerJ Inc.
record_format Article
series PeerJ
spelling doaj.art-6526927b5f8d4887a0a35bb8e741039b2023-12-03T06:52:20ZengPeerJ Inc.PeerJ2167-83592015-05-013e98110.7717/peerj.981981Have the “mega-journals” reached the limits to growth?Bo-Christer Björk0Hanken School of Economics, Department of Management and Organisation, Helsinki, FinlandA “mega-journal” is a new type of scientific journal that publishes freely accessible articles, which have been peer reviewed for scientific trustworthiness, but leaves it to the readers to decide which articles are of interest and importance to them. In the wake of the phenomenal success of PLOS ONE, several other publishers have recently started mega-journals. This article presents the evolution of mega-journals since 2010 in terms of article publication rates. The fastest growth seems to have ebbed out at around 35,000 annual articles for the 14 journals combined. Acceptance rates are in the range of 50–70%, and speed of publication is around 3–5 months. Common features in mega-journals are alternative impact metrics, easy reusability of figures and data, post-publication discussions and portable reviews from other journals.https://peerj.com/articles/981.pdfOpen accessOpen access journal
spellingShingle Bo-Christer Björk
Have the “mega-journals” reached the limits to growth?
PeerJ
Open access
Open access journal
title Have the “mega-journals” reached the limits to growth?
title_full Have the “mega-journals” reached the limits to growth?
title_fullStr Have the “mega-journals” reached the limits to growth?
title_full_unstemmed Have the “mega-journals” reached the limits to growth?
title_short Have the “mega-journals” reached the limits to growth?
title_sort have the mega journals reached the limits to growth
topic Open access
Open access journal
url https://peerj.com/articles/981.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT bochristerbjork havethemegajournalsreachedthelimitstogrowth