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...
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
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PeerJ Inc.
2015-05-01
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Series: | PeerJ |
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Online Access: | https://peerj.com/articles/981.pdf |
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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 |