PeerJ

Today there's an announcement of a new generalist life sciences journal, PeerJ. The journal itself is like PlosONE - peer review that looks at the goodness of the science not the impact - but the funding method is quite different. Up until now we have the traditional method in which publishing is paid for with a combination of subscriptions from readers/libraries, page/image charges, and advertising; a method whereby the journal is funded by a society or charity; and a method whereby authors (through their institutions in some cases) pay for publishing. This journal has a lifetime membership of $99 (and up) and each author (up to 12) has to have a membership. That covers the publishing it also covers a separate pre-print server.

So there have been a pile of discussions about how much it really costs to publish an article... this undercuts those numbers significantly. I've read the FAQ and they will be backed up in CLOCKSS.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this works and how its received. I'm assuming some will depend on the quality of the editorial board and the first few articles published.

Note: I received embargoed press materials from the founders, Pete Binfield and Jason Hoyt.