Penn at forefront of non-profit journal

A new movement in academic publishing is gaining steam, and Penn is right in the thick of it.

Open access, the idea that publicly funded research should be publicly available, has seen increasing success since the 2004 launch, with Penn support, of the Public Library of Science.

The oldest of the public-access journals, PLoS Biology, "has the highest citation ranking in biology ... essentially twice as high as the next journal," said Linda Rosenstein, the Biomedical Library's associate director for information resources.

Penn has been involved from the beginning. In 2001, 34 Penn researchers signed a PLoS Open Letter calling for unrestricted access to scientific journal articles. Penn's library has been an institutional member of the public library almost since its inception.

Penn expects long-term financial benefits from aiding the library.

Traditional journal publishing essentially "is taking money out of the pockets of undergraduates in order to fund the research in the university," said Legal Studies and Business Ethics professor Dan Hunter.

Penn spent over $9 million last year on journal subscriptions.

Traditional scientific journal prices increase 8 to 10 percent per year, making the annual budgeting process a guessing game of, "Did we survive another year?" said Rosenstein.

According to Hunter, open access can break that cycle. He said that academics "not only provide all the content, we provide all the editorial function, and we also are the people that are buying the journals."

Calling the public library membership "an investment in an initiative" which may slow the annual price increases seen in traditional journals, the library's Director of Public Services Sandra Kerbel is "pleased that ... this experiment has worked so well."

Because journals in the public library do not charge a fee to those who read their articles, the nonprofit group has authors pay $1,500 of research grant money to support the journal.

"The reality is that, no matter where you submit your paper, if it's accepted, you pay fees to have it published," said Nursing professor Karen Badellino, who just published an article in PLoS Medicine.

For Penn authors, though, publication in the public library only costs $750.

University authors receive a 50 percent discount because Penn's library system pays $5,500 per year for membership.

The School of Engineering and Applied Science's head librarian Mary Steiner anticipated that, as the library adds new journals, "we'll only get more bang for our buck."

That so-called "bang" comes not only financially, but in spreading Penn research more widely. According to Kerbel, the public library "really does disseminate Penn's research."

For Microbiology professor Susan Ross -- associate editor of PLoS Pathogens -- though, a public library journal is "no different than any other journal. At a place like Penn where the library subscribes to every journal, we essentially have open access to everything."

In addition, the public library requires every paper to have a lay summary "so that non-scientists can understand them," said Ross.

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