A mega journal (also mega-journal and megajournal) is a peer-reviewed academic open access journal designed to be much larger than a traditional journal by exercising low selectivity among accepted articles. It was pioneered by PLOS ONE.[1][2] This "very lucrative publishing model"[2] was soon emulated by other publishers.
Definition
A mega journal has the following defining characteristics:
- broad coverage of different subject areas;[1][2][3][4][5]
- accepting articles for publication based on whether they are technically sound rather than selecting for perceived importance;[1][2][3][4][5][6] and
- using article processing charges to cover the costs of publishing.[1][3][5]
Other less universal characteristics are
- "an accelerated review and publication process",[2] "fast turnaround time";[6]
- "academic editors",[6] even "a large editorial board of academic editors",[5] (instead of professional editors); and
- value-added services such as reusable graphics and data through Creative Commons licenses.[7]
Mega journals are also online-only, with no printed version, and are fully open access, in contrast to hybrid open access journals.[7] Some "predatory" open access publishers use the mega journal model.[1]
Influence
It has been suggested that the academic journal landscape might become dominated by a few mega journals in the future, at least in terms of total number of articles published.[8]Megajournals are also disrupting[clarification needed] the market of article processing charges.[9]Their business model may not motivate reviewers, who donate their time to "influence their field, gain exposure to the most current cutting edge research or list their service to a prestigious journal on their CVs."[10]Finally, they may no longer serve as "fora for the exchange ... among colleagues in a particular field or sub-field", as traditionally happened in scholarly journals.[11] To counter that indiscrimination, PLOS ONE, the prototypical megajournal, has started to "package relevant articles into subject-specific collections."[12]
List of mega journals
- PLOS ONE[1][2][3][4][5][6][13][14][15][16][17]
- ACS Omega[18]
- Scientific Reports[2][3][5][6][15][17][19]
- SAGE Open[3][4][5][15][17][19]
- Royal Society Open Science[a]
- BMJ Open[2][3][5][15][17]
- PeerJ[2][4][5][13][14]
- Medicine (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins journal)[21][22][23][24]
- Biology Open[5][6][17]
- IEEE Access[5][25][b]
- FEBS Open Bio[5][6]
- AIP Advances[5][17]
- G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics[5][17]
- Open Library of Humanities[c]
- De Gruyter Open imprint[d]
- Heliyon (Elsevier)[e]
- IET The Journal of Engineering[f]
Notes
References
Further reading
- Bill Cope and Angus Phillips, The Future of the Academic Journal, 2nd ed., Chandos Publishing, Jul 1, 2014, 478 pages.
- Peter Binfield, "Open Access MegaJournals -- Have They Changed Everything?", Creative Commons New Zealand Blog
- Sönke Bartling & Sascha Friesike (Editors), Opening Science: The Evolving Guide on How the Web is Changing Research, Collaboration and Scholarly Publishing, Springer, 2014, ISBN 978-3-319-00025-1, 339 pp.