General overview of PeerJ by Peter Binfield. Presentation, with audio, from Science Online Bay Area (SOBA): Innovations in Academic Publishing session, Sep 27th 2012. See video of the presentation at: http://new.livestream.com/scioWC/events/1577817

1. Your Peers, Your Science.
Academic Publishing is Evolving.
Pete Binfield
Co-Founder and Publisher
@p_binfield
pete@peerj.com
https://peerj.com
Academic Publishing is Evolving…

2. Academic Publishing is Evolving…

3. The Founding Team
Peter Binfield, PhD (publishing) @p_binfield
ex-Publisher of PLoS ONE, the largest peer reviewed journal in the world
Career publisher with 20 years experience. Resume has included the
oversight of over 400 journals; managing teams of up to >50 people.
Degree in Physics with Astrophysics, PhD in Optical Holography
Jason Hoyt, PhD (tech) @jasonHoyt
ex-Chief Scientist/VP R&D at Mendeley.
At Mendeley, headed Data Mining, Search, API platform,
recommendations, and stats products
Genetics Ph.D. from Stanford University. Advisors included Michele
Calos & Andrew Fire, Nobel Laureate 2006 in Medicine.
Academic Publishing is Evolving…

4. Academic Publishing is Evolving…

5. What is Academic Publishing?
Academic Researchers have a professional obligation to publish their
research in scholarly journals. Without publications to their name they
cannot get jobs, promotions or grants.
Scholarly Journals retail for $’000s (using an annual subscription model)
and tightly control the copyright and distribution rights of their content.
As a result, they artificially hamper the distribution of research.
The Journal industry is then subsidized by the free ‘labor’ of academics
(who write, submit & review the content for free).
Open Access (OA) is a 10 year old movement which aims to distribute
journal content without any restrictions. Typically, authors pay a fee per
article, which covers the publication costs.
Academic Publishing is Evolving…

6. What is Open Access?
Open Access is a distribution model, not a business model
Open Access content is typically published under a Creative Commons
CC-BY license (CC-BY 3.0).
Fully Open Access CC-BY content can be re-used, re-mixed, re-distributed
etc – all for free (although the original source must be attributed).
Note: Commercial Products or Applications can be built on top of CC-
BY OA content
Open Access is rapidly disrupting the established subscription model.
Open Access content accelerates, improves and facilitates academic
progress. We owe it to the world to make all content OA as rapidly as
possible.
Academic Publishing is Evolving…

7. Quarterly Output of PLoS ONE
(the largest journal in the world)
From: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4N7ogyz4o4
Academic Publishing is Evolving…

8. Annual Output of ‘the big 3’ OA Publishers
PLOS + BioMedCentral + Hindawi
From: Mark Patterson’s presentation to COASP Sep 2012
Academic Publishing is Evolving…

9. “The Inevitability of Open Access”
“It is likely that Gold OA journals will publish half of all scholarly articles by 2017 and will
publish 90% of the articles by 2020.”
“The Inevitability of Open Access”, David Lewis. College and Research Libraries.
Academic Publishing is Evolving…

10. One price for life Peer review / general Fully OA
fees are shifted participation incentivized. with open source
from fee/paper to Membership model allows software, Article
fee/author. for news ways to engage Level Metrics,
with authors / readers. public APIs etc
Academic Publishing is Evolving…

11. Interesting Features
PeerJ
- a broad based journal in the biological and medical sciences, judging
submissions based only on technical and scientific validity
- fully peer reviewed, with rapid review process handled by a (very) large
editorial board
- encouraging of ‘Open’ Peer Review
- members incentivized to participate in the peer review process
PeerJ PrePrints
- a preprint server for the biological and medical sciences
- a full suite of ‘privacy’ controls to encourage participation
- an experimental space where new features, functionalities and
standards can be tried out
Academic Publishing is Evolving…

12. The PeerJ Membership Model
Basic Plan
$99
Lifetime
One publication/yr Unlimited
publications/yr
Great for Great for
graduate students principal investigators
* All contributing authors need a plan membership
Academic Publishing is Evolving…

13. The Reception
Academic Publishing is Evolving…

14. Current Status
• Staff of 5 (London & San Francisco)
– Alf Eaton (ex Mendeley & Nature)
– Patrick McAndrew (ex clipDO.com)
– Jackie Thai (ex PLoS ONE).
• ~ 700 Academic Editors & Advisors
– 4 Nobel Laureates
• Public Submissions to PeerJ ~ Nov 2012
• Public Launch of PeerJPrePrints ~ Dec 2012
• 1st PeerJ Publications ~ Jan 2013
Academic Publishing is Evolving…

15. Thank You
Pete Binfield
Co-Founder and Publisher
@p_binfield @ThePeerJ
pete@peerj.com https://peerj.com
Academic Publishing is Evolving…