Exploring the Emergence of Interdisciplinary and Rapid Publication Journals

The well-documented success of the PLoS ONE model has been followed by the launch of a number of interdisciplinary open access journals in the areas of physics, genetics, biology, and medicine—opening a new era in the communication of science. At the same time, other models have emerged built upon innovative concepts such as interactive and real time peer review, scientists-as-publishers, tier-climbing, and rapid publication. Although these ideas won't grant publishers the ability to leap shrinking profits in a single bound, they are transforming the way we think about the delivery, submission, discoverability, and evaluation of content. We'll look at the case studies of Frontiers and AIP Advances to gain an understanding of the decision-making involved in launching an online open access, interdisciplinary, rapid publication journal, and what this development may mean for the future.