Loomio
Mon 12 Oct 2015 8:06PM

Should we support MDPI in setting up the OA journal 'Vision'

LD Lee de-Wit Public Seen by 229

A number of people in the vision science community have recently been contacted by MDPI (http://www.mdpi.com/) to ask if they would become an editor of a new Open Access journal called 'Vision' (http://www.mdpi.com/journal/vision). So far five editors have accepted (http://www.mdpi.com/journal/vision/editors).

MDPI have been accused of being something of a 'predatory open-access publisher', but a report by the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association suggests this is unfounded (http://oaspa.org/conclusions-from-oaspa-membership-committee-investigation-into-mdpi/).

It will be free to publish articles submitted in 2015 and 2016 (http://www.mdpi.com/journal/vision/apc). with Vision while the journal establishes its self. After that date it is not clear how much it will cost, but MDPI claims to be 'committed to keeping its open access publication charges at a minimum level'. Author Publication Charges for existing journals range from 155-1661 dollars, though many journals charge just over 300 dollars per article (http://www.mdpi.com/about/apc).

Simon Rushton is currently organizing a Skype meeting with MDPI to discuss the future of 'Vision' and how MDPI could serve the vision science community (hopefully on 16/10). If you have questions for this discussion, or issues you would like to raise, please comment below. Some of the questions we plan to ask so far include:

  • future of costing policy, what is a viable long term APC for MDPI. What do they anticipate Vision increasing to?
  • editorial control (role of publisher in that?)
  • Anticipated size of editorial board?
  • publishing criteria (novelty or rigor – is that up to the editors?)
  • nature of review process (option for open reviews?)
  • facilities for hosting of data and code with publications?
  • how will it differ from Journal of Vision?
LD

Lee de-Wit Fri 16 Oct 2015 9:37AM

Regarding the estimate of 'what should a genuine publication cost be', the idea that something like 200/300 pounds is in the right range is also suggested by Ubiquity Press who have a basic APC of £300 http://www.ubiquitypress.com/site/publish/

LD

Lee de-Wit Fri 16 Oct 2015 11:14AM

Simon, Alex and I just talked to the managing editor responsible for Vision. He was very open and helpful. I'll post a longer summary next week, but just a few key points.

If the journal would be indexed in web of science or pubmed they would anticipate the APC rising to 800CHF. Obviously this is more than we might have hoped, but still a lot less than JoV. But it was not really clear otherwise how it would differentiate itself from JoV, other than offering some 'competition'.

Editorial decisions would be down to the chief editor, and they were open to many innovations, and had facilities for open peer review and hosting data and code.

The company is technically for-profit, but actually all of the profit is reinvested. The 'for-profit' status is just a technical necessity that makes it easier for them to work internationally given Swiss law. The owner/founder is a scientist, who wants to improve publishing. But there is nothing in their corporate structure to protect this model, but they are discussing becoming a non-profit to guarantee this.