Public Library of Science Launches First New Journal

The Public Library of Science is a non profit organization that appears to be dedicated to making scientific research completely open to a world wide audience. They have launched their first online journal PLoS Biology today. The founding board includes such luminaries as Harold Varmus, former director of the NIH, Lawrence Lessig, founder of the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, and Paul Ginsparg, founder of the online physics abstract archive arXiv.org. There is a professional editing staff that includes veterans of Nature and other well known journals. The model is that authors who can pay should pay to have their work reviewed, edited, and published. PLoS is working with scientific funding agencies and foundations to make this happen. This is a great example of new models rising out of the ashes of old as technology changes the playing field. Maybe someone will come up with something as compelling for music distribution.