From: Peter Binfield <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2013 13:08:13 -0800

Press Release, Feb 12th 2013

PeerJ Publishes Its First Articles

Journal Publisher Heralds in a New Era of Innovation and Affordability in
Academic Publishing

PeerJ (https://peerj.com), a new academic journal publisher, founded on the
principles of affordability, innovation, and Open Access, published its
first articles today.

PeerJ, launched by Jason Hoyt (formerly at Mendeley and Stanford University)
and Peter Binfield (formerly at PLOS ONE), has been shaped from the premise
that 'if society can set a goal to sequence a human genome for just $99 then
why shouldn't academics be given the opportunity to openly publish their
research for a similar amount?'. By publishing its first 30 peer-reviewed
articles today, PeerJ moves one step closer to realizing that vision.

"We are doing things that no other publisher is doing," said Hoyt,
Co-Founder and CEO of PeerJ. "It has been reported that the global academic
community pays as much as $9.5B per year for access to academic journals. We
believe that these costs could be reduced by as much as 75% using new
business models such as that employed by PeerJ, and utilizing open
distribution licenses such as the Creative Commons license. The result will
be a net benefit to the global research effort and a welcome increase in the
efficiency and effectiveness of academic publication."

PeerJ aims to establish a new model for the publication of all well
reported, scientifically sound research in the Biological and Medical
Sciences. To achieve that, the organization has built an economical and
efficient peer review and publication system and assembled an Editorial
Board of 800 esteemed academics, including an Advisory Board of 20 (five of
whom are Nobel Laureates). A rigorous peer review process is operated, and
the journal strives to deliver the highest standards in everything it does.

Uta Francke, an author on one of the launch day articles; PeerJ Advisory
Board member; Professor of Genetics and Pediatrics, Emeritus, Stanford
University School of Medicine; and Past President of both the 'American
Society of Human Genetics' and the 'International Federation of Human
Genetics Societies' said that she was "excited about the launch of PeerJ,
which represents much more than just another Open Access publishing venture.
The innovative membership model, including a commitment to review the work
of one's peers, will ensure an interactive relationship of equals - authors,
editors and reviewers - all striving for high quality research reports
published in a totally transparent fashion after rigorous constructive peer
review."

Tim O'Reilly, the founder of O'Reilly Media and a thought leader in the Open
Source movement, sits on the Governing Board of PeerJ Inc. and brings a
wealth of knowledge, and passion, for the promotion of open, unfettered
communication in academia. Tim had this to say about PeerJ: "It's easy to
forget that technological revolutions also demand business model
revolutions. Open access is transformative for science publishing, not only
because it spreads knowledge more efficiently, but because it slashes the
cost of producing and consuming that knowledge."

Authors wishing to experience the future of publishing can now submit their
articles at: https://peerj.com/

# # #

Essential Features of PeerJ:

* PeerJ is a rapid, peer reviewed, 'Open Access' scholarly journal, using a
Creative Commons license which means that all articles are entirely free to
read, distribute, and reuse provided authors are properly attributed.

* Publication decisions are made only on scientific validity (not on
perceived impact).

* PeerJ uses a 'Membership Model' whereby authors become lifetime members,
giving them the ability to freely publish their articles thereafter. As a
result, publication costs for authors are significantly lower than similar
publications.

* PeerJ has 800 Academic Editors, including 20 Advisory Board members (of
which 5 are Nobel Laureates). Full list at:
https://peerj.com/academic-boards/subjects/ and Advisors at:
https://peerj.com/academic-boards/advisors/

* PeerJ encourages 'open' Peer Review (meaning that reviewers are encouraged
to provide their names; authors are empowered to reproduce their peer review
history alongside their published article).

* By utilizing short, iterative development cycles, users will see the rapid
development of new features and innovative functionality, dramatically
improving the academic publication and reading experience.

* Learn more about PeerJ here: https://peerj.com/about/how-it-works/

* Note: PeerJ PrePrints (the second component of the PeerJ publishing
system) will debut in the coming months.
* Reference for the quoted market size:
http://www.stm-assoc.org/2012_12_11_STM_Report_2012.pdf
* Links: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thePeerJ ; Twitter: @ThePeerJ ;
Google+: http://peerj.com/+ ; Blog: http://blog.peerj.com/ ; Member sign up:
https://peerj.com/signup/

Prior Press Releases and Media Resources (including logos) can be found at:
https://peerj.com/about/press/

_______________________

About PeerJ: PeerJ Inc. is an Open Access publisher of scholarly scientific
content, which offers researchers a lifetime membership, for a single low
price, giving them the ability to openly publish all future articles for
free. The company has two publications - a peer-reviewed journal named
"PeerJ" and a preprint server called "PeerJ PrePrints". PeerJ is based in
San Francisco, CA and London, UK and can be accessed at https://peerj.com.

About Open Access: Open Access is the practice of providing unrestricted,
free, online access to peer-reviewed scholarly content (typically journal
articles). Copyright is retained by the authors, and a Creative Commons
'attribution license' is commonly applied, meaning that anyone can re-use
the material provided they attribute the original source.

All works published in PeerJ are Open Access and published using a Creative
Commons license (CC-BY 3.0). Everything is immediately available-to read,
download, redistribute, include in databases and otherwise use-without cost
to anyone, anywhere, subject only to the condition that the original authors
and source are properly attributed.