From: Alex Dahne <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2015 11:55:03 -0700

NEWS RELEASE

University of California Press's Open Access (OA) Mega-Journal
Collabra Publishes First Article

August 6, 2015 (Oakland, CA)—University of California Press's open
access (OA) mega-journal, Collabra, has published its first article in
the field of social psychology—Implicit Preferences for Straight
People over Lesbian Women and Gay Men Weakened from 2006 to 2013. The
article’s authors—Erin Westgate of the University of Virginia, Rachel
Riskind of Guilford College, and Brian Nosek of the Center for Open
Science—opted for open peer review, which means that the peer review
correspondence is also published along with the article.

"We couldn’t have asked for a better first article,” says Dan Morgan,
Publisher of Collabra. "The publicity and downloads following the
article have proven that this is a compelling and important research
topic, and it showcases many of the features and principles that we
are promoting—open data, open review, and reviewers signing their
reviews. The authors also shared additional measures, codebooks, and
reported all data exclusions, manipulations, and how they determined
their sample sizes, leading to far greater transparency. As such, it
is a model of ‘open science.’"

As a nonprofit publisher and a member of the academic community, UC
Press designed Collabra to ensure that the value generated by editors
and reviewers can be channeled back into the research community.
Collabra reduces barriers to high-quality open access publishing by
offering a low author processing charge (APC) of US$875, and a waiver
fund to cover APCs for authors unable to pay. Unlike other OA
journals, Collabra invites editors and reviewers to share in the value
the journal creates through the work they do. They have control over
what they earn; they can (1) pay it forward to the "waiver fund" at
Collabra, (2) pay it forward to their institution's OA fund, or (3)
elect to pay themselves.

“Researchers give away so much of their time and expertise to journals
both by choosing where to publish their work and by reviewing for
free,” says Senior Editor Simine Vazire, Associate Professor of
Psychology at the University of California Davis, and the editor who
oversaw Collabra’s first article. We must reflect on who we want to
give that time to, and what kind of journal and publishing model we
want to support.”

Collabra launched with a distinguished group of senior editors and
editors who are organized around each of the journal's three core
disciplinary areas—life and biomedical sciences, ecology and
environmental science, and social and behavioral sciences. Each
editorial team ensures that the respective discipline has a voice at
the journal. Although Collabra is a mega-journal, the aim is to foster
identifiable disciplinary communities under the overarching Collabra
banner.

###

To submit a research article to Collabra, or to become a reviewer,
visit Collabra's website. Questions about submissions and editorial
teams can be directed to Collabra’s Publisher, Dan Morgan. For all
media inquiries, contact Associate Director of Publicity Lorraine
Weston.

University of California Press is one of the most forward-thinking
scholarly publishers in the nation. For more than 120 years, it has
championed work that influences public discourse and challenges the
status quo in multiple fields of study. At a time of dramatic change
for publishing and scholarship, UC Press collaborates with scholars,
librarians, authors, and students to stay ahead of today's knowledge
demands and shape the future of publishing. www.ucpress.edu

Ubiquity Press, via the Ubiquity Partner Network, provides the
infrastructure and services to enable university and society presses
to run sustainably and successfully. Ubiquity believes that academic
publishing is about achieving the widest possible dissemination of
research, with the maximum benefit for authors, and in a transparent,
cost-effective manner. www.ubiquitypress.com/