Comment Re:No worse than what currently happens (Score 3, Interesting) 208
In terms of the ethics of pay-to-publish and the possible dilution of scientific credibility, it is important to realize a couple of things:
1. PLoS is dedicated to being a highly respectable scientific journal of the same stature as the "biggies" such as Nature or Cell. Their review process is just as stringent, and their reviewers are scientists of equally high reputation, as other journals. (I'm getting this both from their "core principles" at http://www.plos.org/about/principles.html and also from talking to some professors in the Stanford biochemistry department--where I used to work--with which some of the founders are affiliated and which is one of the institutions where PLoS first got off the ground.)
2. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which funds numerous biological sciences labs, will provide funding to support publication fees *IF* the research is published in open-access journals :)
3. PLoS says: "We realize that not everyone who does research can afford to pay publication charges through their grants. PLoS waives those fees, no questions asked, for anyone who can't pay. Our editors and peer reviewers have no knowledge of who can pay, so papers are accepted only on their merit." (http://www.plos.org/faq.html#openaccess)
So it's much much better than it might seem at first approximation!
1. PLoS is dedicated to being a highly respectable scientific journal of the same stature as the "biggies" such as Nature or Cell. Their review process is just as stringent, and their reviewers are scientists of equally high reputation, as other journals. (I'm getting this both from their "core principles" at http://www.plos.org/about/principles.html and also from talking to some professors in the Stanford biochemistry department--where I used to work--with which some of the founders are affiliated and which is one of the institutions where PLoS first got off the ground.)
2. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which funds numerous biological sciences labs, will provide funding to support publication fees *IF* the research is published in open-access journals
3. PLoS says: "We realize that not everyone who does research can afford to pay publication charges through their grants. PLoS waives those fees, no questions asked, for anyone who can't pay. Our editors and peer reviewers have no knowledge of who can pay, so papers are accepted only on their merit." (http://www.plos.org/faq.html#openaccess)
So it's much much better than it might seem at first approximation!
