GMU

Why publish in open access journals?

In the past few years, the escalating cost of journals has forced many individuals and institutions to cancel their subscriptions, thus excluding large parts of the scientific community from scholarly interaction especially in the developing countries. Access to research published in open access journals is free, which means that anyone with Internet access can read research articles published in open access journals.

Other reasons for publishing in open access journals:

Rapid peer review.
All papers are peer reviewed rapidly and efficiently due to an online system for submission, and peer reviewing.
Immediate publication.
Your research is published immediately on the day of acceptance or very shortly thereafter.

Copyright ownership.
Authors retain copyright of their work, and are free to publish it anywhere on the web.
Visibility.
Articles are available to the entire international scientific community.

More on the advantages of publishing in open access journals

Create Change
An advocacy and education resource cosponsored with the Association of Research Libraries and the Association of College and Research Libraries. Includes downloadable brochures.

Publishing with BioMed Central (BMC)

BioMed Central (BMC),a UK based publishing house, provides immediate and open access to full-text of research articles published in its 100+ online journals covering all areas of biology and medicine. More...
FYI: George Mason University is an institutional member of BioMed Central. Our Institutional Membership waives the article processing charges of $525 for all GMU researchers.

BMC: Copyright and license agreement

BMC: Peer-review policy

BMC: Submit a manuscript

BMC: Tools for authors
(details of software and other tools that authors can use to format manuscripts for submission)

Why authors submit to BioMed Central journals?

Publishing with Public Library of Science (PLoS)

Public Library of Science (PLoS), a California non-profit group of bioscientists formed in 2000, publishes two online peer-reviewed journals: PLoS Biology and PLoS Medicine. Three new journals - PLoS Computational Biology, PLoS Genetics, and PLoS Pathogens - will be published in 2005. More...
(FYI: George Mason University is an institutional member of PLoS. All GMU researchers get a 10% discount on the author publishing fee of $1,500 per article.)

PLoS Biology:

PLoS Biology: Editorial and publishing policies

PLoS Biology: Guidelines for authors

PLoS Biology: Submission checklist

PLoS Biology: Submit a manuscript
(requires registration)

PLoS Medicine:

PLoS Medicine: Editorial polices

PLoS Medicine: Guidelines for authors

PLoS Medicine: Submission checklist

PLoS Medicine: Submit a manuscript
(requires registration)

PLoS Computational Biology (to be published in June 2005)