Scientific publisher Wiley has recently launched Plant Direct and Health Science Reports, both of which are open access journals. Plant Direct is a community journal that represents a partnership between Wiley, the Society for Experimental Biology, and the American Society of Plant Biologists. Plant Direct is slated to offer authors a fast review process. Its Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Ivan Baxter, said that while the publishing landscape is crowded, starting a new journal allows for a fresh perspective and is an opportunity to incorporate innovative ideas to make the open access publishing process more transparent. Crispin Taylor, CEO of the American Society of Plant Biologists, was thrilled to be part of bringing this new society journal to the global community of plant scientists. Wiley hopes that Health Science Reports will serve to improve health by widely disseminating excellent health science research. The staff of Health Science Reports will work with the editors of other Wiley-published journals like CNS Neuroscience, Molecular Carcinogenesis, and Bipolar Disorders to give authors even more open access publishing options while also giving them the benefit of a high-quality, rapid publication service. Both journals will publish original research articles, among other article types.
Plant Direct has been described as a sound science journal which means that submitted manuscripts will not be judged on novelty. Rather, papers will be assessed for experimental and analytical soundness, if the stated conclusions are based on evidence and compliance with ethical and research integrity standards. The two societies which sponsor Plant Direct, the American Society of Plant Biologists and the Society for Experimental Biology, will garner financial support from the journal to support their education, outreach, and networking activities in a bid to advance plant science. This Wiley open access journal has three features designed to promote openness, efficiency, and speed in the publication process. First, authors will be strongly encouraged to host their work on a preprint server (those who do, will have access to discounted article processing charges). Second, the anonymized reviewer reports will be published once the manuscript is accepted. Third, reviews can be referred from Plant Physiology, The Plant Cell, and The Plant Journal which should speed up the process of manuscripts originally submitted to those journals being published in Plant Direct.
Health Science Reports has a focus on improving health via the identification and dissemination of excellent health science research. This journal aims to serve active scientists, practitioners, clinicians, and patients by making the peer review process more efficient and attempting to contribute to the improvement of global health outcomes. Dr. Charles Young, chairman of the advisory board for this open access journal, sees the birth of this journal as important for global open access publishing. Liz Ferguson, Vice President of Editorial Development for Wiley describes Health Science Reports as their most ambitious open access publication yet.
By launching the open access journals Health Science Reports and Plant Direct, Wiley Publishing hopes to aid the rapid dissemination of both health science research and research in plant biology. Since both journals are community journals, they should serve their respective communities well and help in the growth of the open access publishing model.
