Editorial
The purpose of peer review in the case of an open-access publication
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Correspondence: Georgii A Alexandrov a_georgii@hotmail.com
Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pyzhevsky 3, Moscow, Russia
Carbon Balance and Management 2006, 1:10 doi:10.1186/1750-0680-1-10
Published: 15 September 2006Abstract
First scientific journals were simply a way of informing colleagues about new research findings. In due course, they started filtering out unreasonable claims, and introduced a peer-review system.
The purpose of peer reviewing changed with time. Since the middle of the past century, commercial publishers have owned a large number of scientific journals and as a result, the marketable value of a submitted manuscript has become an increasingly important factor in publishing decisions.
Recently some publishers have developed business schemes which may stop this tendency. In the case of an open-access publication, the marketable value of a manuscript is not the primary consideration, since access to the research is not being sold. This innovation challenges scientists to re-consider the purpose of peer review.
This editorial indicates some of the commonly used criteria for publication that consequently should receive less or little emphasis under the open-access model.