PeerJ (an open access publisher of articles in the biological, life & medical sciences) announced that all authors can now make unlimited submissions to PeerJ PrePrints (https://peerj.com/preprints), entirely for free. Previously authors without a PeerJ publication plan could only publish one free preprint per year and so this represents a significant new benefit for authors.
PeerJ launched ‘PeerJ PrePrints’ (an innovative pre-print server for un-peer reviewed articles in the biological, health and medical sciences) in April 2013. Since that time, almost 100 preprints have been published, some of which have received more than 5,000 views. Reflective of the diverse ways in which preprints are being used by authors, many have been revised multiple times; several have gone on to be published as formal peer-reviewed articles in PeerJ (and other journals); several have received multiple instances of ‘review level’ feedback from readers; several have been submitted by ‘citizen scientists’; and one preprint was even used as a way to get work into the world despite the US Government shutdown. Preprints have also been used as a way for conferences to build up a complete record of their conference output.
Thus, PeerJ has demonstrated that there is a strong desire from the community to publish preprints. It is a core belief of PeerJ to maximize the ability of all authors to publish their work as freely as possible, and as a result this new policy ensures that as many people as possible are able to do so. Henceforth any author will be allowed to publish as many PeerJ PrePrints as they wish, without needing to take out a paid PeerJ publication plan.
Some examples of the diversity of PeerJ PrePrint adoption:
Thousands of views: https://peerj.com/preprints/16/ , https://peerj.com/preprints/1/
Multiple Revisions: https://peerj.com/preprints/50/ , https://peerj.com/preprints/72/
Gone on to be published in PeerJ: https://peerj.com/preprints/54/ , https://peerj.com/preprints/72/ , https://peerj.com/preprints/79/
Received strong ‘review level’ feedback: https://peerj.com/preprints/67/ , https://peerj.com/preprints/11/
Published by ‘citizen scientists’: https://peerj.com/preprints/57/
Used to circumvent the US Government Shutdown: https://peerj.com/preprints/79/ , See: http://blog.peerj.com/post/63718155224/
Conferences using PeerJ PrePrints: https://peerj.com/collections/3-whale-shark-conference-2013/ , https://peerj.com/collections/4-incob-2013/
