Thumbs Down for the Freemium Model? Researchers Reject Nature’s Fast Track Peer Review Experiment

A fast review process provides a competitive advantage for a journal, and the Nature Publishing Group (NPG) recently performed an experiment in outsourced, fast track peer review to try to address the problem. The unexpected consequence of this experiment exposed something else entirely: concern from the research community over tiered systems where wealthy authors are favored over those lacking funds. NPG launched a four-week trial in their megajournal Scientific Reports. The journal features a Gold open access (OA) business model, where accepted authors pay a $1,495 article processing charge (APC).