Mega journal

A mega journal (also mega-journal and megajournal) is a peer-reviewed academic open access journal designed to be much larger than a traditional journal by exercising low selectivity among accepted articles. It was pioneered by PLOS ONE.^[1][2] This "very lucrative publishing model"^[2] was soon emulated by other publishers.

Definition

A mega journal has the following defining characteristics:

• broad coverage of different subject areas;^{[1][2][3][4][5]}
• accepting articles for publication based on whether they are technically sound rather than selecting for perceived importance;^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]} and
• using article processing charges to cover the costs of publishing,^[1][3][5] although it is also possible for a mega journal to function as a non-profit (one example is Open Library of Humanities).

Other less universal characteristics are

• "an accelerated review and publication process",^[2] "fast turnaround time";^[6]
• "academic editors",^[6] even "a large editorial board of academic editors",^[5] (instead of professional editors); and
• value-added services such as reusable graphics and data through Creative Commons licenses.^[7]

Mega journals are also online-only, with no printed version, and are fully open access, in contrast to hybrid open access journals.^[7] Some "predatory" open access publishers use the mega journal model.^[1]

Influence

It has been suggested that the academic journal landscape might become dominated by a few mega journals in the future, at least in terms of total number of articles published.^[8] Mega journals shift the publishing industry's funding standard from the subscription-based model common to traditional closed access publications to article processing charges.^[9] Their business model may not motivate reviewers, who donate their time to "influence their field, gain exposure to the most current cutting edge research or list their service to a prestigious journal on their CVs."^[10] Finally, they may no longer serve as "fora for the exchange ... among colleagues in a particular field or sub-field", as traditionally happened in scholarly journals.^[11] To counter that indiscrimination, PLOS ONE, the prototypical megajournal, has started to "package relevant articles into subject-specific collections."^[12]

List of mega journals

• PLOS ONE^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][13][14][15][16][17]}
• ACS Omega^[18]
• Scientific Reports^{[2][3][5][6][15][17][19]}
• SAGE Open^{[3][4][5][15][17][19]}
• Royal Society Open Science^[a]
• BMJ Open^{[2][3][5][15][17]}
• PeerJ^{[2][4][5][13][14]}
• Medicine (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins journal)^{[21][22][23][24]}
• Biology Open^[5][6][17]
• IEEE Access^[5][25][b]
• FEBS Open Bio^[5][6]
• AIP Advances^[5][17]
• G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics^[5][17]
• Open Library of Humanities^[c]
• De Gruyter Open imprint^[d]
• Heliyon (Elsevier)^[e]
• IET The Journal of Engineering^[f]

Notes

1. Self-declared:^[20]
2. Self-declared:^[26]
3. Self-declared:^[27]
4. Self-declared:^[28]
5. Self-declared:^[29]
6. Self-declared:^[30]