Academic publisher Versita launched a new program of 100 Open Access emerging science journals, to debut in 2012. Publication will begin in May, Maria Hrynkiewicz, Versita marketing coordinator, told LJ. “As with many Open Access publications the journals will not appear in issues, but will be published on an ongoing basis,” Hrynkiewicz said. The program's focus is on young and rapidly developing fields in life sciences, chemistry, medicine, physics and mathematics, which have not yet been covered by a designated journal. Versita is not planning to charge any publication fees for the first two years. The price after the two years are up has not yet been determined, but “APC will be well within the industry standards,” said Hrynkiewicz. “ We believe that starting this publishing program in open access format will facilitate dissemination of the latest research results, making the journals the primary publishing options and default communication hubs for authors writing in these scientific areas.” Jacek Ciesielski, founder and CEO of Versita, said in a statement. Members of the editorial boards of the journals include Sir Harold Kroto, a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry; Medicine or Physiology Nobel winner Prof. Jules A. Hoffmann; and chemist Didier Astruc. Editors come from Harvard University, University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of Cambridge, and the Max Planck Institute. The new journals will join the nearly 200 scholarly journals already hosted on Versita’s Open Access platform, which launched in 2010. Versita Open is covered by abstracting databases, PubMed, and Thomson Scientific. Content is distributed to libraries through MetaPress. Versita, which also publishes subscription-model journals, was purchased by De Gruyter earlier this year, as LJ reported.

After that the price has not been determined, but “APC will be well within the industry standards,” said Hrynkiewicz.