We give credit to any old-school publisher of paper journals trying to find a new business model for their peer-reviewed journal business. With the growing popularity and easy acceptance of online, open-source journals like Public Library of Science’s (PLoS), some journal publishers are looking for new ways to keep their business going.

After all, the journal business relies on a group of unpaid, volunteer reviewers to review studies submitted to them. There’s no money involved in reviewing journals. The only money that’s needed is to publish the dead-tree journal every month. Because paper costs serious money (as does the mailing of the same).

Once you transplant most of that process online, there’s very little money needed. Just some administrative overhead, some hosting bills, some web development bills, but most of which pale to paper costs.

So that’s why we’re not put off by Elsevier’s experiment to help fund their journal business (NY Times, free reg req’d) through, what else? online ads:

But now Reed Elsevier, which publishes more than 400 medical and scientific journals, is trying an experiment that stands this model on its head. Over the weekend it introduced a Web portal, www.OncologySTAT.com, that gives doctors free access to the latest articles from 100 of its own pricey medical journals and that plans to sell advertisements against the content.

Will it work? Who knows… But it’s better than having to close down the less profitable journals (which publishers often do when they start losing money), and losing those valuable research outlets.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 11 Sep 2007
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.