Nature launches online-only journal

The Nature publishing team have just announced that they're making the leap into the world of online-only "Nature-branded" journals.

It'll be interesting to see how this news is received in the science world - especially with the talk of an "article processing charge" being one route to publication, and Creative Commons licensing being an option as well.

There is also some talk of "including interactive browsing and enhanced metadata" for readers, but I wonder if the interface will be as ambitious as Elsevier's recent "Article of the Future" initiative?

Nature Communications will be accepting submissions from October 2009 and the journal goes live online in April 2010. In the meantime, here are some of the most interesting points from the Nature press release:

Announcing Nature Communications — a multidisciplinary, online-only journal with an open-access option

• Nature Communications will publish high-quality peer-reviewed research across the biological, chemical and physical sciences, and will be the first online-only Nature-branded journal.
• “As a born-digital publication, Nature Communications will provide readers and authors with the benefits of enhanced web technologies alongside a rapid, yet rigorous, peer-review process.” says Sarah Greaves, Publisher of Nature Communications. “Nature Communications will offer authors high visibility for their papers on the nature.com platform, access to a broad readership and efficient peer review with fast publication. For readers, the journal will offer functionality including interactive browsing and enhanced metadata to enable sorting by keywords.”
• To ensure Nature Communications responds to changes in journal publishing, authors will be able to publish their work either via the traditional subscription route, or as open access through payment of an article processing charge (APC).
• Authors who choose the open-access option will be able to license their work under a Creative Commons license, including the option to allow derivative works. Authors who do not choose the open-access option will still enjoy all of the benefits of NPG’s self-archiving policy and manuscript deposition service.
• The journal will begin accepting submissions in October 2009, with the first issue published online in April 2010. More detail, including pricing, will be available ahead of launch. Institutional subscriptions will be priced to reflect the uptake of the APC — demonstrating NPG’s continuing commitments to author service alongside flexible publishing models and quality customer service.
• The Nature Communications editorial team will be based in NPG’s London office, and editorial enquiries should be sent to: natcomms@nature.com.