New Open Access Journal: Physiologica
Physiologica, a new scientific journal run by scientists, just launched this September. Jakob Grunnet Knudsen has an editorial role in the new, open access physiology journal.
Jakob Grunnet Knudsen has been a speaker at different Danish Diabetes Academy events. He is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Biology at the University of Copenhagen. Now, he can also call himself Associate Editor of the brand new physiology journal, Physiologica. We asked him a few questions about it.
Where did the idea for Physiologica come from?
The idea emerged due to changes in the scientific publication world through recent years. We see the emergence of more open access journals with fast and easy publication processes led by professional editors. Therefore, The Scandinavian Physiological Society (SPS) suggested that it is time to create more journals managed and edited by scientists. The new journal Physiologica complement SPS’s journal Acta Physiologica and publish original, high quality research within physiology.
What is your role in Physiologica – and who were involved in starting the new journal?
I am associate editor in the field of metabolic physiology. It is editor in chief, Professor Fredrik Elinder from Linköping University, who has been driving the process. He developed the concept in collaboration with SPS, and together with several others, I was invited to contribute with my expertise.
Why was there a need for creating a new journal?
What is unique about journals like Physiologica is that they are run by a collective of researchers. Because of this, the research becomes the cornerstone of the journal. In a time where predatory journals and publishing houses tend to lower the quality of the published research, it is essential that we, the researchers, establish our own publishing platforms with high scientific integrity. Although there is a financial element when publishing scientific literature, it is very important that earnings is not the main goal. Rather, the aim should be to publish good and interesting research of the highest possible quality. The rising cost of publishing also favours researchers with large grants and a lot of money to spend on publication in high impact journals. This further distorts the distribution of funding to just a few individuals, which limits the breadth of research – which is essential for the way science develops.
Why should researchers choose Physiologica for publishing their finds?
At Physiologica, we prioritise publishing high quality physiology research from all over the world. For us, it is not the news value, but the discoveries and the quality of the data produced by the researchers that decide whether an article is published or not. We think the cost of publishing should be as low as possible, because then the researchers budgets can focus on the scientific work instead of publishing.
Physiologica is open for submission.