platforms that work and cost little

["Julian Fisher, MD" <fisher@scholarlyexchange.org>]

An open source publishing platform (OJS) in use by over 800 
journals (a reasonable estimate by PKP itself - not all journals 
use the software exactly as it comes "out of the box") implies 
stability and usability, to respond to Anthony Watkinson's 
concerns. For these same reasons, Scholarly Exchange chose it as 
its initial publishing platform and has plans to include other 
options as they mature.  Three of our board of directors have had 
extensive experience developing applications of this sort, and 
all three have confidence in several of the newly emerging and 
fully featured reviewing-and-publishing platforms.  Why 
commercial publishers do not is inexplicable.

While some of the journals that SE supports are start-ups, others 
have a longer history and are in the process of converting a 
large quantity of back issues.  One new journal received so much 
attention that a commercial publisher already tried to buy it and 
lock it behind a financial firewall, a move the editor rejected 
summarily.

The no-risk approach to starting a journal has appealed to a both 
universities and learned societies, including Monterey Institute, 
Harvard University, McGill University, North Carolina State 
University, Kaduna State University (Nigeria), Universidad 
Complutense de Madrid, Universidad de Murcia, Liverpool John 
Moores University and the International Society for Disease 
Surveillance.  We applaud their innovative and independent spirit 
and hope to help others pursue this ultra-low-cost path to Open 
Access publishing.

Julian Fisher, MD
Managing Director
Scholarly Exchange, Inc., a 501 (c) 3 public charity