Academic publisher PeerJ Inc. and PeerJ PrePrints (a preprint server) have announced the first four universities to enter into an institutional arrangement to centrally fund PeerJ membership fees for their faculty.
Universities who have already entered into these arrangements for their faculty include Duke University, the University of Nottingham (UK), the University of Birmingham (UK), and Arizona State University.
PeerJ emphasises research integrity; high ethical standards; constructive peer-review; exemplary production quality; and leading edge online functionality. The journal is indexed by PubMed, PubMed Central (PMC), Scopus and Google Scholar. There is an Editorial Board of over 800 world class researchers, and a 20-member Advisory Board which includes 5 Nobel Laureates. In addition, PeerJ members benefit from the ability to publish articles in PeerJ PrePrints.
Institutions can choose to purchase individual memberships for their authors in advance (and distribute them as they choose), or they can pre-pay for memberships which are then used by their faculty as and when they come to publish at PeerJ. Both options allow an institution to provide an Open Access option to a large number of their authors, in a cost effective way.
