New open access journal in Evolutionary Biology

Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 | Publishing, Science

I received some word about an upcoming open access journal called Trends in Evolutionary Biology.

I have to confess that by the journal’s name and cover design I initially thought, with excitement, that it was a new open access experiment by Cell Press, publisher of the high-end and successful family of “Trends” journals. I was particularly intrigued since Cell Press already publishes Trends in Ecology and Evolution or TREE as it is called inside the cool geek¹ circle of evolutionary biologists.

It turns out to be a journal published by PAGEPress, located in Pavian, Italy. PAGEPress seem to be starting a whole series of titles in medicine and biology.

The journal description is a little odd though:

Trends in Evolutionary Biology is a new Open Access journal concerned with the origin of species from a common descent and descent of species, as well as their modifcation[sic], multiplication and diversity over time.

I also feel that they tried too hard in their scope description to include the term molecular as a selling factor (no pun intended):

Trends in Evolutionary Biology is a new, Open Access, international peer-reviewed journal that considers articles about all aspects of molecular and non-molecular evolution of all organisms.

Odd wording aside, it is still too early to asses this publication since they are still on the initial editor building phase. But, as an open access project, it is worth keeping an eye on its development and give the journal the benefit of the doubt.