Why LiveCoMS matters
2024-02-19
As more mainstream journals have started to adopt some of the practices followed by LiveCoMS, such as publishing tutorials or best practices articles, we have asked ourselves how our journal still stands out among the many choices authors have. There are really quite a few answers!
- True open access - for readers and authors. Plenty of journals now offer open access, but most often this requires an exorbitant fee. In the early days of LiveCoMS, we charged simply our own costs, $100 USD per article. Now having obtained some external support for publishing, there is zero cost. We are platinum open access.
- A truly independent, community-run journal. We’re an all-volunteer run journal, which is why our costs have been low from the beginning. No external interests dictate our decisions or policies.
- Tutorials, and so much more. Yes, we publish tutorials, which we pointed out early on are key for our field so developers can earn academic credit and users have reliable documentation. But we also publish more pedagogical Training articles, Best Practices, Lessons Learned, Software Analyses, and Perpetual Reviews.
- Updateability. Any article geared to using software or cutting-edge methods is bound to become at least somewhat outdated, often within months of publication. LiveCoMS lets authors update their work without having to worry about having copyright infringement with previously published articles that have been signed over to journals, and significant updates get refereed as new publications.
- The articles get attention. Citations and viewing statistics show that our articles, indexed in Google Scholar, have real impact.
- A journal for the whole community. Every article is peer-reviewed by a student or early-career scientist to ensure the widest possible impact.
