Salzberg, a University of Maryland scientist, is co-founder of a new online influenza journal through the Public Library of Science. Organizers hope that the Internet format will allow scientists to share information with each other — and the public — without a delay of weeks or months on the old peer review style of preparing journals.
What made you decide to get involved?
David Lipman in the [National Institutes of Health] should get the most credit. David and I started talking about it *** back in the spring, when the H1N1 was turning into a pandemic. The usual suspects — experts in influenza — were talking amongst themselves, and then there were some other scientists who were talking amongst themselves. But we discovered that there wasn’t a way to get these communications out into the open. Scientists want to get credit. But once a paper is accepted by a journal, it’s embargoed. There’s an inherent conflict there. This journal is an attempt to get around that.
How are other scientists responding to this?
Actually, the response has been remarkably good. I don’t know — I can’t even count how many papers we’ve gotten.
How have you and the team responded to the demands of quick edit?
We’ve been reviewing and accepting things within a day. But there’s about 30 moderators. I’ve only reviewed one. So it’s not too bad.
What’s the craziest submission?
There’s one that I shouldn’t even say. It was one that I laughed at. People were sending in things saying, “Here’s what the flu is.” And it was like on a high school level. There was one about influenza and diet. I think they were just making it up.
Can a layman understand what’s being published?
You can understand the title and the abstract, yes. Just go to our Web site (plos.org).
– Bill Myers
