Cosmology has been crossing my transom. I've been getting press releases from the new online Journal of Cosmology. Below is a sample. They have a respectible team and, frankly, a kick-ass background image for their website (shown below).
And, they have a novel economic model-- a $35 submission fees, plus a $150 fee if published. Given most academic journals are free to submit but have fees upwards of $1000 to publish, it could be seen as a breakthrough in open journals. However, much as any writing gig that charges a submission fee, I am worried they are more focused on the cash than the science.
Your thoughts?
Alex
Tuesdays at The Satellite Diaries and Friday at The Daytime Astronomer (twitter @skyday)
The Origins of Life Explained:
We are Not Alone, and this is How Life Begins
A revolutionary series of discoveries ushers in a new paradigm in our understanding of how life began. In this month's issue of the online Journal of Cosmology, Dr. Michael Russell and colleagues, of NASA, JPL, and the California Institute of Technology, have detailed a bold new theory, supported by considerable evidence, demonstrating how life emerged in the tempestuous water-world that was our planet four billion years ago. In the same edition of the Journal of Cosmology, Dr. Russell's work receives near unanimous support from 12 independent scientists who report on the evolutionary stages taken by life, right from its emergence in a warm and bitter submarine spring spewing hydrogen-rich waters into a carbonated ocean, through the process of metabolism, onto the RNA world, to the first viruses, and bacteria to animals, humans and consciousness.
