New research journals are needed and can compete with titans

Abstract

This editorial marks the starting point for a new journal, Temperature. This latest addition to the Landes Bioscience collection of research journals will be a multidisciplinary publication focused on the interactions between living matter and temperature. The first question, however, that the reader is likely to have is not about the journal’s thematic boundaries. The first question is likely to be: “Why do we need another journal?” The News section of Science recently published a report about a bogus “research article,” which was intentionally packed with deep flaws and then submitted to many new open-access journals; 150 of them rapidly accepted this “piece of wisdom.” At first, you may be surprised that so many journals are willing to publish junk, but your surprise will fade away rather quickly when you recollect how many e-mail messages you deleted today that contained an invitation to publish in a new online journal founded by some fairytale magician in a beautiful land far, far away. Don’t we already have many (perhaps too many) high-quality, well-established research journals run by authoritative academic societies and published by reputable companies? Surely, they can satisfy any publishing need imaginable for every scientist who dares to write something! And so I thought too—initially. But as I thought more, I realized that not all my publishing needs, however modest they may be, are readily met by the good old journals. This editorial will address one feature that is missing from nearly all large journals, at least for people interested in temperature.