Polar Research

Polar Research, the international, English language scientific journal of The Norwegian Polar Institute, has issued a request for tenders in order to enter a contract with an Open Access publisher for publishing the journal from January 1st 2011. The contract will be for 36 months with an option for another 36 months. Polar Research is currently published by Wiley-Blackwell as a TA journal. In 2011 the journal will be financed through institutional support and commercial income. Article processing charges may be introduced at a later stage. As a part of the TA to OA transition, printed copies will be discontinued.

As far as we know, no journal has invited publishers to compete for a contract the way Polar Research is doing. It will be interesting to see what the outcome will be.