Nature, Whiskey and me

In my earlier post on Megajournals I hinted that I felt that there could be a future in which this business model provided sufficient funds to allow a publishing house like NPG to make it’s flagship journal Nature an open access journal.

This topic came up late one evening at coasp and I ended up making a bet with Matias Piipari. I bet that within 10 years Nature would become a fully open access journal. I win three fine bottles of scotch. The date that the bet matures on Wed Sep 22, 2021. I’ve just sent the following message to the Editor in Chief at Nature:

Subject: Scientific Reports, Nature, Open Access and a future of fine whiskey.

Dear Dr. Campbell,

I am writing to congratulate you on the recent launch of Scientific Reports. 
I had the pleasure to see Sara Grimme give an excellent overview of the genesis 
of the title at the recent COSAP conference on open access publishing 
(http://www.oaspa.org/coasp/).

During the course of the event a discussion arose on the potential future 
impact of the Megajournal on top tier titles such as Nature. I professed hope 
that a vehicle such as Scientific Reports could grow in time to support a 
business model in which Nature itself could be run as an open access journal.

There was some disagreement on my prediction, the outcome of which is that 
I now have a standing bet with Matias Piipari. If Nature becomes Open Access 
on or before Wed Sep 22, 2021, ten years from now, I will win three fine bottles 
of scotch.

I will continue to keep an interested eye on the development of Scientific Reports 
and I wish Nature Publishing Group the best of luck with it.

Sincerely yours,

- Ian Mulvany