Public Library of Science (PLoS) journals are high-impact, on-line scientific journals. Has the VCU library considered to become a PLoS institutional member? Becoming one, faculty at VCU would be able to publish scientific articles with a discount. Currently, non-members pay between $1300-2850 per article which with institutional discount would be significantly lower. Perhaps you could find out how much it would cost and what the discount rate would be?
From: a faculty member

Lynne Turman, TML Collections Librarian, replies...
New models of scholarly publishing are emerging in response to the escalating prices of traditional journals and the pressure on budgets of academic libraries. Public Library of Science (PLoS) is an example of an Open Access (OA) publisher whose business model relies on author publication fees and other support to make medical and scientific literature freely available to the public. Institutional memberships in PLoS provide a 10 percent discount on publication fees for affiliated authors. Costs for such a membership are based on the number of articles published in PLoS journals and the number of articles in PubMed from a particular institution. It is estimated that a membership for VCU Libraries would be in the range of $2000 - $3500 per year.

Although we do not currently have a membership to PLoS, VCU Libraries is a Supporting Member in BioMed Central, another pioneering OA publisher, and a founding member of SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition. VCU authors who publish in BioMed Central journals receive a 15 percent discount on author fees. VCU Libraries has considered PLoS membership but has decided not to subscribe for the time being as we evaluate the impact of BioMed Central and other experiences in OA. In the future we may be able to consider expanding support for VCU authors through programs such as PLoS if it is determined that the costs provide significant incentives and benefits to our faculty.

For more information on scholarly communication issues such as OA, journal pricing, and author rights, visit the VCU Libraries Copyright and Publishing website. Thank you for contacting us with your comments regarding PLoS.