The digital era has brought incredible innovations in technology to every industry in the world, including academics. One of the most impactful changes has been in electronic publishing through things like mega-journals. These are scholarly journals on a totally different scale than what publishing used to look like.

Mega-journals are open access, which means they’re available publicly and paid for by the authors themselves. With so much information available to anyone looking for it, these publications have completely changed the way people access knowledge and, ultimately, how they use that knowledge and apply it to the real world.

The Evolution of Mega-Journals

Scientific journals have existed for centuries in printed forms, but they’ve only been available in limited quantities. Publishers have made a certain amount of copies and distributed them to academic libraries and those with subscriptions within their readership. The circulation of these copies was limited to audiences within their delivery range and those who had an interest in the field of the scope of the publishing company’s work.

With open access publication, this limited readership changed forever. Anyone can publish their findings in electronic format, but not all of those findings are legitimate. The scientific community needed a way to differentiate between reputable sources and misinformation, and the mega-journal was the answer to this problem.

Mega-journals meet those criteria because they have a peer review process that focuses solely on the trustworthiness of the science included in the research. These journals have a huge audience, publishing thousands of articles per year on a multitude of topics that don’t have to be limited to the scope of the publishing journal. Authors can search out digital publishers that include their field of research in their journal and pay for the privilege of having their work included on the site.

Since there aren’t limited publications allowed as there are in print journals, it’s easier to be accepted in a mega-journal publication. However, the studies must pass the strict peer-review process.

The Benefits of Mega-Journal Research

Mega-journals have opened the door to new avenues of scientific research. Articles published in these journals have already met the editorial’s criteria that they are scientifically sound, so readers are assured that if they’re published on the site, they are accurate. They may not have the criteria necessary to have made an impact or be deemed relevant to an important subject, but they are legitimate.

Articles published in mega-journals are also able to cover a wide range of topics, whereas print publications were limited in their scopes. Because of this advantage, it’s easier for those searching out information in an area to become more knowledgeable about their topic and for scholars publishing in an area to get their work out to a wider audience.

Mega-journal publications are also easier to run, with academic editors taking over the place of typical professional editors, so they can choose which articles to publish based on accuracy determined through peer-review.

Some mega-journal publishers offer hybrid services still, allowing for open access publication but also publishing work of high quality and scientific rigor in their printed journals.

Using Mega-Journals in Scientific Discourse

The ease of accessing information on scientific topics has shifted discourse in many academic courses. Because it’s so simple to access answers to inquiries at the touch of a button, those who are engaging in scientific discourse, be it in the classroom or a research facility, can quickly get the information they need to continue on with the conversation or experiment.

This often immediate answering has sped up the ability for researchers to complete their experiments in less time than they would have taken tracking down relevant resources on their topic, waiting for print publications to be available, and scouring the books for the answers they need.

Mega-journals have shifted the way researchers approach their work in ways that have impacted scholarly discourse and the ability to continue searching for creative and innovative approaches to science.

Impactio Eases Your Work into Publication

As a researcher, your ultimate goal is to get your work into the hands of your audience, however you feel is the right way to get published. Whether you’re looking for a print journal or open access publishing through a mega-journal, the first step once your work is done is to get your information into digital format through a program like Impactio.

Impactio was designed for scholars, so you can also watch your work once it is published and follow the citation indicators to see the impact you made. Everything you need to publish your findings, connect with other experts in the Impactio network around the world, and more is all available through Impactio.