Quantum – Open journal for quantum science | Hacker News Reader

Quantum – Open journal for quantum science

quantum-journal.org

45 pointsmathgenius6 comments

Very excited to see this because it is a big step in a community (quantum computing/info) taking control back of the peer review process from for-profit (and to a smaller degree non-profit society-based) journals. The challenge will be in how the larger cs/physics community sees it, but I don't think you can figure that out without trying.

I had some difficulty finding anything about Quantum that wasn't from their web site. For example, I had no idea whether or not it's a legitimate, or a vanity, journal. (I am not a physicist, so looking at authors' names is no use to me.)

A bit of DDG'ing turned up the Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/quantumjournal , which had a broken link to a Physics Today article (https://www.reddit.com/r/quantumjournal/comments/5c3zzb/arti...) that I think was supposed to point to http://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.5.2050/full .

This is my field. The editors and steering committee members are very respectable and have set a new standard for transparency in founding a journal. If you select "Top posts"/"all time" on the subreddit, you can see them do their best to gather feedback from the (very fractured) community.

"Code of conduct for Quantum?"

"Should Quantum accept all correct papers or judge for quality?"

"Terms and conditions of Quantum. Feedback appreciated!"

"Should open data be a requirement for publication in Quantum?"

https://www.reddit.com/r/quantumjournal/top/?sort=top&t=all

The second one, in particular, is worth reading through.

https://www.reddit.com/r/quantumjournal/comments/50lucs/shou...

The publication fee ($215) is optional and far-and-away the lowest among open-access quantum info journals (all others > $1k).

http://imgur.com/a/Mf86p

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100919693768184&se...

ArXiv overlay journals are a very promising idea, but they have been slow to develop. Watching all the work that went into launching Quantum gave me a new appreciation for how hard this is. Time will tell whether it succeeds as a journal and, more importantly, actually has an impact on the journal ecosystem. But it's definitely a valiant attempt.

Thank you for this very detailed response and roadmap to evaluating the journal. I was hoping to get a response from someone who could speak from a position of expertise, and, as usual, HN delivers.

I am not a physicist either, but I've been studying QM as a hobby for almost thirty years. I took a quick look and didn't see anything to set off my bogometer. I wouldn't bet my entire life savings on it, but it seems legit to me.

Hey, that's my PhD advisor on the steering board!

So clearly it must be legit :)

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