Very true, Jean-Claude. It is the sole value of the subscription publishing industry is that it does not cost the author or his/her institution anything. Cost burdens are pushed on those who can pay (but have second-order interest in paying). Institutional presses and professional societies address this situation differently, with subsidies.
I believe that Gold journals will behave like page-charge journals always have: make exemptions for authors and countries that are impecunious. This does not distort the market too much. The market is less that of journals competing for author copy, but more of authors seeking value for money in journal dissemination. But, of course, we arent there yet. I decline to extend this discussion to objective measures of journal quality such as JIF, SJR, SNIP or Eigenvector. Best wishes Arthur Sale University of Tasmania From: goal-boun...@eprints.org [mailto:goal-boun...@eprints.org] On Behalf Of Jean-Claude Guédon Sent: Monday, 7 October 2013 6:08 AM To: goal@eprints.org Subject: [GOAL] Re: Scholars jobs not publisher profits And the result of this "effective market" is that wealth will become an important factor in the determination of scientific prestige. In fact, this coupling of prestige and financing is exactly what the Grand Conversation of science should never accept or accommodate. If, moreover, you measure prestige through impact factors, you sink into a completely absurd world. There is a French song that would fit this scenario perfectly: "Tout va très bien, Madame la Marquise..." Jean-Claude Guédon Le dimanche 06 octobre 2013 à 08:28 +1100, Arthur Sale a écrit : I fully agree Sally. Where there is an APC for fully Gold journals (or free which is simply a limiting case) in a fully Gold publication industry, the normal economic processes will kick in to make an effective market. They dont with institutional subscription journals where the payers are non-beneficiaries, or only at second remove. Arthur Sale University of Tasmania From: goal-boun...@eprints.org [mailto:goal-boun...@eprints.org] On Behalf Of Sally Morris Sent: Sunday, 6 October 2013 5:12 AM To: 'Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci)' Subject: [GOAL] Re: Scholars jobs not publisher profits Dear Heather The point I was trying to make is that - unlike with subscriptions - there is a direct connection between the person who benefits from the value offered (the author) and the publisher. Thus the marketplace should operate normally. 'Profits' are not in themselves bad - they are what businesses (including nonprofits) need to keep going Sally Sally Morris South House, The Street, Clapham, Worthing, West Sussex, UK BN13 3UU Tel: +44 (0)1903 871286 Email: sa...@morris-assocs.demon.co.uk _____ From: goal-boun...@eprints.org [mailto:goal-boun...@eprints.org] On Behalf Of Heather Morrison Sent: 05 October 2013 17:48 To: Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci) Cc: Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci) Subject: [GOAL] Re: Scholars jobs not publisher profits There's nothing odd about companies wanting to profit off of the work of others. What is unusual about scholarly publishing is that the costs are not connected with the impact of the costs in an obvious way. For example it would be most surprising if, at the University of Alberta, discussions about the deep cuts and the need to cut academic programs and jobs occurred at the same meetings where people at the university need to figure out how to pay even more for the big deals of publishers already enjoying 30-40% profit margins in an inelastic market where the deep cuts to their authors, reviewers, and customers have no impact on their bottom line. The situation for universities today really is difficult. That is why I am working to help us all connect the dots. If a university is looking for voluntary severance from faculty members while at the same time paying even more above inflationary cost increases to publishers with high profit margins, that is wrong and needs to stop. Many not-for-profit publishers never did gouge universities. At one time, Sally, you were the Executive Director of the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers, and represented the interests of this group. best, Heather Morrison On 2013-10-05, at 11:25 AM, "Sally Morris" <sa...@morris-assocs.demon.co.uk> wrote: Many of you have argued that Gold OA - at last - creates a genuine marketplace between publishers and authors. In any marketplace, sellers price according to what they consider their offer is worth to buyers. Some journals are worth more than others to authors (indeed, publishers generally follow this principle when pricing subscriptions - I don't know of any publishers who price all their subscription journals the same). So what's odd about it? Sally Sally Morris South House, The Street, Clapham, Worthing, West Sussex, UK BN13 3UU Tel: +44 (0)1903 871286 Email: sa...@morris-assocs.demon.co.uk _____ From: goal-boun...@eprints.org [mailto:goal-boun...@eprints.org] On Behalf Of Dana Roth Sent: 04 October 2013 20:00 To: 'Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci)' Subject: [GOAL] Re: Scholars jobs not publisher profits In defense of Jeffrey Beall the extreme variability of Hindawis APCs is, at the least, interesting especially the large number of free and relatively low priced APCs for many of their journals. http://www.hindawi.com/apc/ Dana L. Roth Caltech Library 1-32 1200 E. California Blvd. Pasadena, CA 91125 626-395-6423 fax 626-792-7540 dzr...@library.caltech.edu http://library.caltech.edu/collections/chemistry.htm From: goal-boun...@eprints.org [mailto:goal-boun...@eprints.org] On Behalf Of David Prosser Sent: Friday, October 04, 2013 1:27 AM To: Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci) Subject: [GOAL] Re: Scholars jobs not publisher profits Jeffrey "Ignoratio elenchi"? That's from Harry Potter, right? Spell meaning 'facts be gone'? Heather is interested in the flow of money out of academia. If that is your area of interest then the profit margins of large commercial, legacy publishers are clearly of more interest than the profit margins of other players. From the figures I quote (from your blog), Hindawi takes $300 of profit from each paper it publishers. A large commercial, legacy publisher takes about $1200*. From where I sit (and I admit my knowledge of economics is almost as bad as that of Latin) it is clear that $1200 per paper is a significantly larger amount than $300 per paper and there is no way the figures back up your contention that 'It appears that the money is just moving from one set of publishers to another.' David *My conservative guess - happy to have people with access to the figures correct this. It's basically 30% of $4000 On 3 Oct 2013, at 23:04, Beall, Jeffrey wrote: David, Thank you for your ignoratio elenchi. --Jeffrey From: goal-boun...@eprints.org [mailto:goal-boun...@eprints.org] On Behalf Of David Prosser Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2013 3:03 PM To: Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci) Subject: [GOAL] Re: Scholars jobs not publisher profits Jeffrey in the comment section to your post Ahmed Hindawi points out that the average revenue per paper published by Hindawi is about $600. For people like Elsevier it is in excess of $4000 per paper. I think it is clear which publisher is taking (significantly) more money out of the system. David On 3 Oct 2013, at 20:31, Beall, Jeffrey wrote: Heather: Ive documented <http://scholarlyoa.com/2013/04/04/hindawis-profits-are-larger-than-elsevier s/> that Hindawis profit margin is higher than Elseviers. So, I am correct in assuming that you include Hindawi in your advice below, no? Also, its been revealed that a number of the higher ups at PLOS are drawing salaries of over a quarter-million dollars a year, and one was even drawing a salary of over a half-million dollars. It appears that the money is just moving from one set of publishers to another. Thanks, Jeffrey Beall From: goal-boun...@eprints.org [mailto:goal-boun...@eprints.org] On Behalf Of Heather Morrison Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2013 11:43 AM To: Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci) Subject: [GOAL] Scholars jobs not publisher profits My reaction to the EBSCO report on expected ongoing high price increases by some in the scholarly publishing sector at the same time that academics at my alma mater have been asked to consider voluntary severance has been posted to my blog: http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.ca/2013/10/scholars-lets-keep-our-jobs-and-d itch.html My conclusion: It is time for scholars, university administrators and research funders to wake up and realize that creation of new knowledge is done by researchers, not publishers. Don't give up your job or or let your colleagues give up theirs without demanding that the large commercial scholarly publishers give up their 30-40% profit margins. best, -- Dr. Heather Morrison Assistant Professor École des sciences de l'information / School of Information Studies University of Ottawa http://www.sis.uottawa.ca/faculty/hmorrison.html heather.morri...@uottawa.ca ALA Accreditation site visit scheduled for 30 Sept-1 Oct 2013 / Visite du comité externe pour l'accréditation par l'ALA est prévu le 30 sept-1 oct 2013 http://www.sis.uottawa.ca/accreditation.html http://www.esi.uottawa.ca/accreditation.html <ATT00001..txt> <ATT00001..txt> _______________________________________________ GOAL mailing list GOAL@eprints.org http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/goal _______________________________________________ GOAL mailing list GOAL@eprints.org http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/goal -- Jean-Claude Guédon Professeur titulaire Littérature comparée Université de Montréal
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