Thank you Franck. What you are describing is normal business practice. In ordinary everyday terms, businesses of all kinds often start out with below-cost pricing (introductory special offers for example), in order to attract customers, then raise prices. When average people sell their homes or other goods, the default is to seek market value (the most I can get for this), rather than cost-based pricing.
MDPI's transparency may be helpful to those wishing to support the APC approach (publishers and payers), as it gives us an opening to talk about an inherent conflict that might cause shock and setbacks, giving an opportunity to prepare and consider strategies to minimize or avoid the likelihood of this happening. The inherent conflict stems from the desire of for-profit publishers to derive the maximum value from their work, in contrast to the cost-conscious, accountability focused customer (universities and funding agencies). In subscriptions publishing for many decades there has been an inelastic market, with publishers expecting to raise prices beyond inflationary rates year after year while university-customers do not have corresponding revenue growth to support this. In North America in the last few decades the trend has been flat or declining budgets. Hence the serials crisis, periodic breakdown such as Germany's Elsevier cancellations and France's Springer cancellations, and strong desire to change the system which is one of the drivers behind the OA movement, although not a motive shared by all. What could easily happen is that those who wish to support a flip to OA via APCs will under-budget based on current spend and/or current list prices, resulting in shock and insufficient funds when publishers move to pricing more accurately reflecting costs and/or market value. Another way to express this: when your library has to deal with budget cuts, or, at best, a flat budget (typical in North America), you are not likely to have much sympathy for a publisher raising prices by 27%, regardless of how rational this might be as a business practice. This is what I mean in that Publications article when I describe the APC model as volatile. The market, in my opinion, is not sufficiently stable for systemic budgeting purposes. Support for this approach should be considered experimental at this time. There are other approaches to supply-side funding to provide for open access, such as sponsorships, library publishing, and cost-based APC pricing as practiced by UK-based Ubiquity Press. Those who wish to support APCs, in my opinion, are wise to do so through consortia. Hence my interest in your partnership with Knowledge Unmatched. best, Heather Morrison sustainingknowledgecommons.org -------- Original message -------- From: "Dr. Franck Vazquez | CEO | MDPI" <vazq...@mdpi.com> Date: 2018-04-17 6:10 AM (GMT-05:00) To: Heather Morrison <heather.morri...@uottawa.ca>, scholc...@lists.ala.org, "Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci)" <goal@eprints.org> Subject: Re: [SCHOLCOMM] Recent APC price changes for 4 publishers (BMC, Hindawi, PLOS, PeerJ) Thanks Heather, I am glad you had a good experience publishing in /Publications/ (and /Data/)! Our decision to introduce or increase the APC of a journal depends on many factors including the field of research, the reputation (visibility,citation, indexing), and volume (=age) of the journal. It is not always possible to cover the cost of our work directly and from the beginning. The newest journals are free for a few years, typically three years; researchers would not be able to raise funding to cover the APC of these journals. Also, some journals which support research fields in which OA funding remains marginal do not introduce an APC, even after Volume 6 or more, as it is the case for the journals /Publications/, /Arts/, or a few others. Therefore the costs associated with publishing in these journals must be subsided by the APC of established journals. The "average 27.3% APC increase for 40 journals" we talk about here results in a mild increase in the average APC of these journals. Average increase is 219 CHF, from 802 CHF in 2017 to 1020 CHF in 2018 for these 40 titles. This is on the lower end of APC distribution for international publishers: https://treemaps.intact-project.org/apcdata/openapc/#publisher/ Concerning the planned increase in July: Eight journals which were accepted for coverage in SCIE in November will have their APC increased, following the reasoning explained before. As usual we give a >6 months notice to authors before the APC increase becomes effective. About the partnership with Knowledge Unlatched: We are running this as a trial for 9 journals which normally apply the indicated APC. We are exploring this funding model as a viable alternative for our HSS journals. For transparency reasons and to give credit to KU for their initiative, we decided to list the APC on the website with the note "* free for authors; APC funded by Knowledge Unlatched" rather than erasing the APC from the website. Best wishes Franck Franck Vazquez, Ph.D Chief Executive Officer, MDPI St. Alban-Anlage 66, 4052 Basel, Switzerland Tel. +41 61 683 77 34 http://www.mdpi.com -- http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7967-3798 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Franck_Vazquez https://www.linkedin.com/in/franck-vazquez-932a96a8/ On 16.04.18 16:57, Heather Morrison wrote: > Thank you Franck this is very helpful. > > > According to this website, the current inflation rate for Switzerland is > .8, i.e. less than one per cent: > > https://tradingeconomics.com/switzerland/consumer-price-index-cpi > > > I see that a quarter of MDPI's journals have an average price increase > of 27.3%. It appears that MDPI is not making decisions about price > increases based on such factors as consumer price increase or inflation > rates. > > > List members who are interested in supporting OA through paying APCs > could benefit from understanding how this works in order to budget for > future needs. Can you explain MDPI's current and/or projected future > pricing strategy? > > > MDPI is one of the publishers who offers "free for now" publishing in > order to attract content for new journals. As an author, I have > benefited from this as well as from MDPI's high quality professional > editing and peer review. However, if those who pay APCs do not take this > practice into account, they will find themselves short of funds in > future when established journals start charging APCs, as 10% of MDPI's > journals did this year by your account. > > > Two other notes / questions from MDPI for this year that I wonder if you > would like to comment on? > > > * new pricing coming in July > * partnership with Knowledge Unlatched - on MDPI's APC price list that > some journals are > "* free for authors; APC funded by Knowledge Unlatched > <http://www.knowledgeunlatched.org>" from: http://www.mdpi.com/about/apc > > > best, > > > Heather Morrison > > Associate Professor, School of Information Studies, University of Ottawa > > Professeur Agrégé, École des Sciences de l'Information, Université d'Ottawa > > heather.morri...@uottawa.ca > > https://sustainingknowledgecommons.org > > https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/?lang=en#/members/706 > > > PS: if CHF is not your local currency, you can find both current and > historical conversion rates through XE currency converter: > https://www.xe.com/currencytables/ > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > *From:* scholcomm-requ...@lists.ala.org > <scholcomm-requ...@lists.ala.org> on behalf of Dr. Franck Vazquez | CEO > | MDPI <vazq...@mdpi.com> > *Sent:* Monday, April 16, 2018 10:02 AM > *To:* scholc...@lists.ala.org; Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci) > *Subject:* Re: [SCHOLCOMM] Recent APC price changes for 4 publishers > (BMC, Hindawi, PLOS, PeerJ) > > Adding up the data summary for MDPI to the picture: > > •164 journals with numeric data in 2017 (average APC 438CHF) and 2018 > (average APC 533CHF) > •107 journals (65.2%) with no change in APC, including 40 journals free > (average APC 375CHF) > •40 journals (24.3%) with APC increase of 6% - 142% (increase range from > 100 – 500CHF; average APC increase 219CHF; average percent increase 27.3%) > •17 journals (10.3%) free in 2017, introduced APC in 2018 > (250CHF-550CHF; average APC 370CHF) > > Original data can be found here: > http://www.mdpi.com/about/apc > http://www.mdpi.com/about/apc-2017 > > Some Publishers and Journals statistics can also be found here: > https://www.scilit.net/rankings > Please read the "Disclaimer & Notes". > > Hoping this is useful, > Best wishes, > Franck > > Franck Vazquez, Ph.D > Chief Executive Officer, MDPI > St. Alban-Anlage 66, 4052 Basel, Switzerland > Tel. +41 61 683 77 34 > http://www.mdpi.com > -- > http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7967-3798 > https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Franck_Vazquez > https://www.linkedin.com/in/franck-vazquez-932a96a8/ > > > On 13.04.18 18:14, Heather Morrison wrote: >> Following is a summary of recent APC changes for 4 publishers, prepared >> on request but posted in case this might be of interest to anyone else. >> In brief, each publisher appears to be following a different pricing >> strategy ranging from flat pricing over many years with one rare >> exception, to a tenfold increase from 2016 – 2017. >> >> >> *BioMedCentral*: mixed picture >> >> • 269 journals with numeric data 2017 and 2018 (April 4 sampling date >> both years) >> • 20 with price increases of 2% – 83% (30 – 620 GBP) >> • 5 with price decreases of 1% – 15% (15 – 205 GBP) >> • Of interest: 25 journals with no publication fee (appears to be >> society / university sponsorship) >> • Of concern: 44 journals with “title not found”: some will reflect >> earlier title drop >> >> >> *Hindawi *April 2016 – November 2017: mixed picture, price increases a >> bit concerning >> >> • 281 journals with numeric data for 2016 and 2017 (including 0 = free >> for now*) >> • 99 journals have price increases ranging from 14 – 108% (100% = price >> has doubled), increases of 250 – 650 USD >> • 115 journals have no change in pricing >> • 45 journals have price decreases of 6 – 25%, 50 – 100 USD >> • Of interest: 230 Predecessor journals (ISRN series): good practice >> • Of concern: 186 title not found (not limited to 2017), excluding >> predecessor >> >> *Rotating free journals: 5 of the 281 journals were free in 2016; 1 is >> still free, the other 4 have APCs of 1250 – 1750 USD. 17 journals that >> had an APC in 2016 were free in 2017. Paul Peters sent an e-mail >> explaining this strategy a few years ago. >> >> >> *PLOS ONE*: flat pricing with one exception >> From 2014 – 2018, there has been only one price change for PLOS >> journals: PLOS ONE was $1,350 USD in 2014 and is $1,495 USD today. The >> sample date was December 2017, a visual scan confirms the same prices >> are in effect as of April 13, 2018. >> >> >> *PeerJ*: tenfold price increase from 2016 – 2017 (99 USD – 1,095 USD); >> new journal PeerJ Computer Science is 895 USD. >> >> See also yesterday’s post >> >> >> Frontiers: 40% of journals have price increases from 18 – 31% >> <https://sustainingknowledgecommons.org/2018/04/12/frontiers-40-journals-have-apc-increases-of-18-31-from-2017-to-2018/>. > >> >> >> >> Blog post link (text is the same): >> >> >> https://sustainingknowledgecommons.org/2018/04/13/recent-apc-price-changes-for-4-publishers-bmc-hindawi-plos-peerj/ >> >> >> best, >> >> >> Heather Morrison >> >> Associate Professor, School of Information Studies, University of Ottawa >> >> Professeur Agrégé, École des Sciences de l'Information, Université d'Ottawa >> >> heather.morri...@uottawa.ca >> >> https://sustainingknowledgecommons.org >> >> https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/?lang=en#/members/706 >>
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