tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3467242881996852098.post4920230091320911443..comments2024-01-08T08:39:39.026-08:00Comments on The Open Source Paleontologist: The True Cost of Journal SubscriptionsAndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16171447306687358664noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3467242881996852098.post-70480108948708024712009-05-21T07:26:45.210-07:002009-05-21T07:26:45.210-07:00As a librarian, what I am more interested in more ...As a librarian, what I am more interested in more than cost per page is cost per article downloaded. And for publishers like Elsevier where we do subscribe to a bundle that usually works out at $2-$4 per article. Compare that with the cost of purchasing individual articles ($25 or more) and the sense of the 'big deal' speaks for itself. What is interesting is that a lot of the journals that our academic departments have subscribed to for years are poorly used, while many journals that they have never asked us to subscribe to (but that are now available through big deals) are really well used.<br /><br />Lower cost journals often fail to adhere to the modern publishing standards that we expect. OpenURL resolvers like SFX can deep link into them (if they exist online), they don't provide librarians with usage statistics, they are not archived for the long term in services like Portico.<br /><br />Nature charges a high fee for an institution-wide online subscription but its usage more than justifies the cost. Nature's business model is very different from most journals. They have high costs because they reject 95% of the articles submitted to them, and they employ large numbers of editors and journalists (rather than using editors who employed at universities).Terry Bucknellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10766691508224345941noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3467242881996852098.post-12937310860538326432009-05-20T05:33:37.329-07:002009-05-20T05:33:37.329-07:00Surely Nature can keep their journla chape at leas...Surely Nature can keep their journla chape at least in part becuase 1. They get huge advertising revenues and 2. they can sell a great many copies. You can even get Nature and Science in newsagents, and no science library in the world would not stock them. They must shift orders of magnitude more copies than say even a big journal like JVP let alone soemthing as specialist as Cretaceous Research. Thus they can keep page charges cheap and give better value for money. That's not to say your points are not vlaid, but soem journals can clearly shift the costs around in different ways than others.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3467242881996852098.post-87905173060080490802009-05-12T20:44:00.000-07:002009-05-12T20:44:00.000-07:00Thanks for the links!!! Very interesting.Thanks for the links!!! Very interesting.Andyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16171447306687358664noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3467242881996852098.post-66040034038103237072009-05-12T16:42:00.000-07:002009-05-12T16:42:00.000-07:00Related link:
http://www.eigenfactor.org/Related link:<br />http://www.eigenfactor.org/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3467242881996852098.post-51747625984538724192009-05-12T16:38:00.000-07:002009-05-12T16:38:00.000-07:00You might check out Carl Bergstrom's website on th...You might check out Carl Bergstrom's website on the economics of journal publishing:<br />http://octavia.zoology.washington.edu/publishing/publishing.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3467242881996852098.post-89432192025750660002009-05-08T08:23:00.000-07:002009-05-08T08:23:00.000-07:00Hi Casey,
I just checked the numbers for Anatomic...Hi Casey,<br /><br />I just checked the numbers for Anatomical Record, and found that it is $6,896 for a year in the USA ($7,064 in Canada & Mexico; $7,148 in the rest of the world). . .with 1,724 pages in 2008, this works out to exactly $4/page. To put this into the most literal of physical terms, libraries are paying $7,000 for a three-inch stack of paper (and temporary electronic access). Perhaps it's a little cheaper when bundled with other journals, but wow!!! I am hoping (really, really, hoping) that someone will leap in and correct me on my numbers, but I have a sinking feeling that a lot of these journals are just profanely expensive.<br /><br />Now, I'll have to go looking to see what anatomy/morphology journals have more reasonably pricing. . .I'm really disappointed in particular with J Morph and Anatomical Record, because I consider both of them (especially the former) to be really interesting, high-quality publications that hit both the paleo world and the neontological world. And, I have published (or have in press) papers in both. . .<br /><br />And yes, you are quite right about the reasons behind the relatively low cost of Nature (Science doesn't openly publish their institutional subscription fees, so I can't compare).Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17202710030640362884noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3467242881996852098.post-75083704582301751192009-05-08T08:04:00.000-07:002009-05-08T08:04:00.000-07:00This is really interesting info. What are the numb...This is really interesting info. What are the numbers for Anat Rec? I sortof consider it an equal to JMorph in some ways. Its kindof shocking how much Jmorph is, though they did give me free color for my 2007 paper. On the other hand, i'm certainly keen on the open access/online pubs and am leaning more towards them regardless of impact etc. I've submitted the past few papers to JVP simply to work w/ the society, but then i shelled out the bucks to host the pdf on my page (making it open) i realize ppl can just email me...but that could add up to like..idk, 5 emails :)<br /><br />Remember though, the page cost for Nature/Science is low also for the same reasons why we often complain about the amount of content. Cheers CaseyAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3467242881996852098.post-91000240467833905052009-05-07T05:48:00.000-07:002009-05-07T05:48:00.000-07:00Hi Dr. Mike--Thanks for the compliments! I complet...Hi Dr. Mike--Thanks for the compliments! I completely agree that it's necessary to look beyond the surface when submitting a paper. . .the factors are pretty fluid, depending on the paper, stage in one's academic career, etc.<br /><br />Like you, I'm also moving away from submitting manuscripts to most for-profit journals (although there very well may be an exception here or there, depending on the situation or the paper). At the very least, I'm spending more time these days investigating the publishers. It's pretty amazing what you find out, in some cases!Andyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16171447306687358664noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3467242881996852098.post-8793966363574410532009-05-07T02:55:00.000-07:002009-05-07T02:55:00.000-07:00Hey, Andy. I just wanted to drop a note here to s...Hey, Andy. I just wanted to drop a note here to say that I really appreciate what you're doing here, and in other recent posts, in encouraging us all to look beyond the obvious factors (impact, prestige, etc.) when deciding where to send our papers. There are plenty of other factors, and their relative importance is changing all the time.<br /><br />For myself -- and I accept this won't be the right thing for everyone -- I've imposed a policy that none of my first-author papers will go to an journal run by a for-profit publisher (e.g. Elsevier). That's a shame, as it rules out some journals that I know are in other respects run well, but I think it's the right thing.<br /><br />(Possible exception: I've promised one paper to Zootaxa, and I can't figure out whether its publisher is for-profit or not. I assume not, since it's funding that journal's open access, but I don't know for sure.)Mike Taylorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06039663158335543317noreply@blogger.com