RE: PLoS pricing and the perceived ability of research grants to cover publication costs

["David Goodman" <David.Goodman@liu.edu>]

The scenario you postulate has in fact happened in the past for some
journals, where authors who pay the fees have expedited publishing times.
I haven't checked in recent years, but I certainly hope than there is no
journal that still does this now.

-----Original Message-----
From: D Anderson [mailto:danderson@corhealth.com]
Sent: Wed 8/13/2003 5:46 PM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: RE: PLoS pricing and the perceived ability of research grants
to cover publication costs

Good points. Another potential drawback of a model that relies on authors
to cover publishing costs is that publishers will have a strong incentive
to keep pushing up fees, since author-generated fees will be their primary
source of funds to cover costs. One potential scenario is a model in which
authors, or their institutions, bid up fees by trying to ensure
publication through ever-higher payments to publishers. A journal at risk
of going under might succumb to the temptation to accept, or expedite, a
marginal article if the sponsor was willing to pay an exorbitant fee.

Also, this model obviously would favor research sponsored by well-funded
commercial companies.

The end result is that control over what is published will shift from the
consumers of information, who ultimately decide what will be published
through their subscription dollars, to the sponsors of research.

Dean H. Anderson

COR Health
Insight ... not just news
http://www.corhealth.com