RE: Publishing costs

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

Although discussions alone will not clarify this, the presentation of
actual results will. I know that commercial publishers almost invariably
regard these data as confidential; since some of the societies are willing
to release reliable data, it is hardly surprising that people use what
data there are.

This necessarily puts the burden of proof on publishers when they propose
higher costs.

Among the many advantages of OA is that the actual market will determine
this.  For the first time there will be true price competition in the
publication of journals. At the least, this will eliminate both those who
set costs so low that they are unsustainable, and those who set costs so
high that others can offer equivalent publication at a much lower rate.
>From classical economics, the only way of preventing this is a cartel, and
the start-up costs for online publishing are so low (given that you have
an editor that can attract good papers) that this should not develop.

But I conclude that anyone who can present a reasoned cost study should,
provided there is some evidence more than speculation. As for publishers
unwilling to do so, I see no reason to believe any figures they might
provide.

Dr. David Goodman
Associate Professor, 
Palmer School of Library and Information Science
Long Island University, Brookville, NY 
dgoodman@liu.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: D Anderson [mailto:dh-anderson@corhealth.com] 
Sent: Thursday, March 04, 2004 10:44 PM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: Publishing costs

>From a publisher's perspective, there is no doubt that many open access
supporters indulge in wishful thinking when it comes to estimating the
continuing cost of providing access to online content.

I doubt that discussions in this group will clarify the matter.
Speculation by some OA proponents appears to be based more on uninformed
assumptions than any specific, detailed knowledge of the publishing
process. And publishers' warnings are too easily dismissed as
expressions of self-interest or resistance to change.

Nonetheless, the group has generated intriguing and useful ideas that
ultimately may help reduce the cost of content production and access.

Dean H. Anderson

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