Re: Publishing costs

["Sally Morris \(ALPSP\)" <chief-exec@alpsp.org>]

One source of such information is the benchmarking study of 10 publishers
(2 commercial and 8 non-profit) which Alastair Dryburgh conducted in 2002
on behalf of ALPSP.  Although the full report is not freely available
(like all publishers, we had to recoup the costs somehow!), there's a
summary at <http://www.alpsp.org/publications/pub6.htm>.  I can tell you
that the 'first copy costs' per article ranged from approx GBP 200 to 1200
(median �450) - refereeing (applicable, of course, to rejected as well as
accepted papers) �30-145 (median �75).  This figure included peer review
management, rewriting, copy editing, typesetting. It did not include
promotion to authors (median �25/paper), sales and marketing to customers
(median 3% of revenue), distribution costs (median �0.30 per copy), or
electronic hosting costs (�2-59 per paper, �2000-180,000 per title).  
Median income was �2400 per paper published.

Alastair may be able to elucidate further.

Sally Morris, Chief Executive
Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers
E-mail:  chief-exec@alpsp.org

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Goodman" <David.Goodman@liu.edu>
To: <liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Friday, March 05, 2004 11:45 PM
Subject: RE: Publishing costs

> 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
> dgoodman@liu.edu