RE: Who gets hurt by Open Access?

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

Peter,

I cannot imagine why you do not seem to recognize the financial support
your journal --along with every biomedical journal-- receives from the
government.

It receives some at the author side--"Diabetes" has a page charge of $85
per page. The authors pay it from their grants, which typically
specifically provide for the use of part of the funds for this purpose.

It receives some at the subscriber side. These grants also provide for
indirect costs. A portion of the indirect costs goes to the library --
typically enough in the aggregate to pay for about half of the science
journal subscriptions. The rest of the money for library subscriptions
comes from the university, which is supported by state governments, tax
exemptions, and private donations to the university, which the tax law
specifically encourages, and to a small extent from tuition, which is
itself supported in part by the federal government and private donors as
scholarships, subsidized loans, and tax-exempt college savings plans.

The medical institutions and practitioners who account for many of your
subscriptions are additionally supported by state and federal money
through Medicare and the like. The payments for medical care that come
from private insurers is subsidized by favorable tax treatment. Even the
money that unfortunates without insurance pay personally is to some extent
subsidized by tax deductions. And when a physician pays for his membership
and journal--that too is tax deductible!

Your journal is indeed not subsidized directly by government funding, but
every dollar of its revenue is derived from government sources, or
stimulated by government activity and tax policy.

David Goodman, Ph.D.,  M.L.S.
(The work for both degrees paid for entirely by federal  or state
government.)

Associate Professor
Palmer School of Library and Information Science
Long Island University
dgoodman@liu.edu


On 7/20/05, Peter Banks <pbanks@diabetes.org> wrote:

> And since when have publishers received "private support" or "the
> shelter of a special economic regime"? If I am receiving some sort of
> financial free ride, it's certainly news to me. I thought I was
> competing the marketplace. Please direct me to that "shelter," so I can
> escape the broiling sun of the marketplace.
>  ...
> Peter Banks
> Publisher
> American Diabetes As sociation
> Email: pbanks@diabetes.org