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RE: PR's 'pit bull' takes on open access: excerpts from article in Nature Magazine

I think all of those involved in publishing recognize that the 
major element of cost is people;  infrastructure is also an 
important element - e.g. buildings, heat and light, computers and 
their systems (quite complex if they are hosting e-journals). 
If these costs were ignored, I'd be prepared to guess that many 
publishers, both commercial and otherwise, could come up with a 
similar figure. We have to be careful not to compare apples with 
oranges!

Sally Morris
Consultant, Morris Associates (Publishing Consultancy)
South House, The Street
Clapham, Worthing, West Sussex BN13 3UU, UK
Email:  sally@morris-assocs.demon.co.uk

-----Original Message-----
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Heather Morrison
Sent: 01 February 2007 00:24
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: Re: PR's 'pit bull' takes on open access: excerpts from article in
Nature Magazine

Peter Banks wrote:

"as Heather Morrison claims, that a journal can be run on about 
$500..."

This is the approximate annual cost for journal hosting and 
software support services by SFU Library, for a publisher with 
more than 10 journals.  The price list can be downloaded from: 
http://software.lib.sfu.ca/support.html

Look under OJS.  The cost for more than 10 journals is $600 per 
journal (Canadian), which is about $500 U.S.

Please note that OJS (Open Journal Systems) itself is open 
source, and absolutely free for anyone, anywhere to download. The 
price for hosting and support is available for those who choose 
this option.

There is more to running a journal than hosting and software 
support, of course.

Nevertheless, I hope that sharing this information helps to 
illustrate that it is possible to publish scholarly journals 
without expending an enormous sum of money.

Disclosure:  I work for SFU Library (for a different 
organization, which derives no benefit from the success of OJS).

Heather G. Morrison
http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com