Re: Post Brussels : Elsevier and Australian STM debate 'sprouts'

[Sandy Thatcher <sgt3@psu.edu>]

That's assuming Chicago and MIT pay all their journal editors. I 
doubt that they do. As for Blackwell and Sage, they can try (and 
Blackwell at least has), but they can't overcome the obstacle 
that as commercial publishers they cannot qualify to have their 
journals be part of the largest electronic database of journals 
in the humanities and social sciences, Project Muse. Also, as 
scholars in the humanities and social sciences are acutely aware 
these days, our journals are priced well below what Blackwell and 
Sage typically charge. Ask the editor of Philosophy & Public 
Affairs (a journal I helped found at Princeton) if he is happy 
with the tripling of the price his journal underwent when 
Princeton sold it to Blackwell!

> Frankly, Sandy, I don't think I would have put that into print. 
> I don't know your journals program, but if something has 
> economic value and I sat at, say, Blackwell or Sage (not to 
> mention MIT or Chicago), I would take your statement as an 
> opportunity to go poaching.
>
> Joe Esposito
>
> On 2/28/07, Sandy Thatcher <sgt3@psu.edu> wrote:
> > I cannot claim to know how commercial or society publishers
> > compensate editors of their journals, but I can tell you that
> > Penn State Press pays not a cent to any of the editors of its 11
> > journals-and I suspect we are not alone among university press
> > journal publishers.
> >
> > Sandy Thatcher
> > Penn State University Press
> >
> > > I just want to comment on one aspect of this posting and ignore
> > > Colin's ill-informed financial suppositions about the incomes of
> > > the big players. I am sure that he can get a grant to trawl
> > > through the returns from the public companies concerned.
> > >
> > > He and is friends ("a number of us in Australia") are almost
> > > certainly misinformed. If I was a journal editor would I tell Colin
> > > how much I earned? I would not.
> > >
> > > I have never worked for Elsevier but I would be amazed if that
> > > company do not pay their editors and the editorial infrastructure
> > > well and at a rate rising considerably above inflation. My own
> > > experience of a publisher is along these lines. I have worked for
> > > Academic, OUP, and Chapman & Hall and I now work part-time for
> > > Blackwell - though I am not posting for them or from them. I know
> > > that all the editors whom I currently deal with get paid. My memory
> > > is that this is true of all the hundreds of journals I have
> > > published in the past.
> > >
> > > I am certain that Elsevier is not different from these publishers
> > > and I would very surprised if Australia was different in this
> > > particular way.
> > >
> > > I know that there are some self-published society journals where the
> > > editor is not paid by the society. I came across one example the
> > > other day. However this editor was supported by an impressive paid
> > > infrastructure and he agreed that his successor would have to be
> > > paid.
> > >
> > > My own experience of publishing, which is rather greater than that
> > > of Colin (now I know a publisher), is that, whereas in the past
> > > editors could use the resources of their departments, this is
> > > usually no longer the case in most parts of the world and this adds
> > > considerably to editorial costs. There are other inflationary
> > > factors at work too. Because of the increased pressures of academic
> > > life to do research and publish the results, publishers are now
> > > frequently expected to "buy-out" consultancy time - at least in
> > > those disciplines where consultancy is a fact of life and a reward
> > > that supplements poor academic salaries.
> > >
> > > Anthony Watkinson