RE: Correction (RE: Thatcher vs. Harnad)

["Rick Anderson" <rickand@unr.edu>]

> Except, of course, where there are no author fees (in the case 
> of over half of the journals listed in the DOAJ), or where the 
> authors fees can be waived (BMC, PLoS, etc.).

In cases where no author fees exist, you're certainly right.  In 
cases where author fees exist but "can be" waived, then the 
barrier is the process of getting the author fee waived so that 
one may publish.  (In most cases, I'd imagine that that's a 
fairly low barrier.)

> (Incidentally, I always find it intriguing that open access 
> publication fees are described as barriers to publication, but 
> we rarely hear the same being said of page charges, colour 
> figure charges, etc. for publication-based journals.)

It's probably said rarely because the point is so obvious.  Any 
time you make an author pay money to submit content for 
publication, you're putting barriers in her way.

---
Rick Anderson
Dir. of Resource Acquisition
University of Nevada, Reno Libraries
rickand@unr.edu