Re: Costs of open access publishing - the Wellcome Trust

["Fytton Rowland" <J.F.Rowland@lboro.ac.uk>]

Dean H. Anderson wrote:

>Regarding comments earlier in this thread that publishers have needlessly
>complicated the process of publishing, thereby pushing up costs, I can
>attest that the profit motive is a potent motivator for commercial
>publishers to relentlessly and continuously pursue greater efficiencies.
>Publishing managers I know spend a good portion of their time thinking
>about ways in which they can streamline the publishing process.

In the *scholarly* publishing industry - where every product is a
monopoly, and he who pays the piper (libraries) does not call the tune
(authors do) - the usual competitive pressures towards greater efficiency
may not apply. Neither I nor Alastair Dryburgh suggested that "publishers
have needlessly complicated the process".  Rather, we suggested that
publishers have not realised perhaps that all of the sophistications that
they have put into their products may not really be needed by impecunios
customers in the online world.  Alastair (recently) and I (longer ago)
have both worked in the industry and do not confirm from personal
experience the situation that Dean Anderson describes.  Most people find
it easier to put up prices than to think out of the box.

Anderson is, however, right that publishing professionals are still
needed, and their cost is non-zero.  The question is how many of them, and
what tasks they undertake.

Fytton Rowland, Loughborough University, UK.