Re: Calculating the Cost per Article in the Current SubscriptionModel

[Heather Morrison <heatherm@eln.bc.ca>]

greetings Peter,

A cost of $1,700 per published manuscript may not be in the running for
the world's most efficient operation, but it's not bad at all - way below
the low end average cost in Phil Davis' wonderful spreadsheet of $2,500,
and definitely less than Springer's Open Choice option at $3,000.  
Congratulations!

As for how to run journal operations as efficiently as possible - if it is
very expensive to rent space at a major university, why not look for less
expensive space?

One of my theories on why publishing at present is more expensive than it
would need to be in the future, is because publishers are concentrated in
very expensive places - if not major universities, then major cities like
New York, London, etc. - where rents and costs of living are at their
highest (and therefore, salaries are likely to be above-average as well).

In an e-only world, with increasing internet connectivity in smaller
centres and even rural areas, publishers could relocate to less expensive
locations.  For that matter, some of the work involved in publishing, such
as editing, seems to be particularly well suited for telecommuting -
rather than trying to fit a body into an already-crowded university, there
could be situations where an individual could work in a smaller community
where they could afford a home large enough to accomodate a comfortable
office.  Not only is there less need for office space, there is less need
for commuting - a lifestyle advantage for the individual, and better for
the environment, too!

Another idea for reducing costs is to take advantage of free or low-cost
publishing software / hosting options.  Some examples: Public Knowledge
Project - Open Journal Systems - http://www.pkp.ubc.ca/ ICAAP
http://www.icaap.org/index_en.html (International Coalition for the
Advancement of Academic Publications):  journal creation from $3,600 Cdn
(about $3,000 US; ongoing journal hosting, maintenance and conversion from
$1,840 Cdn per year (about $1,500 U.S). coming soon:  DPubs
http://dpubs.org/ - Cornell plans to release this general-purpose journal
management system as open-source

Here is my latest set of calculations - for all calculations, see the
SPARC Open Access Forum Archives at
https://mx2.arl.org/Lists/SPARC-OAForum/List.html and search for
"Imaginary Journal" - for earliest discussion, see the Liblicense
archives.

All estimates in Canadian dollars, except as noted.  Please note that the
Imaginary Journal follows the principle of "Working Less" - all staff work
4 days per week, or 28 hours.  If all staff work in the office, this may
not be the most cost-effective approach for a publisher paying high prices
for office space.

 �800 articles per year
 �ICAAP http://www.icaap.org/software & support: $3,000 Cdn per year
 �Two academic editors + one junior academic editor: $275,000 Cdn per 
year FTE X .8 = $220,000
 �Two copyeditors (Master's - one subject specialist, one English): 
$100,000 Cdn per year FTE X .8 = $80,000
 �Benefits X .25 for all staff: $75,000
 �Subtotal: $378,000
 �Overhead at 30% $113,400
 �Indexing services @ $16.25 per article, 800 articles:�$13,000
 Collaborative Chemistry Abstracts @ $.50 per article:�$400
 Total: $ 504,800 Cdn = approx. $424,032 U.S.

divided by 800 articles = $631 Cdn, or about $530 US per article
(approx..84 exchange rate).

hope this helps - thanks for your interest!

Heather Morrison

On 4-Jan-05, at 7:31 AM, Peter Banks wrote:

> Heather,
>
> I would be very interested in seeing your detailed assumptions, because
> they do not square with my experience as publisher of  the journals
> Diabetes and Diabetes Care. I would love to be able to achieve the cost
> per manuscript you describe, expecially because the number of
> submissions (and associated costs) is growing at an alaming rate. For
> example, Diabetes had 1,407 new submissions in 2003, up from 1,285 in
> 2002 and 1,064 in 2001. A total of 408 manuscripts were published
> (acceptance rate about 28%, which the editor achieved after much
> scolding that he was being too liberal in accepting papers).
>
> Considering only expenses unrelated to print, the cost per published
> manuscript in Diabetes is at least $1700. A signficant part of that
> comes from the expenses related to maintaining an editorial office at a
> major university, including salary support for the editor, honoraria 
> for
> associate editors, editorial assistant salaries, and rent to the
> university. There is considerable upward pressure in these expenses, as
> universities seek to cover costs in a weak grant climate.
>
> I do not see how a high end STM journal could support operations on
> $500 U.S. per article, without major compromises in peer review and
> copyediting. But perhaps you or SPARC have a model of journal 
> operations
> that is highly efficient.
>
> Peter Banks
> Publisher
> American Diabetes Association
> Email: pbanks@diabetes.org