RE: How many (peer reveiwed) journals are there?

["Sally Morris \(Morris Associates\)" <sally@morris-assocs.demon.co.uk>]

This is only really true if you pretend that overheads (including 
staff costs, computing costs, accommodation, heating and 
lighting, etc) don't apply. And I have heard people, in all 
seriousness, arguing that these costs don't really count because 
the people/building/computer were there anyway...

Sally Morris
Consultant, Morris Associates (Publishing Consultancy)
Email:  sally@morris-assocs.demon.co.uk

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of
bill@multi-science.co.uk
Sent: 07 November 2008 23:25
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: Re: How many (peer reveiwed) journals are there?

I've been puzzled about some publishers starting scores of OA
journals, wondering, what is the point? And finally the penny has
dropped.

'Publication costs' are frequently referred to as $xxxx per
article, and its not feasible to recoup those kind of costs
through author fees. Of course, costs are only of that order if,
say, management of publishing companies indulge themselves with
high wages and agreeable surroundings; its possible to run lean
operations, and so have lower costs. But of course costs there
are, however efficiently the basic publishing operations are run.
But if you skip most of the basic publishing operations and in
effect stick someone's submitted document on a website, with
little more than a bit of re-styling by the typesetters, you
don't have much in the way of costs. And a fairly low author fee
more than covers that cost. And you don't need much in the way of
sophisticated technology to bash out thousands of emails
soliciting papers. A few chumps reply with cheque, and the
publisher laughs all the way to the bank. Someone tell me that
this is not really happening! Bill Hughes Multi-Science