RE: ArXiv Grows Up, Adopts Subscription-like Model

[Sandy Thatcher <sgt3@psu.edu>]

Let's put it this way. For publishers like my press, which does 
not operate its own e-publishing platform but relies on Project 
Muse for everything past the point of the preparation of the 
final PDF, the costs associated with using the Editorial Manager 
software to get the manuscripts through the peer review process 
to the point of being ready for copyediting are easily the 
greatest part of the costs.  I have no idea what Project Muse's 
per article cost might be, and if one were to make a full 
accounting of costs per article for the entire system, the result 
might be such that I could not make this claim. Since our direct 
costs for participating in Muse are very minimal, this is nothing 
something our Press has to worry about. The Tenopir & King 
percentage might have been accurate for us when we were just 
publishing all of our journals in print.

Sandy Thatcher


>Is that true, Sandy?  Can we have a reference please?
>
>Tenopir and King back in 2004 suggested that 'manuscript receipt
>processing, disposition decision-making, identifying reviewers or
>referees and review processing' constituted 26% of the direct
>costs of producing an article (which they estimated at $1700 on
>average).
>
>http://www.nature.com/nature/focus/accessdebate/26.html
>
>Of course, costs may have shifted in the years since then.
>Which is why a reference would be welcome.
>
>David
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
>[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Sandy Thatcher
>Sent: 29 January 2010 01:24
>To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
>Subject: Re: ArXiv Grows Up, Adopts Subscription-like Model
>
>Uh, it's the peer review that is the most expensive part of the
>whole process, and arXiv is not in the business of peer
>reviewing.
>
>>What really struck me about the arXiv business model is the
>>phenomenal cost-effectiveness of arXiv.
>>
>>At under $7 per article (that's the total cost!), arXiv manages
>>all of the technical aspects of disseminating scholarly articles
>>-including storage, sustaining a heavily used system, developing
>>the search interface, and even working with publishers so that
>>arXiv also works as a submission platform for some journals.
>>
>>wow!
>>
>>Heather Morrison, MLIS
> >The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics
> >http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com