RE: "Overlay Journals" Over Again...

["Nawin Gupta" <nawin@nawingupta.com>]

One of the medical journals I worked with had an acceptance rate 
of less than 10% and publications costs per paper published 
averaged over $7,000 (not including printing and mailing costs). 
Much to my surprise, when I checked with two other comparable 
journals, there costs were not any less. Much like Rockefeller 
University Press, the idea of charging a submission fee was not 
even open for consideration.

I have looked at publishing costs for a number of other journals 
in medical and social sciences.  Journals that have low 
acceptance rates (around 10%) and a rather rigorous peer-review 
process and high standards for copy-editing, average costs per 
published article can easily run around $3,000 per article; 
$7,000+ is not the norm, but not unusual.  And, if I may add, the 
amount of work has only increased as journals publish more and 
more supplemental materials online.

Nawin Gupta
Phone +1 773-623-9199
nawin@nawingupta.com

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu]
On Behalf Of Sally Morris (Morris Associates)
Sent: Friday, July 03, 2009 10:38 PM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: RE: "Overlay Journals" Over Again...

So your publication costs are almost 7k per published paper, 
right?  That seems unusually high

Sally Morris
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 Mike Rossner
Sent: 03 July 2009 04:17
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: Re: "Overlay Journals" Over Again...

Submission fees are not practical as the sole source of revenue 
for selective journals.  Based on our submission numbers for 
calendar year 2008, we would need to charge nearly $2,000 per 
submission to make up our revenue.  Two of our journals reject 
70% of submissions on the basis of review by the academic editors 
(i.e., they are not sent for external review), and the authors of 
those papers receive their rejection letters within a few of days 
of submission.  I do not think those authors would be pleased to 
pay $2,000 for such a result.

Most journal publishers are in the business of trying to attract 
the highest quality submissions.  We are loath to levy any 
upfront fees that would discourage an author from submitting a 
manuscript.

Mike Rossner
Rockefeller University Press