Math Journal Editors Resign To Start Rival Journal That Will Be Free To Read (insidehighered.com) 59
An anonymous reader writes: To protest the high prices charged by their publisher, Springer, the editors of the Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics will start a rival journal that will be free for all to read. The four editors in chief of the Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics have informed their publisher, Springer, of their intention to launch a rival open-access journal to protest the publisher's high prices and limited accessibility. This is the latest in a string of what one observer called "editorial mutinies" over journal publishing policies. In a news release, the editors said their decision was not made because of any "particular crisis" but was the result of it becoming "more and more clear" that Springer intended to keep charging readers and authors large fees while "adding little value."
Free to Read! (Score:2)
But you still don't understand the mathematics.
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Perhaps they could do something along the lines of making it a subscription-only service for the first year or two of a given article, then making it free (or at least ad-supported) after that?
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If there are k editors and n journals, how many ways can you allocate those k editors between the n journals?
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how many ways can you allocate those k editors between the n journals?
And many of those journals can have i>1 "editors in chief"? All chiefs and no indians makes a very poor organization.
Re: Just a question... (Score:5, Informative)
Unless you mean the publishers, they don't even today. You work for free for the journal and give them exclusive access, in return for a shot at publicity/"impact".
Its about tenure, not publicly/"impact" (Score:3)
Unless you mean the publishers, they don't even today. You work for free for the journal and give them exclusive access, in return for a shot at publicity/"impact".
Note quite, a shot at tenure. "Publish or Perish". Everyone in academia knew this going in.
Re:Just a question... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Yes, the tabloids near the dikes are filled with tales of the socialite children of wealthy academic publishers.
Re:Just a question... (Score:5, Informative)
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They could allow free personal access, but still charge academic institutions and/or academic search engines for access. The academic search engines already charge universities/corporations for access, so they can certainly afford to pay.
If your journal is publishing good articles, those two places must have access---and they are already accustomed to exorbitant pricing.
(AC due to moderation)
Re:Just a question... (Score:5, Informative)
Generally, the authors, reviewers, and editors of academic journals are all unpaid. Only the publisher gets any money, from subscriptions and reprint fees.
My wife is an academic and plays all three of these unpaid roles for various journals. The return to her for this work is prestige in her field, and some control in its internal politics (for better or worse). This is how you move up in academia.
One nice perk of this work is that she is frequently an invited speaker or panelist at international conferences and our child and I get to tag along for free!
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Most editors and associate editors don't get paid much, if anything, for their contributions to the journal. It's almost entirely for professional development and prestige. Reviewers also aren't paid.
If the journal doesn't have a print form, then the overall costs are pretty low. The only costs would likely be the online hosting and, potentially, some small administrative salary for a secretary. The website hosting and any sort of manuscript-handling software licensing fees would likely only run a few h
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The website hosting and any sort of manuscript-handling software licensing fees would likely only run a few hundred dollars per year.
Been involved with any web site that has any kind of traffic at all? Yeah, connectivity with a decent sized pipe and possibly a CDN, that costs a little money.
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Ok.
I know nothing about this... But how the heck are they going to get paid, or pay for rent, hosting, etc. if there is no charge to the readers?
Let's start with: what do the costs of a print journal work out to per paper carried? Now compare the cost of online publication.
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Print is cheaper than ever, thanks to countless print-on-demand services. You don't need to worry about over or under production, managing stock, or even fulfilling orders.
You could start your own monthly print journal, say The New World Journal of Slashdotic Trolldontia, and produce it for less than the cost of a domain and hosting. IIRC, with Amazon, it won't cost you a penny to have print copies of your journal (including an ISBN) available for purchase.
Junk, super-low-cost, hosting and domain will set
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Ok.
I know nothing about this... But how the heck are they going to get paid, or pay for rent, hosting, etc. if there is no charge to the readers?
Let's start with: what do the costs of a print journal work out to per paper carried? Now compare the cost of online publication.
Print is cheap. I get what are essentially magazines or journals (in that they are printed on paper) for FREE all the time.
Catalogs
Alumni magazines
Trade magazines
More catalogs...
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I get what are essentially magazines or journals (in that they are printed on paper) for FREE all the time.
The fact you get them for free doesn't mean they are cheap to produce. All of those trade magazines' costs are paid for by the advertisers who expect you to buy stuff from them. Catalogs are paid for by the company, who expects you to buy stuff from them. Alumni magazines are paid for by donors, who expect you to join them in donating more money.
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Some scientific journals cost 30x or more than others (page-for-page comparison).
Don't tell me that the price of paper and printing varies that much just by the words put onto the pages.
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Don't tell me that the price of paper and printing varies that much just by the words put onto the pages.
I didn't tell you that. Did you read what I wrote? I said that you cannot determine that producing a "magazine" is cheap just because you get some of them for free. There are hidden cost-payers for those free magazines.
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Don't tell me that the price of paper and printing varies that much just by the words put onto the pages.
I didn't tell you that. Did you read what I wrote? I said that you cannot determine that producing a "magazine" is cheap just because you get some of them for free. There are hidden cost-payers for those free magazines.
You stated that there was a cost to production and distribution. That cost is pretty much fixed––it does not vary much.
In writing my example, I assumed that you would make the mental leap that I was referring to the (nominally fixed) cost you described ("printing and mailing of X is paid for by Y"). You are correct in that point, but were missing my point.
Journal subscription prices actually charged vary wildly (and did even before internet access was common). I was sharing because few know t
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You are correct in that point, but were missing my point.
You told me not to tell you something that I already didn't tell you. I don't care what your point was, my reply was specific to your claim that printing and mailing paper "magazines" is zero because you receive many of them for free. Period. End of sentence. That's what I told you.
Journal subscription prices actually charged vary wildly
And the costs of producing different materials differs, but that wasn't what you said that I replied to. You get them for free so there is no cost, so why are you now concerned with how much it costs?
I was sharing because few know this fact â" including many scientists.
I know many scientists, too.
Monopolist policies ... smoke = fire (Score:3, Interesting)
When their economics are those of a monopolist, it suggests the business folks believe they have a monopoly.
The irony is that they are restraining the rate of growth of technical capability of human science. They are the toll road trolls for the future of the world.
This is a textbook externality. Government of capitalist economies has as its charter: minimization of externalities and prevention of monopolies.
What took so long after PLoS in 2003? (Score:2)
The Public Library of Science started its first journal in 2003.
What took these editors so long?
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Oblig (Score:1)
To help the fledgling journal get started, Stanford Prof. David Mazieres offers his submission. [stanford.edu]
Better options... (Score:1)
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Again? Good. (Score:2)
The first en masse resignation of the entire Editorial Staff from an extortative publisher, who went off to create an effective clone journal having identical goals and editorial staff, but with an open-access policy – AND the same prestige from the get-gobecause this was led by the Editors, and all stayed on-board to start it – was another mathematics journal.
Some other journals have followed in these footsteps. A top-tier journal in Linguistics. A respected journal in physics and chemistry
Make it illegal (Score:2)
Watch big publishing interests lean on their people in congress to make it illegal to start an open-access publishing company. It's anti-competitive. It's "socialism."
Hey, I guess big government works for somebody, doesn't it?