[Open-access] An anti-RWA bill

Tue Jan 31 20:28:58 UTC 2012

Nick Barnes wrote:

>> Given the track record of the publishers now, an author
>> pays OA model will most likely be even worse than what we
>> have today.

> Worse how, and for whom?

If all publishers went for author charges, what would be
keeping them from increasing the charges as they have
hyperinflated subscriptions?
NPG claims, each paper costs them 10k pounds, so 15k€ is a
low estimate for a Nature paper that makes a profit for NPG.

Given that you need 3-4 top journal papers, you have about a
50k additional charge if you want to get tenure.

This means that not only do you need to 'know' the editors,
you also need to have extra cash - doesn't matter from where
- and that is clearly worse: if only the rich can afford the
top-publications. It's worse than now, because the scholarly
poor now can at least ask the author for a PDF.

>> For the US scientists, this means that on top of the ~100k
>> they are in debt after college, they have another 50k on top
>> in debt for publishing fees.

> Seriously, are many scientists paying publishing fees out
> of their own pockets?

Not every grant will come with an extra 15-30k for the
expected CNS papers, maybe just the 1-2k for a P1 paper.
Thus, if your rent and food and that of your family depended
on these CNS papers, wouldn't you pay them out of your own
pocket, just like tuition? Of course you would!

So you might have OA for the taxpayer, but for science, it
would be worse: science would degenerate into a vanity press
of the rich and well-connected with probably a hundredfold
increase in retractions, because those who can pay the most
will get published.

So: better for taxpayer (superficially), worse for science
and scientists (and hence for the tax-payer in the long
run).
Universal author pays can only work sustainably with heavy
regulations and non-profit publishers.

Hope that focused it a little.

Best,

Bjoern

-- 
Björn Brembs
---------------------------------------------
http://brembs.net
Neurobiology
Freie Universität Berlin
Germany