Journal of Phycology Patricia A. Wheeler, Editor ( )

2005 Impact Factor = Ranks in top 5-7 in Marine and Freshwater Biology

Blue (left scale) = submissions, ~ 300 mss for 2006 Red (red scale) = % acceptance ~120 articles/year ~40% for 2006

ASLO 2002 Survey of Finances for Seven Journals

ASLO 2002 Survey of Seven Journals

Part II. Partnership with Blackwell

Marketing Efforts No increase in regular subscriptions Slowing of subscription loss? Increase value of journal? –Back issues on-line (but not for libraries)

10-Fold increase in On-line Usage 14,000 accesses to full length articles/month Back issues to 1970 now on-line.

Copyright Issues PSA retains copyright Authors can post their articles on personal web page ($50 service charge) Posting on institutional web page? Federal employees (no copyright assignment)

Success of Partnership? Financial stability achieved (for now). Copyright issues for back issues not resolved? Pricing of subscriptions is an annual battle. Mismatch of priorities: profit company vs. non-profit society. Scientists are poor business people.

Sky- rocketing Journal Prices Are prices justifiable? What can be done? Who will do it? Part III: Time to Create Change in Publishing

Publisher’s Explanation for Increased Subscription Rates (Allen Press, Inc. 2003) Increased pages Increased use of color Electronic publishing services To cover costs when circulation decreases

The United Kingdom Parliament Science and Technology Committee Interrogates Publishers: March 2004 Blackwell Nature Publishing Group Wiley

Q: Academics provide papers free of charge, review papers for free, and then pay exorbitant prices for access to their own work. Is the system broken? R: “Journal publishing has evolved…we think it works very well” Effective delivery Double down-loads in one year Academics like it Societies benefit from publishing Academics like to referee If a journal accepts only 10% of papers then open access will not work (subscription model needed)

Q: How can publishers blame the problem on lack of funding for libraries? R: The biggest cost is library overhead. publishers have reduced prices publishers deliver more journals problem is focus on the headline price –(full subscription price)

Average price drop? # subscriptions at full price = 500 # new consortia sales (reduced price) = 1500 Average price for J. Phycol. $165 for 2004 BUT Institutions pay $540 or they add journals that they did not receive before at < $50

Wiley’s View of Open Access “This is something that sounds like a very good idea, but there is a lot of information in the world which most of us need help with and to be talked through. You could get yourself in a terrible mess if you go and read this kind of information, which is pretty archaic, much of it.”

Non-subscription model: Open Access (authored paid) 2004 Costs for Journal of Phycology $270/page $2,700/10 page article Members: no page charge Non-members: $50/page = $500

Wellcome Report April 2004 “Concludes that “… the questions facing journal publishers is not whether to offer open access or not, but how to position their journals so that they are able to continue to play an important role in a world in which open access… is the norm.”

OSU Scholarly Communications Task Force ( ) Series of articles published in OSU this week Department specific reviews of journal prices Submission of article to Portal for publication

Type of Journal Impact Factor Articles Published Cost/Page Commercial $0.99 Society $0.39 Nature/Science $0.15 COAS Publications department reviews completed

Pricing Models for Affordable Access? (justifiable and distributed) Adjusted to print costs & cost of on-line access to current and back issues Institutional subscriptions Membership charges Author charges Partial open access

What should libraries do? Decentralize some decision making to departments Replace “allocation by whining” with real trade-offs Subsidize new journals, submission fees for open access, or even pay-for-view

How to deal with the BIG DEAL Stop being the revenue collector for over- priced journals Set a maximum price/citation and refuse to buy at any higher price Let journals that charge more sell to individual subscribers or pay-per-view

Wake up the faculty to get them involved