It is obvious from nearly all responses to my recent question that researchers do not like paying the exorbitant amount currently being charged for OA journal publications by most publishers. On the other hand, publishers claim that there is a cost that must be met in providing OA to journals free of charge. If, in future, researchers are required to pay, how much will you willingly pay? Will the IF of the journal influence how much you are willing to pay? Or would you give up publishing in journals charging fees for OA all together?
The initiative called "Open Access" is a very controversial initiative. On the one hand, the use of this initiative allows the free access to research works or papers published by any researcher or scientific in specialized journals by interested parties of any country in the world. On the other hand, it is understandable that these journals should cover printing expenses through some method to avoid losses. The problem for me is the following: A researcher or scientist who decides to publish the results of their work using the Open Acess initiative has spent also a precious time and has much value added and also resources to arrive at the result that he/she want to share with others, and it seems to me very unfair that the author must pay a certain price while those who have access to his/her work do not.
The journals who choose to use this initiative should charge not to those who publish their works to make others aware of them but to those that decide to have access to this type of publication either through subscription or payment for individual access.
In principle, I am not willing to pay high sums of money that many specialized journals are asking to publish research papers or scientific results of importance to other scientists. However, if it is inevitable to pay for the publication of my work then I would be willing to pay very less than the amount that many magazines are now asking for. In this case, I will also be in favor that these journals request a reasonable amount to those interested in access to these works and once covered the costs of publication of a particular paper, earnings obtained are shared with researchers and scientists who are the authors of those papers.
The Open Access journals are business-oriented. Publishing in these journals is equivalent with the proceedings of a large audience conference. Conference fees are about 500 euros, which include however a CD, other materials, participation to events, etc. It results that maximum fees for an OA of some impact should be maximum 200 euros. Since initially all journals start from zero impact, the initial fees should be significantly lower.
Fortunately in every domain there are well established journals (high I.F.) which are not requiring any fees for publication. These journals, which are financially based on selling printed journals and paid access to articles, are under financial stress due to internet rapid data exchanges. One way of losing money is by giving free access to published material (e.g. in Research Gate, etc.) without their consent. Consequently read carefully the Research Gate notice on uploading materials and think to a world of only OA paid journals.
Hello,
I am totally against conferences. I almost wasted my time and my life in traveling and attending conferences around the world. It was a very expensive experience but I learned a valuable lesson.
Yet if I stayed at my office and went through an online journal I could have been more productive.
I believe something between 80-130 USD, depending on the country of journal and the country of authors, would be a reasonable price for an online journal to survive.
Thanks
I do not know your specific fields of work.
I am working in optics and ophthalmology and the publication fees for "prime" open access journals is getting less in recent times.
E.g. Optics express charges some 1500US$ publication fees, Biomedical optics express some 1350US$ (both belong to the OSA)
IOVS charges some 500US$ (belonging to ARVO)
It is not a trivial matter and no one-answer-fits-all would hold but if they are open access and prime major journals, you must consider the balance between investment (and agree it is not cheap) and multiplication of your readership.
Of my publication record, the best papers and being mostly cited were published in open access journals with publication fees (the three mentioned above)
Definitely it should not more than 100 USD ,otherwise every researcher from developing and undeveloped country have to think for payment.
Sounds like the price most people are willing to pay for publishing in OA journals is no more than $100 (US). In my previous question on OA, one of the participant, Quentim Groom, indicated that Peer J offers OA publication for
I believe that we can not be talking about any kind of journals. I will pay nothing and I will not send a manuscript to a journal without impact factor but I an always ready to pay the US1,350.00 that PLoS ONE is charging or the average US500.00 for Florida Entomologist or Journal of Food Protection because they are serious and very good journals..
Jose, I agree with you!!! If you have to pay, you want to know that you are getting real VALUE for money.
Sam,
Thanks for your answer what shows that you deserve such HIGH SCORE in Researchgate.
unfortunately, the expensive fees required by the well established journals with impact factors of 1.5 or more enforced scientists all over the world to bury their valuable research in unknown journals however the following attached pdf file containing fees of most Elsevier journals for the year 2015, i hope you find it useful
Dear Samuel,
I believe that there is no necessity in separating the journals in oppen access or not specially after Researchgate started.
What we should do is to publish in higher impact journal as possible. The gradutae programs in Brazil are ranked and impact factors are very important for this.
The publication fees should be proportional to the impact factor of the journal.
I am including a list of impact factors of the journals that I always consult before choosing a journal to submit a manuscritp.
Regards,
José Zanuncio
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Academic Journals