Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Sunday, February 18, 2007

Lowering the costs of journal publication

Heather Morrison, Scholarly Publishing: High Quality at Low Cost, Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics, February 17, 2007.  Excerpt:

Advances in computing technology - hardware, software, and connectivity, combined with the age-old tradition of voluntary contributions to scholarship, mean that it is now possible to produce high quality peer reviewed journal articles at low cost....

A research community can now easily start up their own journal, using computers and internet connectivity readily available at their university, or homes. No extra capacity is really needed....Free, open source software is available, such as Open Journal Systems....

If researchers prefer not to do the technical work and hosting themselves, there are quality, low-cost options. For example, SFU Library provides hosting and support at rates ranging from a high of $750 Cdn per year for a single journal to a low of $600 Cdn per journal per year for 10 or more journals. See the Software@SFU Prices from the SFU Library Support Services webpage. The non-profit Scholarly Exchange provides the first year of hosting and support free, with future years at a cost of US $750 per year, and provides a range of additional support services, including arranging for revenue-generating advertising for journals.

Before exploring these options, researchers might want to check with their library, as many libraries are now providing or exploring support for the publishing of their faculty.
Once the hardware and software is set up, the most essential work to ensure quality scholarship is basically free. The articles themselves are free, and scholarly peer-reviewers provide their services on a voluntary basis. Editors, especially for smaller journals, are often volunteers as well....