Comparing university costs for subscripion & OA

[Heather Morrison <heatherm@eln.bc.ca>]

Ann Okerson presented the following numbers from Yale (thanks, Ann!)

[snip]

Number of STM articles published (most indexed by ISI with an
estimate for the rest): 				3,600
(this excludes humanities journals)

*I estimate the above number is about 10% on the low side and 
that the real number was closer to 4,000)

STM journals budget that fiscal year $3.6M

[snip]

If these numbers are correct, then what this means is that the 
break- even point for Yale STM to move to full open access, 
exclusively through article processing fees and paid for entirely 
through the library budget, would be $1,000 US per article 
average.

This may seem low compared to some open access article processing 
fee charges, however considering a few other factors illustrates 
how doable this is, even for a research-intensive university like 
Yale.

Article processing fees:  with Hindawi charging about $500, BMC 
about $1,250 - $1,500 and PLoS $2,500, an average of about $1,000 
US per article average may be below what some publishers are 
currently charging, but is obviously within reach.

The majority of open access journals do not charge author processing
fees.  See the Kaufmann-Wills Study - link available from:
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/
2004_11_07_fosblogarchive.html#a110027135371000333

It is unlikely that library revenues would be the sole source of 
revenue for an open access production-based system.  For example, 
researchers funded by the Wellcome Trust would have their article 
processing fees covered entirely by the Trust.  Other funders 
allow the use of research funding to pay for article processing 
fees from research funding.

Departmental funds are another potential revenue stream source 
for article processing fees, just as, for many libraries, these 
are also a source of current funding for subscriptions.

Any opinion expressed in this message is that of the author 
alone, and does not reflect the opinion or policy of BC 
Electronic Library Network or Simon Fraser University Library.

Heather Morrison
http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com