[GOAL] Re: Is $99 per article realistic and compatible with profits - or too high a price

[Baynes, Grace]

Following on from Heather's post, Nature Publishing Group can offer some more data on author choice of licenses on Scientific Reports. Since we introduced CC-BY as an option in July 2012, authors have chosen CC-BY on 5% of papers. 

1 January 2011 to 30 June 2012
* Two license choices were available: CC-BY-NC-SA, CC-BY-NC-ND
532 papers accepted
* 75% were CC-BY-NC-SA 
* 25% were CC-BY-NC-ND

1 July 2012 to 7 November 2012
Introduced CC-BY; Three license choices available
412 papers accepted
* 37% were CC BY-NC-SA 
* 58% were CC BY-NC-ND 
* 5% were CC BY 
 
Order of the license on the rights form was: 
- CC BY-NC-SA 
- CC BY-NC-ND 
- CC BY
 
We speculated that more authors might be choosing ND because it was the middle option listed on the form. On 8 November 2012, we released an updated form with the options reorganized.

8 November 2012 to 21 January 2013
273 papers accepted 
* 11% were CC BY-NC-SA 
* 83% were CC BY-NC-ND 
* 5% were CC BY 

Order on the rights form revised to: 
- CC BY-NC-ND 
- CC BY-NC-SA 
- CC BY

in order of increasing permissiveness. Creative Commons language to explain what each license permits is included on the form next to the options. 

We will continue to monitor authors' preference, and it will be interesting to see if this pattern changes on 1 April when the revised RCUK and Wellcome Trust policies come into effect. To ensure we can meet the needs of funders and authors, we'll continue to offer a choice of licenses and are currently offering CC-BY licenses on 20 titles with open access options, with more journals to introduce the choice of CC-BY this year.

Hoping this is of interest to this group.

Best wishes,

Grace

Grace Baynes
Head of Corporate Communications
Nature Publishing Group
The Macmillan Building 
4-6 Crinan Street
London, N1 9XW 
T +44 (0)20 7014 4063 
F +44 (0)20 7843 4998 
E g.baynes at nature.com 
www.nature.com
Visit the NPG press room: www.nature.com/npg_/press_room/


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