[GOAL] correction re: How an apparent small price decrease may actually be a large price increase, or why it is important to understand currencies

[Heather Morrison]

My apologies, I got the currency differential backwards - a 21% decrease in the EUR should mean a 21% increase in the EUR price, not a decrease.

The basic concept that to understand whether pricing are actually increasing, decreasing, or remaining flat, you need to track the pricing in all of the currencies, not just one, remains the same. If anyone has pricing for this journal from May 2014 in USD or GBP, or if someone from the journal could explain their pricing, that would be helpful.

My original incorrect message follows:

This example may help to understand why it is important to consider currency fluctuations in assessing trends in pricing. If a journal charges in more than one currency, to know whether pricing is flat, decreasing or increasing it is necessary to track the pricing in all of the currencies.

Molecular Systems Biology http://msb.embopress.org/authorguide "levies an Article Processing Charge (APC) of 2,950 EUROS (3,900 USD/GBP 2,500) for each Research Articles or Reports accepted for publication. There are no additional costs (such as page charges or submission charges)." The 2,950 EUROS is a 2% price decrease from the 3,000 EUROS we noted last year. But is it really a price decrease? As we recently calculated, the EURO has lost 21% in comparison with the USD over the past year. If the USD is the primary currency (likely the reason for the current EUR price decrease), then the equivalent in EUR today would be 2,370 EUR. What looks like a 50 EUR or 2% price decrease may actually be a 580 EUR or 24% increase.  Last year we did not capture pricing in all the currencies so cannot confirm.

best,

--
Dr. Heather Morrison
Assistant Professor
École des sciences de l'information / School of Information Studies
University of Ottawa
Desmarais 111-02
613-562-5800 ext. 7634
Sustaining the Knowledge Commons: Open Access Scholarship
http://sustainingknowledgecommons.org/
http://www.sis.uottawa.ca/faculty/hmorrison.html
Heather.Morrison at uottawa.ca<mailto:Heather.Morrison at uottawa.ca>


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