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

Tue May 26 11:41:21 BST 2015

And one shouldn't conflate the terms "cost" and "price", not when the two are expressed in different currencies. Managing our publication fund I have seen small price increases, but a huge cost increase due to the weakening of our currency. Price is the responsibility of the publisher, cost of the currency markets.

Best,
Jan Erik

Jan Erik Frantsvåg
Open Access adviser
The University Library
UiT The Arctic University of Norway
phone +47 77 64 49 50
e-mail jan.e.frantsvag at uit.no<mailto:jan.e.frantsvag at uit.no>
http://en.uit.no/ansatte/organisasjon/ansatte/person?p_document_id=43618&p_dimension_id=88187
Publications: http://tinyurl.com/6rycjns
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3413-8799

From: goal-bounces at eprints.org [mailto:goal-bounces at eprints.org] On Behalf Of David Prosser
Sent: 26. mai 2015 12:09
To: Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci)
Subject: [GOAL] Re: correction re: How an apparent small price decrease may actually be a large price increase, or why it is important to understand currencies

I no financial wizard, but I naively think that if the price I pay for a service is less than the price I paid for that service last year then that counts as a price reduction.

David

On 23 May 2015, at 00:14, Dana Roth <dzrlib at library.caltech.edu<mailto:dzrlib at library.caltech.edu>> wrote:

One way to help keep this straight is to work out the cost per currency.

An Article Processing Charge (APC) of 3,000 EUROs (3,900 USD/GBP2500) works out to $1.30/Euro
While an APC of 2,950 EUROS (3,900 USD/GBP 2,500) works out to exchange rate of: 1.32$/Euro

Actually, the decrease of 50 Euros (3,000 - 2,950) is a 1.6% decrease (50/3000) in Euro pricing ... while the posted USD price remains the same.
I suspect that USD authors must still pay in USD ... just as libraries have to pay their subscription agents the posted US$ price, irrespective of the change in value of the EURO or GBP price.

All this might be better stated, given today's exchange rate of $1.11/Euro, and assuming that the EURO is the primary currency (since it is listed first), the USD APC should be $3274.50.

This suggests that EMBO (European Molecular Biology Organization) Press is unfairly taking advantage of exchange rates by charging each USD author 16% more (3900-3274.5/3900) than they would if the APC charges were honestly based on the current exchange rate.

Dana L. Roth
Caltech 1-32
1200 E. California Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91125
626-395-6423 fax 626-792-7540
dzrlib at library.caltech.edu<mailto:dzrlib at library.caltech.edu>
http://library.caltech.edu/collections/chemistry.htm

From: goal-bounces at eprints.org<mailto:goal-bounces at eprints.org> [mailto:goal-bounces at eprints.org] On Behalf Of Heather Morrison
Sent: Friday, May 22, 2015 7:20 AM
To: Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci)
Subject: [GOAL] correction re: How an apparent small price decrease may actually be a large price increase, or why it is important to understand currencies

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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