[GOAL] GOAL Digest, Vol 58, Issue 2

[Mark Patterson]

Thanks for flagging that up, Danny. We can certainly try and clear up a few
points:

The numbers we published (at https://elifesciences.org/
elife-news/inside-elife-what-it-costs-publish) represent all of our costs.
The indirect costs that underpin many activities, such as office
accommodation, general management, human resources and administration, are
spread across and added to the direct costs of activities such as handling
submissions and creating feature content. Our total costs in 2015 were
£3.9million -- or $5.89million according to our 990 (
https://2015.elifesciences.org/assets/eLife-2015-income-tax-returns.pdf).


Whether we should classify our technology and innovation investments (22%
of overall expenditure in 2015) as another publishing cost is an
interesting one. In our view this work goes beyond core publishing and is
done in support of our broader mission.

Best wishes
Mark

On Tue, Sep 6, 2016 at 12:20 PM, Danny Kingsley <dak45 at cam.ac.uk> wrote:

> Thanks Emily,
>
> There has been a posting on Scholarly Kitchen about it with Kent
> Anderson's calculations - you may agree or wish to answer the call.
>
> Danny
>
> Annual Reports — What Do They Actually Tell Us?
> POSTED BY KENT ANDERSON
> <https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/author/scholarlykitchen/> ⋅ AUG 29,
> 2016
>  - https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2016/08/29/annual-
> reports-what-do-they-actually-tell-us/
>
> Kent states:
>
> Unfortunately, *eLife’s* report is itself rather opaque.
>
> Like some of its ilk, the report provides some insights into the
> organization’s finances, but obscures many things, using questionable math
> to achieve certain ratios and make certain claims. It also leaves out many
> costs in order to generate a misleading cost-per-article calculation.
>
> Costs that are left out of the equation include the approximately 2,400
> square feet of office space
> <http://www.movehut.co.uk/property/364539-24-hills-road-cambridge/>,
> which seems to rent for about US$40 (furnished) per square foot, giving us
> an approximate cost of US$96,000 annually, or roughly another $100 per
> article. Legal fees, human resources, benefits, and other corporate
> overheads may or may not be captured, but experience suggests they have
> been left out, which would be another approximately 20-30% premium on all
> the fixed costs, which calculates out to another US$780,000 on the high
> side, or US$780 per article.
>
> There is a lot of text expended rationalizing the amount of money *eLife* spends
> paying its editors. But little transparency is given, with only a single
> number for editorial salaries as a whole provided. Unlike in the IRS 990,
> no specific salaries are given. We can find recent ones elsewhere,
> fortunately.
>
> The math on publishing costs in the *eLife* annual report is
> questionable, with some capital expenditures held out as non-publishing
> expenses despite their clear relevance to a long-term technology publishing
> plan. In fact, this bit of financial contortion removes 22% of their
> expenditures, which suppresses their per-article charge calculations by a
> similar amount. For example, the calculations without the capital
> expenditure for 2015 come out to about US$4,700 per article. But, with the
> capital expenditure factored back into the overall expenses, the
> per-article publishing cost rises to US$5,500.
>
> Factoring in the work space, overheads, and capital expenditures, and the
> *eLife* cost-per-article goes from US$4,700 to roughly US$6,380. And
> we’re still not sure that we’ve seen all their expenses. This is
> approximately 27% more than Patterson states.
>
>
> On 06/09/2016 12:00, goal-request at eprints.org wrote:
>
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> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. Inside eLife: What it costs to publish (Emily Packer)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2016 15:43:13 +0100
> From: Emily Packer <e.packer at elifesciences.org> <e.packer at elifesciences.org>
> Subject: [GOAL] Inside eLife: What it costs to publish
> To: goal at eprints.org
> Message-ID:
> 	<CAErc9s+b9uBBjRumwk1AD24hrE3o4ET4efnuXvtt6ZE-Be5r5g at mail.gmail.com> <CAErc9s+b9uBBjRumwk1AD24hrE3o4ET4efnuXvtt6ZE-Be5r5g at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> [Apologies for cross-posting]
>
> Hi all,
>
> Of interest, eLife has published its 2015 annual report, detailing
> our costs of publishing versus those of our technology innovation and
> development.
>
>
>
> Every year since 2012, eLife has published an annual report on activities
> along with our US Form 990 (required for our type of non-profit
> organisation) and our audited financial accounts. This year, we present a
> deeper view of our 2015 financials, covering publishing and non-publishing
> expenses.
>
>
>
> As part of our ambition to change how science publishing works, especially
> among highly selective journals, we hope that being transparent about
> our costs will help set a future course for research communication that is
> efficient and sustainable.
>
>
>
> eLife's Executive Director, Mark Patterson, and Head of External Relations,
> Jennifer McLennan, have written a blog post that provides further
> information about our costs (https://elifesciences.org/eli
> fe-news/inside-elife-what-it-costs-publish) and the Times Higher Education
> featured a news piece: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/elife-
> reveals-publication-costs-spark-debate-journal-prices.
>
>
> Our 2015 annual report is also available to view here:https://2015.elifesciences.org.
>
>
> Please let me know if you would like any further information.
>
>
>
> Kind regards,
>
>
> Emily
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Mark Patterson
Executive Director, eLife
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
24 Hills Road
Cambridge
CB2 1JP

T: +44 1223 855341
W: elifesciences.org

eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd is a limited liability non-profit
non-stock corporation incorporated in the State of Delaware, USA, with
company number 5030732, and is registered in the UK with company number
FC030576 and branch number BR015634 at the address, First Floor, 24 Hills
Road, Cambridge CB2 1JP.
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