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    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">Hi all,<br>
      <br>
      An interesting discussion. My perspective is not a moral one. The
      APC charged should as far as possible reflect the quality and
      services of the journal. The current full OA market (for APC
      journals) is a relatively competive microeconomic market where
      customers(=authors) decide where to submit in a situation where
      they usually have several journals (some OA, most not ) to choose
      from. Quite in contrast to the oligopolistic subscription market
      or the strange hybrid OA market. So if BMC have in fact managed to
      establish their better journals as high quality outlets there is
      no problem in rising prices. The authors dedice. I don't think the
      UK funders decisions have yet had much impact on the funding. <br>
      <br>
      I've personally paid APCs (or my department) for two articles in
      PLoS and two in BMC journals nd I've found the benefit/cost ratio
      to be excellent in all cases. In contrast I've made several grave
      mistakes in the choice of where to submit to in subscription
      journals. Those journals don't charge but there are high
      opportunity costs in delayed publication, low visibility etc.<br>
      <br>
      As to the question of rising costs due to higher rejection rates I
      find this to be a largely unsubstantiated claim. The IT infra is
      already paid for, copy editing and invoicing costs only depend on
      the published papers. Almost all of the costs of desk rejected
      manuscripts and manuscripts rejected after long review processes
      are born by unpaid academic editors and reviewers, that is the
      global scholarly community. <br>
      <br>
      Best regards<br>
      <br>
      Bo-Christer<br>
      <br>
      On 2/28/14 3:50 PM, Heather Morrison wrote:<br>
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      <div>hi Jan,</div>
      <div><br>
      </div>
      <div>Good question! No, I have not looked into whether BMC's
        rejection rates have increased.</div>
      <div><br>
      </div>
      <div>Whether this would be an acceptable reason for increasing
        prices at all, or at a particular rate, is a different question.</div>
      <div><br>
      </div>
      <div>For example, unlike a print-based journal with size
        constraints imposed by the need to bundle articles into mailable
        issues, an online open access journal can easily increase in
        scale with more submissions. PLOS ONE has demonstrated the
        potential for translating rapid growth in submissions to rapid
        journal growth, with no price increase, technological
        innovations, and a more than healthy surplus.</div>
      <div><br>
      </div>
      <div>Best,</div>
      <div><br>
      </div>
      <div>Heather Morrison</div>
      <div><br>
      </div>
      <div><br>
        On Feb 28, 2014, at 7:08 AM, "Frantsv&aring;g Jan Erik" &lt;<a
          moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:jan.e.frantsvag@uit.no">jan.e.frantsvag@uit.no</a>&gt;
        wrote:<br>
        <br>
      </div>
      <div><span></span></div>
      <blockquote type="cite">
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            <p class="MsoNormal"><span>Interesting numbers!</span></p>
            <p class="MsoNormal"><span>&nbsp;</span></p>
            <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Have you
                investigated if some of this increase could be explained
                by an increased rejection rate? &#8211; this would be an
                acceptable explanation, in my opinion.</span></p>
            <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">&nbsp;</span></p>
            <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The suspicion is, of
                course, that this could be one result of e.g. the RCUK
                OA policy, which creates a less competitive market and
                better conditions for generating super-profits.</span></p>
            <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">&nbsp;</span></p>
            <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">I think it was
                Gu&eacute;don who asked why currency fluctuations always led to
                price increases &#8230;
              </span><span lang="EN-GB">J</span><span lang="EN-GB"></span></p>
            <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">&nbsp;</span></p>
            <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Best,</span></p>
            <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Jan Erik</span></p>
            <p class="MsoNormal"><span>&nbsp;</span></p>
            <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Jan Erik Frantsv&aring;g</span></p>
            <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Open Access adviser</span></p>
            <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The University
                Library of Troms&oslash;</span></p>
            <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">phone +47 77 64 49
                50</span></p>
            <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">e-mail
              </span><span><a moz-do-not-send="true"
                  href="mailto:jan.e.frantsvag@uit.no"><span
                    lang="EN-GB">jan.e.frantsvag@uit.no</span></a></span><span
                lang="EN-GB"></span></p>
            <p class="MsoNormal"><span><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://en.uit.no/ansatte/organisasjon/ansatte/person?p_document_id=43618&amp;p_dimension_id=88187"><span
                    lang="EN-GB">http://en.uit.no/ansatte/organisasjon/ansatte/person?p_document_id=43618&amp;p_dimension_id=88187</span></a></span><span>
                <span lang="EN-GB"></span></span></p>
            <p class="MsoNormal"><span>Publications:
                <a moz-do-not-send="true"
                  href="http://tinyurl.com/6rycjns">http://tinyurl.com/6rycjns</a>
              </span></p>
            <p class="MsoNormal"><span>&nbsp;</span></p>
            <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">&nbsp;</span></p>
            <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">&nbsp;</span></p>
            <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">&nbsp;</span></p>
            <div>
              <div>
                <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span>Fra:</span></b><span>
                    <a moz-do-not-send="true"
                      href="mailto:goal-bounces@eprints.org">goal-bounces@eprints.org</a>
                    [<a moz-do-not-send="true"
                      href="mailto:goal-bounces@eprints.org">mailto:goal-bounces@eprints.org</a>]
                    <b>P&aring; vegne av</b> Heather Morrison<br>
                    <b>Sendt:</b> 28. februar 2014 00:54<br>
                    <b>Til:</b> Global Open Access List (Successor of
                    AmSci)<br>
                    <b>Emne:</b> [GOAL] The dramatic growth of
                    BioMedCentral's open access article processing
                    charges</span></p>
              </div>
            </div>
            <p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p>
            <div>
              <p class="MsoNormal">Thanks to the University of Ottawa's
                open sharing of their author fund data, I've been able
                to calculate that over the past few years there is
                evidence that BMC is raising prices at rates far beyond
                inflation (and far beyond what could be accounted for
                through currency fluctuations).&nbsp;</p>
            </div>
            <div>
              <p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p>
            </div>
            <div>
              <p class="MsoNormal">Details are posted here:</p>
            </div>
            <div>
              <p class="MsoNormal"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.ca/2014/02/the-dramatic-growth-of-biomedcentral.html">http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.ca/2014/02/the-dramatic-growth-of-biomedcentral.html</a></p>
            </div>
            <div>
              <p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p>
            </div>
            <div>
              <p class="MsoNormal">Note that this data reflects BMC
                practices and cannot be generalized to open access
                publishing as a whole. Public Library of Science, for
                example, has achieved a 23% surplus in the same time
                frame without increasing their OA article processing
                charges at all.</p>
            </div>
            <div>
              <p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p>
            </div>
            <div>
              <p class="MsoNormal">best,</p>
            </div>
            <p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p>
            <div>
              <div>
                <div>
                  <div>
                    <div>
                      <p class="MsoNormal"><span>--&nbsp;<br>
                          Dr. Heather Morrison<br>
                          Assistant Professor<br>
                          &Eacute;cole des sciences de l'information / School
                          of Information Studies<br>
                          University of Ottawa</span></p>
                    </div>
                    <div>
                      <p class="MsoNormal"><span>Desmarais 111-02</span></p>
                    </div>
                    <div>
                      <p class="MsoNormal"><span>613-562-5800 ext. 7634<br>
                          <a moz-do-not-send="true"
                            href="http://www.sis.uottawa.ca/faculty/hmorrison.html">http://www.sis.uottawa.ca/faculty/hmorrison.html</a><br>
                          <a moz-do-not-send="true"
                            href="mailto:Heather.Morrison@uottawa.ca">Heather.Morrison@uottawa.ca</a></span></p>
                    </div>
                  </div>
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              </div>
            </div>
            <p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p>
          </div>
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        <div><span>_______________________________________________</span><br>
          <span>GOAL mailing list</span><br>
          <span><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:GOAL@eprints.org">GOAL@eprints.org</a></span><br>
          <span><a moz-do-not-send="true"
              href="http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/goal">http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/goal</a></span><br>
        </div>
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      <br>
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      <pre wrap="">_______________________________________________
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</pre>
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