<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:12.8px">Thanks for flagging that up, Danny. We can certainly try and clear up a few points:</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:12.8px"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:12.8px">The numbers we published (at <a href="https://elifesciences.org/elife-news/inside-elife-what-it-costs-publish" target="_blank">https://elifesciences.org/<wbr>elife-news/inside-elife-what-<wbr>it-costs-publish</a>) 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 (<a href="https://2015.elifesciences.org/assets/eLife-2015-income-tax-returns.pdf" target="_blank">https://2015.elifesciences.<wbr>org/assets/eLife-2015-income-<wbr>tax-returns.pdf</a>). </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:12.8px"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:12.8px">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. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:12.8px"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:12.8px">Best wishes</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:12.8px">Mark</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Sep 6, 2016 at 12:20 PM, Danny Kingsley <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:dak45@cam.ac.uk" target="_blank">dak45@cam.ac.uk</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
Thanks Emily,<br>
<br>
There has been a posting on Scholarly Kitchen about it with Kent
Anderson's calculations - you may agree or wish to answer the call.<br>
<br>
Danny<br>
<br>
<h1 style="border:0px;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,"Lucida Grande",Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:2em;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;clear:both;color:rgb(17,17,17);letter-spacing:-0.04em;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Annual Reports — What Do They Actually Tell Us?</h1>
<div style="border:0px;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,"Lucida Grande",Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:0.9em;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:0px;padding:0.3em 0px 0.4em;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(102,102,102);text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:10.8px;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">POSTED
BY<span> </span><a href="https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/author/scholarlykitchen/" title="View all posts by Kent Anderson" rel="author" style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:10.8px;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(120,27,37);text-decoration:none;outline:none" target="_blank">KENT ANDERSON</a></span><span> </span><span style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:10.8px;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><span>⋅</span><span> </span><time datetime="2016-08-29T05:30:35+00:00">AUG 29, 2016</time></span></div>
-
<a href="https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2016/08/29/annual-reports-what-do-they-actually-tell-us/" target="_blank">https://scholarlykitchen.<wbr>sspnet.org/2016/08/29/annual-<wbr>reports-what-do-they-actually-<wbr>tell-us/</a><br>
<br>
Kent states:<br>
<br>
<p style="border:0px;font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:1.2em;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:0px 0px 1em;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;text-align:left;line-height:1.6em;color:rgb(51,51,51);letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Unfortunately,<span> </span><em style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:14.4px;font-style:italic;font-weight:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">eLife’s</em><span> </span>report
is itself rather opaque.</p>
<p style="border:0px;font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:1.2em;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:0px 0px 1em;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;text-align:left;line-height:1.6em;color:rgb(51,51,51);letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">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.</p>
<p style="border:0px;font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:1.2em;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:0px 0px 1em;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;text-align:left;line-height:1.6em;color:rgb(51,51,51);letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Costs that are left out of
the equation include<span> </span><a href="http://www.movehut.co.uk/property/364539-24-hills-road-cambridge/" style="border-width:0px 0px 1px;border-bottom-style:solid;border-bottom-color:rgb(238,238,238);font-family:inherit;font-size:14.4px;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(58,105,153);text-decoration:none;outline:none" target="_blank">the
approximately 2,400 square feet of office space</a>, 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.</p>
<p style="border:0px;font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:1.2em;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:0px 0px 1em;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;text-align:left;line-height:1.6em;color:rgb(51,51,51);letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">There is a lot of text
expended rationalizing the amount of money<span> </span><em style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:14.4px;font-style:italic;font-weight:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">eLife</em><span> </span>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.</p>
<p style="border:0px;font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:1.2em;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:0px 0px 1em;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;text-align:left;line-height:1.6em;color:rgb(51,51,51);letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">The math on publishing
costs in the<span> </span><em style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:14.4px;font-style:italic;font-weight:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">eLife</em><span> </span>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.</p>
<p style="border:0px;font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:1.2em;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:0px 0px 1em;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;text-align:left;line-height:1.6em;color:rgb(51,51,51);letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Factoring in the work
space, overheads, and capital expenditures, and the<span> </span><em style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:14.4px;font-style:italic;font-weight:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">eLife</em><span> </span>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.</p>
<br>
<br>
<div>On 06/09/2016 12:00,
<a href="mailto:goal-request@eprints.org" target="_blank">goal-request@eprints.org</a> wrote:<br>
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Today's Topics:
1. Inside eLife: What it costs to publish (Emily Packer)
------------------------------<wbr>------------------------------<wbr>----------
Message: 1
Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2016 15:43:13 +0100
From: Emily Packer <a href="mailto:e.packer@elifesciences.org" target="_blank"><e.packer@elifesciences.org></a>
Subject: [GOAL] Inside eLife: What it costs to publish
To: <a href="mailto:goal@eprints.org" target="_blank">goal@eprints.org</a>
Message-ID:
<a href="mailto:CAErc9s+b9uBBjRumwk1AD24hrE3o4ET4efnuXvtt6ZE-Be5r5g@mail.gmail.com" target="_blank"><CAErc9s+<wbr>b9uBBjRumwk1AD24hrE3o4ET4efnuX<wbr>vtt6ZE-Be5r5g@mail.gmail.com></a>
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 (<a href="https://elifesciences.org/eli" target="_blank">https://elifesciences.org/eli</a>
fe-news/inside-elife-what-it-<wbr>costs-publish) and the Times Higher Education
featured a news piece: <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/elife" target="_blank">https://www.<wbr>timeshighereducation.com/news/<wbr>elife</a>-
reveals-publication-costs-<wbr>spark-debate-journal-prices.
Our 2015 annual report is also available to view here:
<a href="https://2015.elifesciences.org" target="_blank">https://2015.elifesciences.org</a><wbr>.
Please let me know if you would like any further information.
Kind regards,
Emily
</pre>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div>Mark Patterson</div><div>Executive Director, eLife</div><div><div>eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd</div><div>24 Hills Road</div><div>Cambridge</div><div>CB2 1JP<br clear="all"></div><div><br></div><div></div></div><div>T: +44 1223 855341</div><div>W: <a href="http://elifesciences.org/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">elifesciences.org</a></div><div><br></div><div><font size="1">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.</font></div></div></div>
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