[Taxacom] OMG! OMG! Run for your lives! End of the World...

Fri May 7 07:50:25 CDT 2010

PLOS and ZooKeys openly offer waivers. My understanding is that at least for
now most taxonomists could easily be subsidized by those with large grants,
especially from other fields. Does anybody have experience suggesting that
these waivers are not sufficient or easily obtained?

>From the PLOS faq:
*What if I can't afford the publication fee?*
PLoS is committed to ensuring that our fee is never a barrier to publication
and so we offer a waiver to any authors who do not have access to funds to
cover our publication fees. Editors and reviewers have no access to author
payment information, to ensure that the ability to pay never influences a
publishing decision.

Cynthia Sims Parr, parrc at si.edu
Director, Species Pages Group
Encyclopedia of Life http://www.eol.org
Office: 202.633.9513, Fax: 202.633.8742

Mailing address:
National Museum of Natural History
Smithsonian Institution
P.O. Box 37012, MRC 106
Washington, DC 20013-7012

On Fri, May 7, 2010 at 12:36 AM, Gustaf Mamangkey <
gustaf.mamangkey at gmail.com> wrote:

> The cost is a year salary for scientists in under-developed countries.
> Its a pity. I am not looking for a free charge submission journal but
> reasonable for everyone.
>
> Gustaf
> -------------
> N. Gustaf F. Mamangkey, MSc, PhD
>
> Molluscan Research Group
> Faculty of Fisheries & Marine Sciences
> Sam Ratulangi University
> Jl. Kampus Bahu, Manado 95115, Indonesia
> Homepage: http://mutiara-mutiara.blogspot.com/
> ------------
>
> On Fri, May 7, 2010 at 7:13 AM, Bob Mesibov <mesibov at southcom.com.au>
> wrote:
> > (Please note: I have no objection to e-only publication, with appropriate
> archiving.)
> >
> > That Solanum paper cost the author USD$1350 to publish in PLOS One. It
> would have been USD$2900 in Plos Biology (
> http://www.plos.org/journals/pubfees.php). This is cheap in comparison to
> what other scientific publishers are charging for open access, but still a
> hell of a lot of money. PLOS justifies their prices this way (in part, see
> http://www.plos.org/about/faq.php#pubquest):
> >
> > "More than US$2000 is a lot to pay to publish an article, isn't it?
> > Not when you consider the cost of the research that led to the article.
>  Publication fees are a small fraction of the costs of doing research, and
> it makes sense for funding agencies to include these fees in research
> grants. Many <a href="
> http://www.biomedcentral.com/info/authors/funderpolicies/">funding
> agencies</a> now support this view.  They recognize that publishing is an
> integral part of the research process - and if the work is published OA it
> will deliver the maximum possible impact, which in turn maximizes the
> outcome of the funder's investment in research."
> >
> > I can't speak for all taxonomists, but $1350 doesn't sound like a small
> fraction of *my* costs to produce a paper. It sounds like my field work, my
> materials (morphology only), my SEM fees and museum-related costs, plus
> about USD$700 left over. What PLOS and other open-access publishers are
> trying to do is fund themselves out of research grants rather than
> subscriptions and sales. As their charges go up, taxonomists will need more
> funding to publish open access, and that's the last thing taxonomy needs:
> stiffer competition for the research dollar.
> >
> > Zoological taxonomy isn't quite so expensive at the moment. My last
> Zootaxa paper was a 52-page effort in 2008 that would have cost me 'only'
> USD$1040 for open access (optional). My most recent paper was 50 pp long and
> appeared in ZooKeys 6 weeks ago. ZooKeys requires open access but has a very
> generous policy on discounting page charges based on the circumstances of
> the author. It cost me USD$596, still not 'a small fraction of the costs of
> doing [my] research'.
> >
> > ZooKeys publisher Lyubomir Penev is a regular poster to Taxacom and list
> members will be aware of the other advantages ZooKeys has as a taxonomic
> outlet. Most of us are happy with the idea of open-access e-publishing in
> taxonomy, and some publishers are moving towards helping us. Others seem to
> be looking at open-access as their new cash cow. Caveat auctor.
> > --
> > Dr Robert Mesibov
> > Honorary Research Associate
> > Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, and
> > School of Zoology, University of Tasmania
> > Home contact: PO Box 101, Penguin, Tasmania, Australia 7316
> > 03 64371195; 61 3 64371195
> > Webpage: http://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/mesibov.html
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> >
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> >
> > The Taxacom archive going back to 1992 may be searched with either of
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> >
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> >
> > Or (2) a Google search specified as:  site:
> mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom  your search terms here
> >
>
>
>
> --
> N. Gustaf F. Mamangkey, SPi, MSc, PhD
>
> Molluscan Research Group
> Faculty of Fisheries & Marine Sciences
> Sam Ratulangi University
> Jl. Kampus Bahu, Manado 95115, Indonesia
> Homepage: http://mutiara-mutiara.blogspot.com/
>
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>
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>
> Or (2) a Google search specified as:  site:
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>