Thanks, everybody, for the helpful responses to this question – it’s been really useful for helping me understand the general issues as well as the specific one here.
Paul
From: Repositories discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Monica Duke
Sent: 26 May 2012 18:44
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: How to determine the credibility of an OA journal?
Some further perspectives on submission fees are explored in these blog posts (and links that can be followed from them, including a Knowledge Exchange report)
http://cameronneylon.net/blog/they-just-dont-get-it/ (in the comments particularly)
Monica
On 26 May 2012, at 17:55, Frank Manista wrote:
Thanks to all for shedding light on just how expensive it has become to get published in some journals. It seems problematic that we are moving in this particular direction and I wonder if it helps the idea of open research. I wrote (but never posted) a blog post entitled "open don't mean free", but if we now have to factor in publication costs into our bids to disseminate useful research, are we not then making that information still difficult to attain? In other words, if my bid is accepted but cut by a percentage, won't I look into journals which will not charge me £1000 for the prividedge of being published by them and my having to pay for it?
It seems to be a "borrowing from Peter to pay Paul" situation.
Dr. Frank C. Manista
Community Enhancement Officer (Academic)
The University of Manchester
MIMAS
5.14 Roscoe Building
M13 9PL
0161 275 0155 (external)
50155 (internal)
From: Repositories discussion list [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Christine Middleton [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 26 May 2012 14:12
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: How to determine the credibility of an OA journal?
Hi Paul,
The University of Nottingham has a central fund to support such payments. Last year the average APC (based on 262 articles) worked out at approx £1200 with charges ranging from £200 to £3000 so your request is well within this range.
Usually APC costs can be built into the direct costs within grant bids but I acknowledge that often articles are written after the grant has finished. The Wellcome Trust and a number of other organisations such as the British Heart Foundation and Arthritis Research UK, will continue to fund APCs for their funded research post grant so it is worth checking this. Nottingham’s fund is maintained by building APC costs into the indirect cost of research within funding bids. This is permitted by the research councils as outline on the EPSRC page here:http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/managing/Pages/publicationfees.aspx . However “universities can only start to include the costs of paying publication fees in their calculation of indirect cost the year after they first make provision” so it would be worth recording any such transactions from now onwards.
Regards,
Chris
Christine Middleton
Head of Academic Services
Information Services
The University of Nottingham
B154 King's Meadow Campus
Lenton Lane
Nottingham
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0115 8467622
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From: Repositories discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David Prosser
Sent: 25 May 2012 20:55
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: How to determine the credibility of an OA journal?
Hi Paul
Hindawi is certainly a reputable publisher. They were one of the founding members of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) - a group that was set up to raise standards amongst open access publishers. (But I'm not competent to judge what standing in its field the specific journal in question has.)
David
On 25 May 2012, at 08:33, Paul Rosen wrote:
Hello. Having been following the open access debates over recent months, I’ve now encountered it directly for the first time. A researcher in my institution has submitted an abstract in response to a call for papers for a journal special issue, and received a positive response but been told there’ll be a $1,000 (I assume that is USD!) Article Processing Charge. His existing funding does not include any allowance for such fees, so the money would need to be found from some other budget within the university if it’s going to go ahead. One obvious consideration will be REF – the timetable for the special issue falls within the REF period, which is good … but that makes the credibility of the journal even more important.
I’m now looking into this to work out whether the journal and publisher are credible and the fee reasonable – and of course there is a general issue here of how to distinguish quality and credibility in an OA environment. I’m not familiar with this journal or publisher, and have not until now come across any actual publication fees to compare this with, so I’d appreciate any thoughts on this. The journal is Journal of Environmental and Public Health, published by Hindawi.
Many thanks,
Paul
Dr Paul Rosen
Research Development Manager
Research and Business Services
Northumbria University
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