Publication charges

Posted Feb 25, 2006 20:21 UTC (Sat) by soundray (guest, #688)
Parent article: Parallel universes: open access and open source

There seems to be some confusion around publication charges. All open access journals I know of (including BioMed Central and PLoS) charge per article submission, not per page. The charge is for publication, not for review, ie. no charge will be levied for rejected papers. PLoS waives the fee for authors who say they are unable to pay, without means assessment. Most publishers waive the fee for authors at member institutions of certain categories.

Publication fees are by no means unique to open access. Many traditional publishers make authors pay for the privilege to contribute to pools of knowledge which are then sold back to their community at extortionate rates. There are overlength charges, charges for color figures, reprint charges... some even demand a review fee, independent of whether the paper is accepted or rejected.

Some more detailed information is on
http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-doc...