From: Heather Morrison <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2013 09:42:11 -0800

Sage Open has reduced their open access article processing fee to $99
per article. The announcement is posted here:
http://www.uk.sagepub.com/aboutus/press/2013/jan/24_jan.htm

This is not the first OA publisher to come out with prices in this
range. PeerJ, established by Peter Binfield (formerly PLoS ONE), has
open access fees on a lifetime membership basis starting from $99.

This raises some interesting questions. For example:

What is the real cost of publishing in an open access online
environment? Sage OPEN and PeerJ are both commercial companies. If $99
is sufficient to cover the costs of coordinating peer review and
publication, why would anyone pay even the $1,350 charged by PLoS ONE,
never mind the $3,000 plus charged by some of the traditional
publishers under hybrid arrangements?

Is this an indication that transitioning to open access will indeed
open up the inelastic market for scholarly journals to competition?

best,

Heather G. Morrison, PhD
Freedom for scholarship in the internet age
http://pages.cmns.sfu.ca/heather-morrison/2012/12/12/freedom-for-scholarship-in-the-internet-age-post-defence-version/