From: "Jan Erik Frantsvåg" <[log in to unmask]> Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2017 06:07:16 +0000 From what I have seen, this is a saving also major TA publishers are aware of ... :-) There is nearly no limit to what one could save on, another discussion is whether one should. I have the impression that more and more of the work and responsibility is placed on the authors' shoulders, that is not necessarily a good thing. But not always negative, either. Reminds me a bit of my old business, banking: Increasingly the customer does more and more of the work, while the costs to the customer remains at least the same. - jan erik -----Opprinnelig melding----- From: Sandy Thatcher <[log in to unmask]> Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2017 19:35:55 -0500 I heard somewhere that Hindawi does not provide copyediting. If that is true, there is one source of saving right there. Sandy Thatcher > From: "Jan Erik Frantsvåg" <[log in to unmask]> > Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2017 08:20:50 +0000 > > Joe, you are right: > High profit margins at Hindawi cannot be a result of their controlling > a monopoly (or sale of aggregations). But only to a degree: They could > be (and I believe they must be) a result of high prices in the > publishing market, not connected to high costs but to monopolistic > competition. No need for H to set much lower prices than competitors, > but with low costs they can earn much money as long as pricing in the > market is set by the large players who control monopolies, and how > have high costs, often for historical reasons. > > The numbers I found some years ago indicated that Hindawi's 50 per > cent profit margin came from APCs lower than Elsevier's per article > profit. Which means that there is much room for cost-cutting and > lowering of prices if a competitive marked for APCs can be created. > > The larger publishers won't have the creating of a competitive market > high on their agenda, quite the opposite. So it is up to libraries and > other buyer's or buyers' representatives to work towards such a > change. > > Best, > Jan Erik > > -----Opprinnelig melding----- > From: Joseph Esposito <[log in to unmask]> > Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2017 21:03:17 -0400 > > I don't know what Hindawi's finances look like, but if they indeed > have a 50% margin, more power to them. But let't not overlook that > Hindawi is an open access publisher. High margins at H, if they indeed > have them, thus cannot be due to a monopoly or the sale of > aggregations. > > In general, I find discussions of publishing not to be anchored in > evidence. That doesn't mean that the positions of OA advocates are > wrong; it simply means that they are ill-informed. > > Joe Esposito