Abstract
Using Scopus and national sources, I have investigated the evolution of the cost of publishing in Danish astronomy on a fine scale over a number of years. I find that the number of publications per year from Danish astronomers increased by a factor of four during 15 years: naturally, the corresponding potential cost of publishing must have increased similarly. The actual realized cost of publishing in core journals are investigated for a high profile Danish astronomy research institutions. I argue that the situation is highly unstable if the current cost scenario continues, and I speculate that Danish astronomy is risking a scholarly communication collapse due to the combination of increasing subscription cost, increased research output, and increased direct publishing costs related to Open Access and other page charges.
Highlights
In March 2016, The New York Times [5] wrote that ”Journal publishers collectively earned 10 billion USD last year, much of it from research libraries, which pay annual subscription fees ranging from 2,000 to 35,000 USD per title if they don’t buy subscriptions of bundled titles, which cost millions
Non-Open Access or Toll Access publishing in astronomy and astrophysics is traditionally supplemented by Green Open Access through authors’ self-archiving into the open repository arXiv.org at Cornell University Library
This method of achieving Open Access has been the modus operandi for astronomy and astrophysics even prior to the invention of the term Open Access around the millennium: arXiv.org has been in operation for more than a quarter of a century
Summary
In March 2016, The New York Times [5] wrote that ”Journal publishers collectively earned 10 billion USD last year, much of it from research libraries, which pay annual subscription fees ranging from 2,000 to 35,000 USD per title if they don’t buy subscriptions of bundled titles, which cost millions. Suber was quoted saying, ”was to persuade researchers to publish in Open Access journals like those under the umbrella of the Public Library of Science,or PLOS, co-founded by Dr Eisen at Berkeley. The Max Planck Digital Library White Paper on Open Access by [3] makes the case for a large-scale transformation of the current scholarly publishing system to an Open Access model. In accordance with the Max Planck Digital Library White Paper, the authors found that the average cost per publication of 3,600 Euro in Denmark is only a little lower than a similar calculation by [3] yielding a global level cost per publication of 3,800 Euro [4]
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