3 ms·

It's worth noting that the AAS is a nonprofit scientific society, and so has different incentives than a for-profit publisher like Springer. You can take a loo

It's worth noting that the AAS is a nonprofit scientific society, and so has different incentives than a for-profit publisher like Springer. You can take a look at the AAS tax returns here: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/210735173 https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/210... In 2019 the Journals division reported $7.3M revenue against $5.6M expenses. Direct-paid salaries appear to be a minority of expenses; the AAS journals are hosted by IOP publishing (https://iopscience.iop.org/ https://iopscience.iop.org/), so presumably IOP charges for its journal hosting platform are a significant proportion of the remaining expenses.

DaiPlusPlus 5y ago
Why should hosting papers cost so much? Unless their fee involves paying for a granite-imprint of the paper to preserve it for centuries, the marginal cost should be near-zero.
- JBorrow 5y ago
  Well these are scientific articles and as such must be preserved, the cost of which must be paid for sooner rather than later. So it's not just the 'wire cost' of sending PDFs around, but the archival work too that needs to be paid for. I also think that journals are too expensive, but that's why I only publish in society journals.
  - DaiPlusPlus 5y ago
    > Well these are scientific articles and as such must be preserved What guarantees about preservation do journals give, though? (Hence my remark about papers being carved into rock)
    - MaxBarraclough 5y ago
      I encountered this issue recently. I wanted to read an old paper of pretty narrow interest, published in a long-defunct journal. In its day, within the relevant small community, it was considered a quality paper by a respected author; it was not some obscure paper that no one ever read. It isn't officially available anywhere today. There's no invisible hand to save those old publications from being lost to time. Happily, with the help of strangers online, I was eventually (after many months) able to get my hands on an electronic copy. The formal system of publishers was of absolutely no use, and the fear of copyright trouble is likely the reason the paper isn't easily available from some online archive. Doubtless there's no profit in preserving such papers formally.
- gammarator 5y ago
  The marginal cost of an addition paper is nil. The cost is in developing and maintaining the bespoke CRUD app that supports it. Could it be done more cheaply? Almost certainly! But it's a small and opaque market--not a lot of startups competing for the business, I'll bet.

DaiPlusPlus 5y ago

Why should hosting papers cost so much? Unless their fee involves paying for a granite-imprint of the paper to preserve it for centuries, the marginal cost should be near-zero.

JBorrow 5y ago
Well these are scientific articles and as such must be preserved, the cost of which must be paid for sooner rather than later. So it's not just the 'wire cost' of sending PDFs around, but the archival work too that needs to be paid for. I also think that journals are too expensive, but that's why I only publish in society journals.
- DaiPlusPlus 5y ago
  > Well these are scientific articles and as such must be preserved What guarantees about preservation do journals give, though? (Hence my remark about papers being carved into rock)
  - MaxBarraclough 5y ago
    I encountered this issue recently. I wanted to read an old paper of pretty narrow interest, published in a long-defunct journal. In its day, within the relevant small community, it was considered a quality paper by a respected author; it was not some obscure paper that no one ever read. It isn't officially available anywhere today. There's no invisible hand to save those old publications from being lost to time. Happily, with the help of strangers online, I was eventually (after many months) able to get my hands on an electronic copy. The formal system of publishers was of absolutely no use, and the fear of copyright trouble is likely the reason the paper isn't easily available from some online archive. Doubtless there's no profit in preserving such papers formally.
gammarator 5y ago
The marginal cost of an addition paper is nil. The cost is in developing and maintaining the bespoke CRUD app that supports it. Could it be done more cheaply? Almost certainly! But it's a small and opaque market--not a lot of startups competing for the business, I'll bet.