[Wikimedia-l] (semi-OT) Open access "catastrophic" for Elsevier

[Tim Starling]

On 23/09/12 05:24, David Gerard wrote:
> It's such a pity that Elsevier's attempt to legally block open access
> requirements [1] means that they must be destroyed utterly with not
> one stone left upon another and the ground salted. I'm crying real[2]
> tears here.
> 
> http://blogs.library.duke.edu/scholcomm/2012/09/21/how-do-you-recognize-a-catastrophe/
> http://blogs.library.duke.edu/scholcomm/files/2012/09/Berstein-report-on-Elsevier.pdf
> 
> The world's smallest violin is playing the world's quietest tune, at
> $39.50 a play for non-subscribers.

According to the PDF, each published article costs them 1954 GBP, and
brings in a revenue of 3256 GBP. A very nice business to be in. They
already charge the authors a processing fee of 2000 GBP per article,
so they could break even with open access, without increasing the
author fee at all. That would be bad for investors, but the company
would survive. So maybe it's not quite time to dance on Elselvier's grave.

-- Tim Starling