For Elsevier, the biggest of the barrier-based publishers, we can calculate the total cost per article as £1,605m subscription revenue divided by 240,000 articles per year = £6,689 per article. By contrast, the cost of publishing an article with a flagship open access journal such as PLoS ONE is $1,350 (£850), about one eighth as much. No one expects open access to eliminate costs. But we can expect it to dramatically reduce them, as well as making research universally and freely available.
You’re enjoying a sunny day in the park with some friends. You get out your smart phone to find that piece of music your friends really should hear, and all of a sudden, a flock of colourful mini helicopters appears out of nowhere, and perform a gracious dance in the sky above you while the music plays. Then they disappear again.
Sounds futuristic? Yeah, even still looked futuristic when I saw this at the GLOW Festival in Eindhoven, last November:
There still are web hosting providers offering only ftp access to your website files. No fun if you’re used to version control systems and shell access.
I had to deal with that situation, and used Linux’s strength: combining several small tools.
Open for Change
Recollection
NABUUR
Nivocer