Nature Neuroscience offers open access publishing for $11k per article • Hacker News Board

Re: Nature Neuroscience offers open access publishing for $11k per article

#21

Post by jryb » Wed, Jan 26, 2022, 4:04 AM UTC

asperous wrote: post #14

The article says "Our aim is to ensure that lack of funds is never a barrier to publishing with us." As in they will provide funding if someone can't afford it. Isn't this a really good thing? What is the average budget for an research project that ends up with an article published in this journal? Clinical trials are in the millions, and research grants are often 6 figures. I know people see this as rent seeking, bu…

Some smaller labs at my tier 1 research institution have their grad students TA (so the university pays their salary) because they don't have the ability to pay them the $30k salary. $11k for one paper is a meaningful amount of money, and other journals can publish for an order of magnitude less.

It doesn't cost $11k to read a paper, send a few emails and do some typesetting. People pay for this kind of thing because having a Nature paper on your resume makes it much easier to get a tenure-track job. It's just a prestige racket.

Re: Nature Neuroscience offers open access publishing for $11k per article

#22

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jan 26, 2022, 4:05 AM UTC

chaps wrote: post #8

yed wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The catch is it’s $11000

I mean, I'm coming at this from the perspective of a freelance journalist where sometimes the best rate I can get for a story that took three months to research is $250. Not talking just interviews and finding expert sourcing, but deeply involved work with code, data analysis, data cleanup, etc etc etc, often that nobody else is doing. So, that's pretty fucking good in my book, man.

[deleted]

Re: Nature Neuroscience offers open access publishing for $11k per article

#23

Post by epberry » Wed, Jan 26, 2022, 4:06 AM UTC

I’ve worked on a couple NSF grants and I believe this cost could be covered by the grant. Whether the granting institution is okay with this I don’t know but if I had to guess they probably see an $11K spend to distribute the results of the research in a (the?) prestigious journal as reasonable.

To me $11K seems pretty steep. But I might go for $5K to put Nature’s stamp on my work and have it open access.

Re: Nature Neuroscience offers open access publishing for $11k per article

#24

Post by germanjoey » Wed, Jan 26, 2022, 4:07 AM UTC

asperous wrote: post #14

The article says "Our aim is to ensure that lack of funds is never a barrier to publishing with us." As in they will provide funding if someone can't afford it. Isn't this a really good thing? What is the average budget for an research project that ends up with an article published in this journal? Clinical trials are in the millions, and research grants are often 6 figures. I know people see this as rent seeking, bu…

...and what service is that?

Re: Nature Neuroscience offers open access publishing for $11k per article

#25

Post by torbTurret » Wed, Jan 26, 2022, 4:09 AM UTC

I’ll never forget getting my first paper accepted to a conference, only to learn that presenting will cost a mere $600.

Work paid for it but still - what an absolute racket academia is.

Re: Nature Neuroscience offers open access publishing for $11k per article

#26

Post by dontreact » Wed, Jan 26, 2022, 4:11 AM UTC

chaps wrote: post #8

yed wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The catch is it’s $11000

I mean, I'm coming at this from the perspective of a freelance journalist where sometimes the best rate I can get for a story that took three months to research is $250. Not talking just interviews and finding expert sourcing, but deeply involved work with code, data analysis, data cleanup, etc etc etc, often that nobody else is doing. So, that's pretty fucking good in my book, man.

No, you have to pay 11k to publish

Re: Nature Neuroscience offers open access publishing for $11k per article

#27

Post by sometimeshuman » Wed, Jan 26, 2022, 4:13 AM UTC

tomrod wrote: post #9

What in the world? I have a hard time seeing this as anything but a racket, or possibly a legal maneuver to increase standing to sue Sci-Hub or something ("Look, we've offered free access already!") How much did Nature Neuroscience pay to produce these articles? Do they pay their editors? Their reviewers? The authors? Do they pay their typesetters? Do they offer their print journal for free? Do they have expensive co…

"Most journals already allow authors to distribute copies by request." Does anyone know how this works in practice ? I'd like to ask a few of my favorite researchers for a copy of their papers but I am a hobbyist and don't want to take their time and add to their likely overflowing inbox.

BTW, "this is nuts" isn't a claim you can make if you don't know the answer to questions you posted.

From their website: "an article is submitted and is assessed by our editors. If suitable it will be put through Peer Review". That peer review process could quickly exceed the $11.4k for example.

[edited] added the BTW paragraphs after responses were received to the question in my first paragraph.

Re: Nature Neuroscience offers open access publishing for $11k per article

#28

Post by Brian-Puccio » Wed, Jan 26, 2022, 4:15 AM UTC

sometimeshuman wrote: post #27

tomrod wrote: post #9

What in the world? I have a hard time seeing this as anything but a racket, or possibly a legal maneuver to increase standing to sue Sci-Hub or something ("Look, we've offered free access already!") How much did Nature Neuroscience pay to produce these articles? Do they pay their editors? Their reviewers? The authors? Do they pay their typesetters? Do they offer their print journal for free? Do they have expensive co…

"Most journals already allow authors to distribute copies by request." Does anyone know how this works in practice ? I'd like to ask a few of my favorite researchers for a copy of their papers but I am a hobbyist and don't want to take their time and add to their likely overflowing inbox. BTW, "this is nuts" isn't a claim you can make if you don't know the answer to questions you posted. From their website: "an artic…

For a sample size of one, go ahead and ask them:

https://twitter.com/hwitteman/status/1015049411276300289

Re: Nature Neuroscience offers open access publishing for $11k per article

#29

Post by joatmon-snoo » Wed, Jan 26, 2022, 4:15 AM UTC

sometimeshuman wrote: post #27

tomrod wrote: post #9

What in the world? I have a hard time seeing this as anything but a racket, or possibly a legal maneuver to increase standing to sue Sci-Hub or something ("Look, we've offered free access already!") How much did Nature Neuroscience pay to produce these articles? Do they pay their editors? Their reviewers? The authors? Do they pay their typesetters? Do they offer their print journal for free? Do they have expensive co…

"Most journals already allow authors to distribute copies by request." Does anyone know how this works in practice ? I'd like to ask a few of my favorite researchers for a copy of their papers but I am a hobbyist and don't want to take their time and add to their likely overflowing inbox. BTW, "this is nuts" isn't a claim you can make if you don't know the answer to questions you posted. From their website: "an artic…

Find their email address, write them, and ask. They're more likely than most people realize to respond.

Re: Nature Neuroscience offers open access publishing for $11k per article

#30

Post by lettergram » Wed, Jan 26, 2022, 4:15 AM UTC

It’s disgusting... but, the value proposition is there.

As an inspiring researcher, it’s 100% worth it to spend the $11k. It’ll increase citations making it open and further peoples careers. This is a “pay to play” scheme.