Page Charges and Article Length in Astronomy Journals Kathryn Dunn dunnkathgrinnell'edu, Grinnell Co

1
Page Charges and Article Length in Astronomy
JournalsKathryn Dunn (dunnkath_at_grinnell.edu),
Grinnell College Robert Noel (rnoel_at_indiana.edu),
Indiana University Debora Shaw
(shawd_at_indiana.edu), Indiana University

• Contrary to what would seem reasonable economic
  expectations, page charges do not correlate with
  shorter articles.

• Abstract A study of 34 journals in astronomy and
  astrophysics looked at the relationship between
  journal page charges and the length of articles
  published. Although some writers contend that
  page charges encourage contributors to write
  shorter articles, there was no correlation
  between page charges and the length of articles
  published. American journals with relatively high
  impact factors were more likely to have page
  charges, but there was no overall correlation
  between impact factor and either page charges or
  article length.
• To avoid incurring mandatory page charges, the
  author(s) are strongly advised to practice
  economy in the original manuscript submission and
  restraint in preparation of the final manuscript
  following peer review. (From IEEE Engineering
  in Medicine and Biology Society, p. 5 STATEMENT
  ON MANDATORY PAGE CHARGES)
• What we examined
• Do journals have page charges?
• Do journals with page charges publish shorter
  articles?
• Is there any correlation between journal impact
  and either page charges or article length?

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Journals with Page Charges
3
Journals Charging for Color Figures
4
Is there any correlation between journal impact
and either page charges or article length?

• In assessing the relationship between page
  charges and impact factor we segmented the
  journals into three ranks based on their impact
  factors. Journals with high impact factors were
  significantly more likely to charge for
  publication through standard page charges (chi
  square 7.039, plt.05). However, charging for
  reproduction of color images did not correlate
  with a journals impact factor (chi square 0).
  The correlation between average article length
  and journal impact factor was also not
  significant (r20.099).

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Discussion and Conclusion

• Our study corroborates Odlyzkos (1997)
  observation of a decline in page charges. Only
  three of the 18 publishers of astronomy and
  astrophysics journals assess such charges and
  these are not the large, commercial houses. All
  seven journals with page charges were in the top
  half of the impact factor rankings. Journals from
  five commercial firms charge for color images,
  often with complicated assessments or requiring
  interaction with the publisher. These ten
  journals are distributed throughout the impact
  factor ranking.
• The Taylor Francis statement on limited
  allotment for color reproductions (above)
  exemplifies the view that journal publications
  are a common good and that authors should
  therefore avoid taking more than their share by
  keeping their demands within reason. Page charges
  can be viewed as economic incentives to promote
  behavior supportive of the common good by
  rationing the number of submissionsi.
  Considerations well beyond economics, however,
  clearly affect authors publication decisions.
  This is evident in the publication of longer
  articles in the journals with page charges.
• There are many variations in author charges
  indeed, 17 of these journals specifically do not
  charge for publication and information was not
  available for ten titles. (Annales Geophysicae,
  for example, declares in a banner on its website
  No page or service charge for authors/ No extra
  charge for colour illustrations
  http//www.cesr.fr/anngeo/). This range of
  practice draws into question Open Access
  advocates suggestion (e.g., Doyle, Gass,
  Kennison, 2004) that authors are accustomed to
  paying for publication and so will not be
  concerned about paying to support OA
  publications.
• With new alternatives, and as new authors
  unfamiliar with page charges enter the field of
  astronomy, will page charges diminish? There is a
  variation in practices that has changed over
  time. Clearly this is subject to debate now.

6
References

• Acknowledgments
• We would like to thank economist George Von
  Furstenberg for his contributions to this
  discussion of the economics of journal page
  charges, and astronomer Caty Pilachowski for
  contributions to the discussion of astronomy
  publishing in general.
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