I no financial wizard, but I naively think that if the price I pay for a 
service is less than the price I paid for that service last year then that 
counts as a price reduction.

David



On 23 May 2015, at 00:14, Dana Roth 
<dzr...@library.caltech.edu<mailto:dzr...@library.caltech.edu>> wrote:

One way to help keep this straight is to work out the cost per currency.

An Article Processing Charge (APC) of 3,000 EUROs (3,900 USD/GBP2500) works out 
to $1.30/Euro
While an APC of 2,950 EUROS (3,900 USD/GBP 2,500) works out to exchange rate 
of: 1.32$/Euro


Actually, the decrease of 50 Euros (3,000 – 2,950) is a 1.6% decrease (50/3000) 
in Euro pricing … while the posted USD price remains the same.
I suspect that USD authors must still pay in USD … just as libraries have to 
pay their subscription agents the posted US$ price, irrespective of the change 
in value of the EURO or GBP price.

All this might be better stated, given today’s exchange rate of $1.11/Euro, and 
assuming that the EURO is the primary currency (since it is listed first), the 
USD APC should be $3274.50.

This suggests that EMBO (European Molecular Biology Organization) Press is 
unfairly taking advantage of exchange rates by charging each USD author 16% 
more (3900-3274.5/3900) than they would if the APC charges were honestly based 
on the current exchange rate.

Dana L. Roth
Caltech 1-32
1200 E. California Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91125
626-395-6423 fax 626-792-7540
dzr...@library.caltech.edu<mailto:dzr...@library.caltech.edu>
http://library.caltech.edu/collections/chemistry.htm

From: goal-boun...@eprints.org<mailto:goal-boun...@eprints.org> 
[mailto:goal-boun...@eprints.org] On Behalf Of Heather Morrison
Sent: Friday, May 22, 2015 7:20 AM
To: Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci)
Subject: [GOAL] correction re: How an apparent small price decrease may 
actually be a large price increase, or why it is important to understand 
currencies

My apologies, I got the currency differential backwards - a 21% decrease in the 
EUR should mean a 21% increase in the EUR price, not a decrease.

The basic concept that to understand whether pricing are actually increasing, 
decreasing, or remaining flat, you need to track the pricing in all of the 
currencies, not just one, remains the same. If anyone has pricing for this 
journal from May 2014 in USD or GBP, or if someone from the journal could 
explain their pricing, that would be helpful.

My original incorrect message follows:

This example may help to understand why it is important to consider currency 
fluctuations in assessing trends in pricing. If a journal charges in more than 
one currency, to know whether pricing is flat, decreasing or increasing it is 
necessary to track the pricing in all of the currencies.

Molecular Systems Biology http://msb.embopress.org/authorguide "levies an 
Article Processing Charge (APC) of 2,950 EUROS (3,900 USD/GBP 2,500) for each 
Research Articles or Reports accepted for publication. There are no additional 
costs (such as page charges or submission charges)." The 2,950 EUROS is a 2% 
price decrease from the 3,000 EUROS we noted last year. But is it really a 
price decrease? As we recently calculated, the EURO has lost 21% in comparison 
with the USD over the past year. If the USD is the primary currency (likely the 
reason for the current EUR price decrease), then the equivalent in EUR today 
would be 2,370 EUR. What looks like a 50 EUR or 2% price decrease may actually 
be a 580 EUR or 24% increase.  Last year we did not capture pricing in all the 
currencies so cannot confirm.

best,

--
Dr. Heather Morrison
Assistant Professor
École des sciences de l'information / School of Information Studies
University of Ottawa
Desmarais 111-02
613-562-5800 ext. 7634
Sustaining the Knowledge Commons: Open Access Scholarship
http://sustainingknowledgecommons.org/
http://www.sis.uottawa.ca/faculty/hmorrison.html
heather.morri...@uottawa.ca<mailto:heather.morri...@uottawa.ca>

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