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closeWhere does all the money go to?
Posted by StefanL�tters on 01 Mar 2019 at 08:34 GMT
It is great that PLoS ONE is continuously being considered by an increasing authorship resulting in many published papers and thus pushes the progress in science. 17,000 articles published in 2018 is amazing. Congratulations.
I am just wondering where all the money goes to. With these published papers, PLoS ONE made some 20 million US$. At least I, as one of the Academic Editors, have not received a slice of the pie. On the other hand I understand that I (and 8,000 other board members) have made the ground work, as it is stated that our "contributions of time and expertise ... continue to make PLOS ONE a leader in its field".
Time and expertise cost and actually I am the one who pays (my activities for PLoS ONE are not part of my job description at the university and I am doing all my work outside working hours). At the same time I have to pay when I want to publish in the journal. That somehow is disturbing!
I suggest the journal seriously to re-think what is worth the ground work and comes up with new fair models. In this way, PLoS ONE can become even more leading.
Prof. Dr. Stefan Lötters
Trier University, Biogeography Department
54286 Trier, Germany
loetters@uni-trier.de
RE: Where does all the money go to?
PLOS_ONE_Group replied to StefanL�tters on 08 Mar 2019 at 16:50 GMT
Thank you for your thoughtful comment and service as a PLOS ONE Academic Editor. PLOS is a nonprofit, Open Access publisher that funds its operations through an Article Processing Charge. Our surplus (link below), when we have one, goes back into the organization to pay our staff (all 17,000 accepted manuscripts receive a personal touch), fund our Open Science initiatives and innovate in an attempt to provide an optimum author experience. We’d love to compensate our nearly 11,000 Editorial Board members, but that scope is not sustainable for a publisher our size. We understand there are many demands on your time, and we are even more grateful for your contributions because of this.
https://www.plos.org/fina...