Oxford University Press punishes publication in Nucleic Acids Research

According to the new pricing scheme (blogged at 9.7.), Institutions who publishes more than one paper a year in NAR will suffer from higher overall fees (combined publication and subscription charges), see table below (red numbers). To make publications freely available to the public will therefore be punished as the author’s institution has to pay up to 5 times more than last year’s online subscription. In contrast, an reading-only habit without any publication of research results „in return“ will be rewarded. So for example, the University of Münster (1 publ. in NAR p.a.) will make savings, but strong research institutions such as the DKFZ Heidelberg (4,8 publ. p.a.), the University of Oxford (5,5 publ. p.a.) or Yale University (10 publ. p.a.) will experience much higher annual costs associated with combined NAR publication and subscription fees.
Nachtrag: Das House of Commons Science & Technology Committee sieht diese Problematik auch (§ 177), wenn auch aus einem anderern Gedanken heraus (der OUP wahrscheinlich dazu bewogen hat, sein Preismodell genau so und nicht anders aufzuziehen): Open Access bedeutet, dass z.B. Pharmafirmen kein Geld mehr in Zeitschriften stecken müssten. Dieses Geld würde dem Publikationswesen entzogen und müßte von einer anderen – der akademischen – Seite direkt (Abokosten) oder indirekt (Publikationgebühren) aufgebracht werden: [We have] to avoid a disproportionate increase in the amount of money that Government invests directly or indirectly in the publishing process.