"Author pays" publishing model: Model is concerned with  vanity and profit

doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7405.54-b

BMJ 2003;327:54 (5 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7405.54-b

Letter

"Author pays" publishing model

Model is concerned with vanity and profit

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Delamothe et al assert that in the "author pays"world of medical publishing, peer review would occur exactlyas it does now—the "author pays" model would not becomea form of vanity publishing.¹ They also say that submissionfees are likely to become routine parts of the process.

But consider this. All editors receive and reject many papersthat are competent and methodologically acceptable, but highlyunlikely to be of any interest to many other than those whohave worked on the paper. Experience teaches editors whichsort of papers are uncitable.

For example, our journal, Tobacco Control, could easily sinkunder the weight of parochial smoking prevalence studies. Wereceive an unending stream of these, and reject most not becausethey are poorly done but because we know that they are relativelyunimportant, dull, and a poor use of expensive publishing space.

But if the cost . . . [Full text of this article]

Simon Chapman, editor

Tobacco Control University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia simonchapman@health.usyd.edu.au