> And remember that PLoS is now making a profit at that rate — no longer living off the grants that helped to get it started. At a rate of $1350 per article, it’s not just surviving but flourishing, so we know that that’s a reasonable commercial rate to charge for handling an open-access academic article with no limits on length or on number of high-resolution colour figures [...] So, yes, open access is cheaper. Stupidly cheaper. Absurdly, ridiculously, appallingly cheaper.<p>Open-access is still absurdly expensive. $1350 to publish an article in an online journal, seriously? Unlimited length and colour figures in an online journal? No shit. The cost should be exactly $0, since all the actual work like reviewing articles is done by volunteers. I'm sure that many universities and companies would be glad to provide free hosting for papers.
Things would be more expensive without a profit motive driving efficiency, but maybe a change be a net gain. Pointing at the profit someone makes and saying "we could be keeping all that money!" is oversimplifying.