It's not too clear to me why PLoS journals cost so much to publish in. In computer science, the open-access journals are typically free to publish in, supported by relatively modest funds from a hosting institution. For example, this is probably the top machine-learning journal, and I don't think it even has a budget or employees, just some donated bandwidth: http://jmlr.csail.mit.edu/
Where's the $3000-per-article difference coming from? PLoS journals do seem to have a more "magazine-like" production, while JMLR uses the typical CS/math approach of LaTeX typesetting. Is that the entire cost difference?
Where's the $3000-per-article difference coming from? PLoS journals do seem to have a more "magazine-like" production, while JMLR uses the typical CS/math approach of LaTeX typesetting. Is that the entire cost difference?