[a_bonobo]

For the $1000-3000 that a single OA application costs I can pay for a new computer, or send one or two students to conferences, or pay for part of a stipend, finance a temporary web design guy, etc. Now I try to publish 10 papers per year - that's $10-30,000 out of the window for no "return" to our group. For $30,000 I can send everyone to several conferences!

Conferences are more important to a scientific career than an OA paper. The people who hire you will in all likelihood have access to your paper even if it's behind a paywall.

[DaveWalk]

> Conferences are more important to a scientific career than an OA paper

Depends on you field of research, maybe? Paper publications make or break early biomedical research careers.

Further, the grants that these funds are paid out of often have travel funds built-in, so conferences are still available.

[a_bonobo]

>Paper publications make or break early biomedical research careers.

Yes, but that has nothing to do with the OA-status of those publications - if it's a high-impact journal, then it makes the career, if it's not, then not.

[a_bonobo]

%s/application/publication, can't edit anymore