[bibixii929]

A role not mentioned above is the editor.

By this I don't mean a copy editor, but the person who decides who to send the manuscript for review, and makes the decisions on whether the manuscript is rejected, accepted, or more review is needed. Doing this job properly basically requires a researcher with experience in the field the journal is about.

It appears there are many journals where no editor is employed full-time by the publisher. If all of them are unpaid, then indeed the journal operation should be cheap.

There are however some journals (iirc Nature and APS journals are like this) with professional editors employed by the publisher.

[nightvoomer]

I had this job as a second year computer science student at an Elsevier journal. Was payed <$10USD an hour. Spent most of the time on Google or dblp looking for reviewers, emailing them, and trying to get them to turn in their reviews. Actually among the 5 of us, 3 were undergrads and 2 were master students. One undergrads wasn't even computer related field. Said journal charges >$50USD per article and >$2500 for a yearly subscription.

[bibixii929]

That does not speak well of the publisher. Of course with Elsevier, just add it to the pile...

[yiyus]

Actually, many journals require you to give up to five names of possible reviewers, so the authors are somewhat responsible of this task too. And it can be quite difficult if you are in a niche field and you have been there for a while, because you cannot suggest any colleague or anyone who has published with you, neither you want anyone with whom you may have a conflict of interests.

Anyway, most of the journals I know use unpaid editors, that do it because of prestige. That does not make the journal articles any cheaper.

[bibixii929]

Sure, authors can suggest reviewers, but the editor cannot always assume the list is reasonable. This is one of the things where a good editor with understanding of the field can in principle "add some value".