Roger...thanks. For this Geology paper, the lead P.I. has very limited funds and I won't have to pay for the page charges myself, but I did convert 2 of the color figures to B&W to save $650. The regular page charges are optional but I thought it would be pretty cheesy to have all color figures and pay for them, yet not pay the optional charges. On the other hand, the paper on the Santa Monica-Dume fault that came out in November cost me so much that I had to take it out of my salary, so I have to start on another project a month early (so will have trouble getting the work done on the San Pedro shelf/Palos Verdes anticlinorium, and 2 manuscripts submitted). On that one, the paper was too long (22 pages) and you are penalized for every page over about 10 or 12. I also made the call that it would take me so long to make B&W figures that would be at all effective that I was better off to leave them color. Now, today, I am going to look at the policies and costs for another journal to see how hard it will be to get a thesis on Palos Verdes structure published. I have to think about how long it will take to make B&W figures, and which can just be converted to grayscale.
Chris