APCs – How much should they cost?

Abstract

Watch the VIDEO.

Gold Open Access can be facilitated by an Article Processing Charge (APC), which refers to the author-facing charge levied for publishing an article openly in a specific journal. These charges vary significantly across journals and recently there has been a demand for publishers to be more transparent about how their APCs are calculated. Plan S has clearly set the need for transparency in its principles and implementations stating “When Open Access publication fees are applied, they must be commensurate with the publication services delivered and the structure of such fees must be transparent to inform the market and funders potential standardisation and capping of payments of fees”. This presentation will provide a landscape analysis of publishers, new initiatives (such as the new work just commissioned by the Wellcome and UKRI on behalf of cOAlition S on providing a framework to enable more transparent communication of OA publishing services and prices; http://www.informationpower.co.uk/news/press-release-transparent-comms-of-oa-services-and-prices/) and the current transparency around APCs and explore the range of direct and indirect costs of what constitutes an APC.