Aiming to investigate the citation advantage of author-pays model, the present communication compares open access (OA) and Toll Access (TA) papers recognition in author-pays OA journals in 2007-2011. This is the first large scale study concentrating on all APC-funded OA journals published by Springer and Elsevier as the two greatest publishers authorizing and embracing the model. According to the research findings, the OA papers have been exponentially increased in recent years. They are, also, found to outperform the TA ones in their impacts whether in the annual comparisons or across disciplines. The annual OA citation advantages range from 21.36 % for 2009 to 49.71 % for 2008. Social Sciences and Humanities (with 3.14 %) and Natural Sciences (with 35.95 %) gain the lowest and the highest advantages, respectively. The citation advantage can be attributed to the higher visibility of the OA articles, implying the popularity and usefulness of the OA author-pays model to their readership. It may, also, have roots in the selectivity of the authors in choosing the author-pays outlet to publish their high-quality papers, signifying the overall prestige of the OA papers published in the model. Whatever may be the ultimate interpretation, i.e. correlation or causation, the OA citation advantage may encourage the authors who are willing to support OA movement, while seeking to get published in the well-established traditional journals. This may help approach the not-yetachieved critical mass necessary to evaluate the success of the model.

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Purpose: The present study explored tendencies of the world's countries-at individual and scientific development levels-toward publishing in APC-funded open access journals.Design/Methodology/Approach: Using a bibliometric method, it studied OA and NOA articles issued in Springer and Elsevier's APC journals during [2007][2008][2009][2010][2011]. The data were gathered using a wide number of sources including Sherpa/Romeo, Springer Author-mapper, Science Direct, Google, and journals' websites. Findings:The Netherlands, Norway, and Poland ranked highest in terms of their OA shares. This can be attributed to the financial resources allocated to publication in general, and publishing in OA journals in particular, by the countries. All developed countries and a large number of scientifically lagging and developing nations were found to publish OA articles in the APC journals. The OA papers have been exponentially growing across all the countries' scientific groups annually. Although the advanced nations published the lion's share of the OA-APC papers and exhibited the highest growth, the underdeveloped groups have been displaying high OA growth rates.Practical Implications: Given the reliance of the APC model on authors' affluence and motivation, its affordability and sustainability have been challenged. This communication helps understand how countries at different scientific development and thus wealth levels contribute to the model. Originality/Value: This is the first study conducted at macro level clarifying countries' contribution to the APC model-at individual and scientificdevelopment levels-as the ultimate result of the interaction between authors' willingness, the model affordability, and publishers and funding agencies' support. University; email: sotudeh@shirazu.ac.ir, z15.ghasempour@gmail.com. ©2018 Hajar Sotudeh and Zahra Ghasempour, Attribution-NonCommercial (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4 Hajar Sotudeh is Associate Professor and Zahra Ghasempour is MA Student of Education & Psychology in the Department of Knowledge & Information Sciences on the Eram Campus of Shiraz IntroductionThe Open Access reform movement emerged to pave the way to optimize public access to information and eliminate commercial publishers' monopoly over the flow of information.1 Following the resistance of commercial publishers as one of the most powerful interest groups in the scientific publication sphere certain boycotts were imposed by the proponents of the movement, 2 including librarians who have been advocating for open access as a remedy for inequality in access to scientific information.Long before the outbreak of the protests, the commercial publishers had offered Author-Pays model in response to their demands. In this model, the author would pay article processing charges (APC) set by the publisher, facilitating public access to her paper.3 Springer and Elsevier are among the most prestigious commercial publishers, who have embraced this model since 2004 and 2006, respectively. 4 In Gold OA journals, aut...

The mathematical problem posing tasks are relevant issues in the development of higher education curriculum and improving it for developing nations require its inclusion in the curriculum as a complement to problem solving tasks. We investigate the types of problem posing abilities, related difficulties and levels of performances in “calculus-1” among first year undergraduates in Iran. The research instrument consists of text book "integral" problems reconstructed through "add or remove condition" with structured situation and "change the problem context" with semi-structured situation. Twenty-six first year undergraduates among moderate and high achievers are participated in answering the test. Furthermore, five of them are enrolled in semi-structured interview after the test. The preliminary results reveal that the percentage of "expert" students (69%) in generating problem through "add or remove condition" strategies are higher than those (18%) implementing "change the context" which is connected to high-order-thinking skills. However, the majority of participants are greatly able to perform two-third of questions correctly. The significant weakness related to the conceptual and procedural understandings in terms of the high-order-thinking skills are observed among them. We assert that the students’ problem posing performances can be fostered by incorporating problem posing activities in teaching-learning materials.