Publication fees in open access publishing: Sources of funding and factors influencing choice of journal

Abstract

Open access (OA) journals distribute their content at no charge and use other means of funding the publication process. Publication fees or article-processing charges (APC)s have become the predominant means for funding professional OA publishing. We surveyed 1,038 authors who recently published articles in 74 OA journals that charge APCs stratified into seven discipline categories. Authors were asked about the source of funding for the APC, factors influencing their choice of a journal and past history publishing in OA and subscription journals. Additional information about the journal and the authors' country were obtained from the journal website. A total of 429 (41%) authors from 69 journals completed the survey. There were large differences in the source of funding among disciplines. Journals with impact factors charged higher APCs as did journals from disciplines where grant funding is plentiful. Fit, quality, and speed of publication were the most important factors in the authors' choice of a journal. OA was less important but a significant factor for many authors in their choice of a journal to publish. These findings are consistent with other research on OA publishing and suggest that OA publishing funded through APCs is likely to continue to grow.

How research funders can finance APCs in full OA and hybrid journals

“…2 Authors have often had to patch together the funding needed to pay for an APC (both full OA and hybrid) from a number of sources, which could include allowable cost allocations in project funding, institutional dedicated APC funds, general overhead money, and even personal funds. 4 This has meant that many authors have been sensitive to the price level.…”

Green and gold open access in India

“…January 2013. Similar to the study of Solomon and Bjork, 32 we cannot estimate the percentage of waivers or discounts granted to authors but have assumed that waivers have been granted for only a small percentage of the articles published in OA journals that charge fees. We also found a small number of publishers who indicated that their journals charged fees, but we were unable to locate any indication of a fee in the instructions for authors or other documentation on the journal website.…”

If funders and libraries subscribed to open access: The case of eLife, PLOS, and BioOne

“…On this last point, while open access avoids the monopolistic elements of closed subscriptions, funders may still want to introduce spending caps on publisher expenses, much as SCOAP3 uses in its contracts with publishers, as well as provide incentives to authors and publishers for fair and transparent pricing [4,20]. Introducing a form of centralized pricing will pose its own challenges, however, with much to be learned from the experience of the U.S.…”