A “Gold‐centric” implementation of open access: Hybrid journals, the “Total cost of publication,” and policy development in the UK and beyond

Stephen Pinfield,Jennifer Salter,Peter A Bath

doi:10.1002/asi.23742

Abstract

This paper reports analysis of data from higher education institutions in the UK on their experience of the open‐access (OA) publishing market working within a policy environment favoring “Gold” OA (OA publishing in journals). It models the “total cost of publication”—comprising costs of journal subscriptions, OA article‐processing charges (APCs), and new administrative costs—for a sample of 24 institutions. APCs are shown to constitute 12% of the “total cost of publication,” APC administration, 1%, and subscriptions, 87% (for a sample of seven publishers). APC expenditure in institutions rose between 2012 and 2014 at the same time as rising subscription costs. There was disproportionately high take up of Gold options for Health and Life Sciences articles. APC prices paid varied widely, with a mean APC of £1,586 in 2014. “Hybrid” options (subscription journals also offering OA for individual articles on payment of an APC) were considerably more expensive than fully OA titles, but the data indicate a correlation between APC price and journal quality (as reflected in the citation rates of journals). The policy implications of these developments are explored, particularly in relation to hybrid OA and potential of offsetting subscription and APC costs.

Highlights

One important feature of the current open-access (OA) publishing environment is the coexistence of fully OA journals and “hybrid” subscription-OA journals
While the former, such as journals published by the Public Library of Science (PLoS) or BioMed Central (BMC), produce only open-access articles, the latter, offered by most established subscription publishers, make particular articles published in subscription journals available on an OA basis, Contract grant sponsor: Universities UK
Since Jubb et al (2015) calculate a 65% increase in paid-for Gold OA articles, it can be reasonably assumed that a large proportion of this rise is due to a shift in accounting in institutions from predominantly distributed payment of articleprocessing charges (APCs) to centrally managed payments

Summary

Introduction

One important feature of the current open-access (OA) publishing environment is the coexistence of fully OA journals and “hybrid” subscription-OA journals. While the former, such as journals published by the Public Library of Science (PLoS) or BioMed Central (BMC), produce only open-access articles, the latter, offered by most established subscription publishers, make particular articles published in subscription journals available on an OA basis, Contract grant sponsor: Universities UK. Some fully OA journals charge a per-article fee (commonly termed an articleprocessing charge or APC), whereas others may be funded through sponsorship arrangements. The majority of fully OA journals (72% in 2014) do not charge an APC, the majority of articles published in fully OA journals (59%) are APC funded (Crawford, 2015)

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