Article Processing Charges may not be sustainable for academic researchers

Abstract

Concerns related to stressed library budgets and equitable access to publicly funded research have fomented a movement towards open access (OA) scholarly publishing, in which academic journal articles are made available online free of charge. OA challenges the traditional subscription-based revenue model of major publishing companies; to supplant lost revenue, many have introduced a new Article Processing Charge (APC) based model, in which the authors of a study pay to ensure their article is available on an OA basis. In the past several years, APCs have risen considerably, shifting the publishing cost burden from university libraries to individual research groups, who often pay APCs out of research funds. Focusing primarily on scientific publishing in North America and Europe, we review the circumstances that brought about the APC model, and argue that rising APCs may present a real threat to research productivity. We conclude by presenting some concrete actions that stakeholders in the academic research enterprise could take to uphold the OA standard and mollify the impact of rising APCs.