Abstract
Article processing charges (APCs) are one method of many to ensure open access to research literature, but studies that explore the funding sources for such payments, especially as related to open access publications in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, have been limited. This study seeks to understand the range of funding sources that are available and used by faculties in these disciplines to pay for APCs associated with publishing in open access journals, as well as attitudes towards and awareness of available institutional funds that may inflect future engagement with open access publishing. The authors distributed a survey to faculty who had an open access journal article published in 2017 from three doctoral granting, high research activity universities in the United States. Twenty-two scholars participated in the final survey, ten of whom indicated that they paid an APC for their publication. While the results cannot make generalizations about funding sources, they do suggest that both the prevalence of APCs as well as attitudes about open access engagement may be influenced by disciplinary self-identification. This research contributes to discussions around the future of open access funding models as well as to disciplinary outreach regarding APC funding for journal publications.
Highlights
Article processing charges (APC) leveraged on authors have been developed by publishers as one of many business models for financing open access journal publishing [1]
The purpose of this study is to understand the range of funding sources that are available to and used by social sciences, arts, and humanities faculty who are at universities in the United States to pay for APCs associated with publishing in open access journals
The findings at the current level of analysis suggests that these faculties, and especially those in the humanities, may not be as in need of funding assistance as they are less likely to have to pay an APC to publish an open access article
Summary
Article processing charges (APC) leveraged on authors have been developed by publishers as one of many business models for financing open access journal publishing [1]. Previous research suggests that there is no single predominant source of funding to pay for article processing charges across disciplines and authors prefer the availability of multiple funding sources such as grants, the university, and a campus or library fund [3,4]. While journal publication output in the social sciences, arts, and humanities may be less than journal publication output in the sciences, researchers in these disciplines do continue to engage in authoring articles [5,6]. Amongst authors who published in social sciences and law journals, discretionary, personal, and grant funding were found to be used roughly evenly, while for authors who published in arts and humanities journals, fee waivers were the most common [3]. Even amongst science researchers, who may have access to grant or external funding, often that external funding is either no longer available or researchers
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