Left in the Cold: The Failure of APC Waiver Programs to Provide Author Equity

Abstract

Introduction The transition to open access (OA) is accelerating. An ever-growing number of libraries and publishers are signing agreements that cover read access as well as OA publishing. The variety of OA models can get complicated quickly. One helpful distinction is whether the model is based on an article processing charge (APC) or not. APC-based models, like many versions of Read and Publish, have become the most commonly used by publishers seeking to transition to OA. But APCs have always had a potentially fatal equity issue baked into their core. Authors not covered by an agreement, and without means to pay APCs, cannot publish OA. They must rely on publisher managed waiver programs in order to make their work openly accessible. APC waiver programs, unfortunately, have not been successful at addressing the problem of author equity with Gold and Hybrid APCs. Now these same ineffective and problematic waiver programs are being assigned the even heavier lift of addressing the rapidly growing issue of author equity associated with the new APC-based OA models. That waiver programs are not up to the task of solving the author equity problem has not stopped APC-based models from being adopted by publishers at an accelerating rate. Evidence suggests this is not because publishers lack interest and concern for issues of equity and inclusion. In 2017, 10 organizations that work in scholarly publishing founded a new collaboration to raise awareness about the lack of diversity and inclusion in scholarly communication. The mission of the new group, […]