The study Article processing charges for open access journal publishing: A review by Prof. Ángel Borrego provides a comprehensive summary of the research on APCs (Article Processing Charges) published since 2000. The basic finding of the review is, among other things, that most OA articles are published by commercial publishers who charge fees. This is despite the fact that there are many non-commercial journals that rely on alternative publishing models and do not charge APCs.
High impact numbers yield high fees
The study also concludes that publishers arbitrarily set the level of APCs depending on the reputation the journals enjoy among their peers. According to the study author, the bibliometric studies examined confirmed that there is little difference in citation impact between commercial journals that charge APCs and those that recover their costs through alternative business models.
What is the relationship of scientific authors to APCs?
Authors* expressed reluctance to use APCs in the studies reviewed, although this varied by discipline and depended on previous experience with paying publication fees and the availability of research grants to cover these fees. Two main concerns were raised about APCs:
- the inability of authors with limited financial resources to publish research papers and the resulting exclusion from the scientific discourse,
- the possible negative impact on the quality of journals.
Particularly recent studies that surveyed specific types of research - such as academic librarians, doctoral students, and early career researchers - agree that the lack of funding for APCs is one of the main barriers to OA publishing.
The study is published by Wiley and can be read at the following link: https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.1558.