A dataset and bibliometric approach to estimating annual APCs for six scholarly publishers: Presentation at SPARC’s OpenCon Community Calls

Abstract

The author-pays model, in which publishers charge authors an article processing charge (APC) to publish their article open access, is now a well-established and popular revenue source for publishers. Given the prevalence of APCs and emerging models like read-and-publish agreements, reliable data is crucial for informed decision-making by funders, libraries, consortia, and institutions. However, estimating these fees is challenging due to the decentralized nature of scholarly publishing and limited transparency around these fees. This presentation introduces an open dataset of APCs from six scholarly publishers over five years and outlines the methodology and findings of a study estimating APC expenditures using this dataset.