Why I think ending article-processing charges will save open access – Nature (Juan Pablo Alperin |October 2022)
We have shared a few pieces recently that have pointed to the unexpected consequences of the rush towards making publicly funded research free and not locked behind paywalls. The reality is only institutions based in richer countries can afford to pay the subscription fees of the leading journals. The response to the European Plan S initiative, as well as similar moves in other countries (HUZZAH! the NHMRC) has seen many journals introduce APC fees where authors pay for their work to be published in an open access form. The reality is only researchers based in more affluent countries can afford to pay these fees. Even when special arrangements exist for the poorer countries, the fees can still lock out middle income countries from contributing to the academic body of literature. We agree with this piece from Nature, as well as the diamond open access position of France, that the only way to make open access genuinely democratic would be to remove APC fees. Which would obviously require a different approach to funding academic publications. We have included links to six related items.