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Article Publishing Charges

What Are The Different Types of Open Access?

When talking about Open Access, there are many definitions that you should be aware of. While the following are general definitions, nuances vary between publishers, and you should make sure that the journals you are submitting to are using the same definition as the one you are using.   

  • Gold: Published in an open-access journal that is indexed by the DOAJ. This often involves an APC.

  • Green: Toll-access on the publisher page, but there is a free copy in an OA repository, such as the WTAMU repository or a disciplinary repository. There should not be an APC associated with this. 

  • Hybrid: Free under an open license in a toll-access journal. This usually involves an APC.

  • Bronze: Free to read on the publisher page, but without an clearly identifiable license to redistribute.

  • Closed: All other articles, including those shared only on an ASN, Sci-Hub, or some other pirate repository.

What Is An Article Publishing Charge?

Article Processing of Publishing Charges (APC):

APC typically refers to the fee charged by publishers to authors to cover the costs associated with the entire publication process, from submission to publication. This includes expenses such as peer review, editing, typesetting, online hosting, and dissemination. APC is commonly associated with open-access publishing models, where articles are freely available to readers without subscription fees. Authors or their institutions often pay APCs to make their articles openly accessible to readers worldwide.

How different publishers define APCs:

Springer: Article Processing Charges

Authors are asked to pay an Article Processing Charge (APC) in order for their article to be published Open Access under a Creative Commons license. This covers the costs involved in every stage of the publication process, from administrating peer-review to copy editing and hosting the final article on dedicated servers.

Taylor & Francis: Article Publishing Charges

Our article publishing charge (APC) covers the validation and production of each work into its final form, including: financial support for journal editorial offices and boards, submission and peer review management, editorial development, ethical validation and plagiarism checking, content enrichment (copyediting, typesetting, data conversion and normalization), legal deposit, abstracting and indexing. The charge also covers dissemination and the curation and display of metrics to help researchers understand the impact and reach of their work.

Elsevier: Article Publishing Charges

Irrespective of the publishing model chosen by the author, our goal is to ensure articles are published as quickly as possible, subject to appropriate quality controls, and widely disseminated.

Where an author has chosen to publish open access, which typically involves the payment of an article publishing charge (APC) by the author, their institution or funding body, we make their article freely available immediately upon publication on ScienceDirect in perpetuity with the author’s chosen user license attached to it.

Wiley: Article Publication Charges

To cover publication costs Wiley Open Access journals charge an Article Publication Charge (APC). APCs vary by journal. To see a full list of APC prices for Wiley fully open access journals and subscription journals which offer open access, please see our Article Publication Charges page.

Sage: Article Processing Charges

Nearly all Sage journals offer Sage Choice. Standard article processing charges (APC) for Sage Choice range from 3,000 USD to 4000, some non-standard fees are lower or higher. Please click here to check APC rates by title. The fee generally excludes any other potential author fees levied by some journals (such as color charges) however some titles owned by our society partners may charge page and colour charges in addition to the Sage Choice fee. Please check individual journal instructions for authors to see if any further charges apply.

Do You Need To Pay An APC?

You do not have to pay an APC for most Hybrid Journals. Some Gold Open Access journals require you to pay an APC in order to publish. 

Even if you do not pay for an APC, you may have some options to increase the access to your article.

  • Self-archiving: Many traditional journals will allow you to put your article on an institutional repository or discipline-specific preprint server.
  • Embargo Periods: Many traditional journals have policies to make articles open access after a period of time; typically 2 years.

Paying an APC may have some of the following advantages:

  • The possible Open Access Citation Advantage: Some studies have found that Open Access Articles have up to an 18% advantage in citations
  • Social Media: Open Access articles typically have more views and downloads than traditional articles, even if they are not cited more. 
  • Interdisciplinary Citations: Open Access Articles tend to have citations from a wider variety of disciplines.
  • Grant Compliance: Some grants require that research be published Open Access, and can money from the grant can pay for APCs

How Can The Library Help?

WT is part of a library coalition called the Texas Library Coalition for United Access. 

This coalition is dedicated to collective bargaining discounts for APCs. Amongst other discounts on subscription pricing, our agreemeent with Elsevier offered 10% or 15% discounts on APCs. To see if the Elsevier journal you are publishing in has a discount associated with it, please reach out to Bruce Wardlow..