Category Archives: oa.waivers

IOP Publishing and the Japan Society of Applied Physics convert Applied Physics Express to fully gold OA    – IOP Publishing

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“IOP Publishing (IOPP) and the Japan Society of Applied Physics (JSAP) announce that Applied Physics Express (APEX) is to become fully open access (OA). From January 2024, all articles published in APEX, the journal devoted to rapid dissemination of new findings in applied physics, will be immediately and openly accessible for anyone to read. The move reflects the increasing demand for more accessible and open science, and funders’ mandates requiring authors to publish their work in OA journals….

Together, IOPP and JSAP endorse equal opportunities for everyone to contribute to physical science and are committed to ensuring that the transition to OA is inclusive. IOP Publishing will support researchers based in low-income and lower-middle-income countries by covering their article publication charges (APCs), with waivers for eligible authors applied automatically.  

In addition, all JSAP official members receive a 20% APC discount.”

Health Policy and Planning’s transition to Open Access: moving into the future | Health Policy and Planning | Oxford Academic

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“From 2024, Health Policy and Planning (HPP) will become a fully Open Access journal, in line with the overall trend in the publishing landscape.

A few decades ago, almost all journals were based on subscriptions, paid by libraries, universities and research institutes. More recently, we have seen strong growth in Open Access journals, where the cost of publishing is covered by authors, their funders or employing organizations.

At HPP, we have demonstrated our commitment to transitioning to a fully Open Access journal by gradually increasing our Open Access content in line with growth targets set by cOAlition S. This final step completes our transformative commitment to Open Access.

This change has no impact on the journal’s editorial policy, standards or processes.”

Article processing charges for open access journal publishing: A review – Borrego – Learned Publishing – Wiley Online Library

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Abstract:  Some open access (OA) publishers charge authors fees to make their articles freely available online. This paper reviews literature on article processing charges (APCs) that has been published since 2000. Despite praise for diamond OA journals, which charge no fees, most OA articles are published by commercial publishers that charge APCs. Publishers fix APCs depending on the reputation assigned to journals by peers. Evidence shows a relationship between high impact metrics and higher, faster rising APCs. Authors express reluctance about APCs, although this varies by discipline depending on previous experience of paying publication fees and the availability of research grants to cover them. Authors rely on a mix of research grants, library funds and personal assets to pay the charges. Two major concerns have been raised in relation to APCs: the inability of poorly funded authors to publish research and their impact on journal quality. Waivers have not solved the first issue. Research shows little extension of waiver use, unintended side effects on co-author networks and concerns regarding criteria to qualify for them. Bibliometric studies concur that journals that charge APCs have a similar citation impact to journals that rely on other income sources.

 

Report from Equity in Open Access workshop #3: Making waves in APC & waiver practice – OASPA

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“Whether you love or loathe them, APCs (article processing charges) are now an increasingly common feature across many open access (OA) journals. A reading list that appears at the end of this post shows how evidence is mounting regarding the negative impact APCs are having on some authors being able to publish their research OA. This is despite the established system of waivers and discounts for APCs, and despite the emergence and growth of transformative agreements. 

Discussions at the first two Equity in OA workshops led OASPA (and our workshop partners at Information Power) to create a dedicated session on reducing barriers to participation within models relying on per-article payments. This meant putting aside thoughts about all other models and approaches, just for this workshop, and focussing on whether anything can be done to help in the short-term with APCs and waivers….”

Open-Access Journals can pave access to Global Neurosurgery – ScienceDirect

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“Joint ventures between the HIC and LMIC scientists for research in the LMIC native country with adequate funding for research and publication can be launched to promote more participation of LMIC researchers in publications. Policies by the HIC neurosurgical bodies and publishing authorities to let LMIC authors share knowledge more by extending the waiver options for the authors can make the globalization of neurosurgery meaningful. Training of LMIC neurosurgeons, which can be conducted virtually also, on research methodology, and manuscript preparation along with international research mentorship can easily be carried out, so that they can participate in publishing their research works more efficiently.

The limited knowledge sharing from the LMIC is depriving the global scientific community of the diverse treasure trove of neurosurgical cases in these regions. Recognizing how these countries manage the huge number of patients with very limited resources can truly prove valuable in improving global neurosurgical services altogether. PMOA journals can play a pivotal role in that….”

Open access publishing: options for reduced or waived publication charges

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“Open access publishing: options for reduced or waived publication charges

Lower income country authors wishing to publish Open Access articles can follow the links below for a range of publisher websites and find details of article processing/publishing charge (APC) fee waiver and discount policies or other subsidized publishing options.”

Best practices for APC waivers – Research4Life

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“Article Processing or Publishing Charges (APCs) are a feature of some Open Access (OA) publishing models. Many publishers offer APC waivers to researchers from lower and middle-income countries. It can be difficult for eligible researchers to discover and understand what waiver policies exist and how they are applied.

These guidelines offer a checklist of considerations when setting and implementing a waiver policy and provide recommendations on how best to communicate your policy to potential authors from the Research4Life user community. 

These guidelines are not intended to influence how policy is set, only to make recommendations that provide maximum transparency and clarity for users, particularly potential authors….”

Project to waive fees for about 400 open-access journals

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“Academics in 5,000 institutions in 107 low- and medium-income countries in Africa, Asia, Oceania, North and South America and Europe, will benefit from the Cambridge Open Equity Initiative, a pilot project that will allow them to publish their research in about 400 open-access journals that are owned by the Cambridge University Press (CUP) – at no cost to them.

According to Mandy Hill, the managing director of academic publishing at CUP, the initiative will operate from 1 July 2023 to the end of 2024 with the aim of eradicating barriers that affect academic authors in developing countries who want their research to be visible globally….”

Open access regulation

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“Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act (hereafter: CA) entitles researchers to share a short academic work without financial consideration for a reasonable period. To facilitate exercising this right, the VSNU (Association of Universities in the Netherlands) completed a successful pilot project as a part of the National Programme for Open Science (NPOS) in 2019. The participating researchers gave universities their permission to share short academic works. 

The pilot’s evaluation showed that the efficiency of the administrative procedures for researchers to grant permission (by two-way paper licence) is an obstacle to scaling up. The solution was found in converting the so-called opt-in approach into a tacit licence procedure with the possibility to opt-out. 

The universities, as the employer, warrant the participating researchers to pay for the possible costs in the case of a legal dispute with a publisher. Within the VSNU, the universities agreed to share the legal risks. 

Considering that: 

the Eindhoven University of Technology supports the importance of Open Access, thereby following Dutch government policy as laid down in the letter of the State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science dated 15 November 20131; 

Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act (CA) entitles researchers to share a short academic work without financial consideration following a reasonable period after publication; 

the University has an interest in the academic output of its staff members being easily retrievable and, with a view to being a good employer, wishes to facilitate that its staff members can optimally exercise their rights under Article 25fa CA; 

the University requires a tacit, non-exclusive licence from its staff members for the purpose as mentioned above…”

Cambridge Open Equity Initiative

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“There are many advantages for the author and their research when publishing open access; more citations, more downloads, and increased reach. We recognise that not all authors have the same opportunities to realise these advantages due of a lack of funding for their work.

 

The Cambridge Open Equity Initiative is a new pilot designed to support authors in low- and middle-income countries who wish to publish their research open access but do not have access to funding….

Authors will be eligible from July 1st 2023. No application is required and authors are automatically recognised as eligible for open access publishing once their paper has been accepted. 

Authors are able to submit their paper to all of our gold and hybrid journals at no direct cost to them or their institution. All original research, including research articles, review articles, rapid communications, brief reports, and case reports are eligible.

Over 5,000 institutions across more than 100 countries will benefit from the support offered by the Cambridge Open Equity Initiative. The full list of eligible countries is available here….”

Science By All, For All: AIP Publishing Expands APC Waiver and Discount Policy

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“AIP Publishing is pleased to share that it has expanded its article processing Charge (APC) Waiver and Discount Policy, making Gold Open Access (OA) publishing more accessible to and equitable to researchers from lower- and lower-middle-income countries….”

Guest Post – Article Processing Charges are a Heavy Burden for Middle-Income Countries – The Scholarly Kitchen

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“Many scientists worldwide have embraced the idea that research publications should be openly accessible to read, without paywalls. Rightfully so, as academic research is mostly supported by public funds, and contributes toward societal progress. Indeed, the quest for open publications has led to many groundbreaking initiatives, including the creation of new author-pays open access (OA) journals and publishers, the expansion of public preprint and postprint repositories, and the establishment of Sci-Hub, a radical open repository of scientific publications, often obtained illegally. But subscription publications persist, as well as resistance toward depositing preprints, leading to more recent initiatives to accelerate the universal transition to OA in scientific publications. Notably, a recent mandate established that US federal agencies must create policies to ensure all peer-reviewed publications are made publicly accessible by the end of 2025. This follows Plan S, launched in 2018 by a consortium of mostly European research funding and performing organizations, which requires that all publications from 2021 on must be OA. An additional mandate within Plan S is that hybrid models of publishing, in which authors can pay to publish OA papers in journals that also publish under subscription models, are acceptable only under certain circumstances, and only until December 31st, 2024. This means that major subscription journals wishing to publish work by authors with Plan S funding will need to transition to OA-only by 2025….”

PLOS Release Results from New Scheme & Springer Nature Launches OA Initiative | The Hub by The London Book Fair | Publishing News

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The Public Library of Science (PLOS) has released the first results from its new initiative, launched in partnership with AI-driven data sharing support body DataSeer, to measure researchers’ Open Science practices across published literature.

The two organisations have released data on three of the numerical indicators they have developed together – on data sharing, code sharing, and preprint posting – to show that good practices in research data and code sharing, along with the use of preprints, are becoming increasingly prevalent in the research community….”

The future of global health research, publishing, and practice – The Lancet Global Health

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“As we move into our tenth year of operation, we would like to build on our commitment to making global health research, publishing, and practice a more equitable and effective space. We are therefore effecting a number of initiatives. Before outlining them, however, a word on article processing charges. It is often brought to our attention that the fee that we charge to cover the cost of reviewing, technical editing, typesetting and graphics, online hosting, archiving, and promotion of accepted manuscripts is way beyond the reach of researchers from low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). We want to emphasise that we never, ever, expect researchers from any country to pay this charge from their own pockets. Our business model is based on the premise that more and more research funders are mandating gold open-access publication and are prepared to pay for it. If there is no such funding available and no, or only partial, funding available from institutional sources, then we waive or discount the fee. Whether the fee is paid or not does not affect the open-access nature of the article….”