Abstract
Knowledge transfer is the key to the sustained growth of human civilization. This chapter on open access and article processing charges aims at addressing the various issues associated with open access publishing as a business model with a distinct opportunity. The chapter throws light on article processing charges (APC), the relevance of impact factor, citations, and pricing. The complexities the researchers confront, and the rise of predatory journals and their concerns are discussed in detail. The ethical dimensions of publishing and the role and relevance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) are also explored. This chapter dwells on some of the remedial measures to improve the awareness and practices among the diverse stakeholders.
TopOpen Access As A Business Model
Knowledge is not only power, it is power and money. And it is power and money like never before (Kerr, 1994, pp. 9-15). Open access (OA) is the provision of free and unrestricted online access to research outputs such as journal articles, books, amongst others. Published research outputs can now be accessed without the usual subscription fees. Open access (OA) supports the researcher to access the earlier work of most authors with little or no restrictions. Publication of Journal articles usually fall under two business models
- 1.
Subscription based, where individuals or institutions subscribe to the journals and make the payment.
- 2.
Open access journals where Article publishing charges (payments) are borne by the authors, institutions /universities or funding agencies. Article Processing Charge (APC) is the central funding mechanism for open access journals (Solomon & Bjork, 2012).
Interestingly the open access model seems to fall under different variants depending on the business model followed by publishers (Omiunu 2019; Suber, 2012). This at least primarily includes “gold, green, and hybrid models”. In Gold open access model, the publications is freely available on the publisher’s website immediately. This has the advantage of increased visibility and has an impact on how frequently it is cited.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Hybrid Open Access Journals: Some articles are openly available after payment while other articles remain closed as in subscription-based journals.
Double Dipping: When a publisher benefits twice from an author to make an article “open-access.” and from a library for a subscription to that journal.
Citation Index: A citation index is a kind of bibliographic index, an index of citations between publications, allowing the user to easily establish which later documents cite which earlier documents.
Diamond or Platinum Open Access: Journals that do not come with any financial obstacles for authors as well as readers are called diamond or platinum open access.
Article Processing Charge (APC): APC is a fee charged to make an article open access on publication. It is the central funding mechanism for open access journals.
Impact Factor: Impact factor of a journal is defined as total number of citations for the articles published in a proceeding 2 years divided by total number articles published in 2 years.
Retraction Policy: The policy of a publisher in retracting a published article: An article may be retracted when the integrity of the published work is substantially undermined owing to errors in the conduct, analysis and/or reporting of the study. Violation of publication or research ethics may also result in a study’s retraction.
Open Access (OA): Open access is the provision of free and unrestricted online access to research outputs such as journal articles, books, amongst others without the usual subscription fees.
Gold Open Access Model: The publication is freely available on the publisher’s website immediately.
Cope: Committee on Publication Ethics is a non-profit organization with a mission to define best practices in the ethics of scholarly publishing.
Green Open Access: Enables authors to archive their own work on a website controlled by them, or their funder, or on an independent repository.