eglen-may19.utf8.md

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# Towards Transparency in APCs

<br>

```
Stephen J Eglen                  Cambridge Computational Biology Institute
https://sje30.github.io          University of Cambridge
sje30@cam.ac.uk                  @StephenEglen
```

Slides: <http://bit.ly/eglen-apc> (CC-BY license)

<br>

#### Declarations

1. Member of *Bullied into Bad Science* campaign
2. Affiliate editor of *bioRxiv* 
3. Senior editor of *Scientific Data*

---

## APCs: current status

<br>

<div style="font-size: 60%; position: absolute; right: 15%;   width: fit-content; height: fit-content; top:95%; z-index:10"><a href="https://twitter.com/academicssay/status/576343972483842048">@AcademicsSays 2015</a></div>

---

## Examples of transparent APC

<br>

<br>

See also Copernicus, Royal Society, JOSS, eLife [thread](https://twitter.com/StephenEglen/status/1124270708035674113).

---
## Examples of "not-so-transparent" APCs

[Van Noorden R (2013)](http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/495426a):

“In the end,” says Wim van der Stelt, executive vice president at
	Springer in Doetinchem, the Netherlands, “the price is set by what
	the market wants to pay for it.”

[Poynder (2015)](https://poynder.blogspot.com/2015/07/emerald-group-publishing-tests-zen.html):

When I asked ... why the publisher had decided to increase the
	APCs ... she replied: “The decision, based on market and
	competitor analysis, will bring Emerald’s APC pricing in line with
	the wider market, taking a mid-point position amongst its
	competitors.”

1. APCs often set by what market can bear, not what it costs.
2. **Spending other people's money is easy**.

---

## Suggestions

1. Immediate Green OA of author accepted manuscripts (AAMs) should be
   available *everywhere* to comply with OA mandates.  (UK SCL should
   help here.)  Pay for publisher services out of your own funds if
   you want them.

2. Give academics more ownership of funds.  "Do you really want to
   spend 5K on an APC, versus other uses in your lab?"

3. Routes to OA need to be generate less admin for librarians /
   funders, not more.  Green OA achieves that.

4. Support diamond OA initatives led by academics and academic
   societies.

5. Where APCs must be paid, they need to be transparent, and reflect
   costs of particular services.  (Waivers = essential.)

<br>	
[Costopoulos
(2019)](https://archeothoughts.wordpress.com/2019/05/14/the-transition-to-open-access-is-not-up-to-publishers-it-is-up-to-scholars-a-reply-to-inchcoombe/):

"It is not up to commercial publishers to convince us 
	to transition to OA, by which ... they mean APC. 
	It is up to us as scholars to commit to OA."

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