Publications in gold open access and article processing charges expenditure: evidence from Indian scholarly output

Abstract:  The article processing charges (APC) ensure the financial viability of open-access (OA) scholarly journals. The present study analyses the number of Gold OA articles published in Web of Science-indexed journals by Indian researchers during 2020, including subject categories that account for the highest APC cost in India. Besides, it studies the amount of APC expenditures incurred in India. The present study's findings reveal that Indian researchers published 26,127 Gold OA articles across all subjects in WoS-indexed journals in 2020. Researchers in the field of Health and Medical Sciences paid the highest APC costs, amounting to $7 million, followed by Life and Earth Sciences ($6.9 million), Multidisciplinary ($4.9 million), and Chemistry and Material Sciences ($4.8 million). The study reveals that Indian researchers paid an estimated 17 million USD as APC in 2020. Furthermore, the study's findings reveal that 81% of the APC goes to commercial publishers, viz. MDPI, SpringerNature, Elsevier, and Frontier Media. As there is a growing number of OA publications from India, the authors suggest having a central and state-level single window option for funding in OA journals and backing Plan S in India.