Understanding and Coping With Rising Publication Costs | The Scientist Magazine®

"So what can be done to address the issue of rising APCs? We do not focus on the issue of OA publishingbecause it has its pluses and minuses. Authors can do due diligence in reviewing their options, including OA, and choose not to submit manuscripts to journals that assess high APCs. While this may seem to be the simplest solution—and could exert pressure on the publishers if carried out by a sufficient number of authors—it is easier said than done, given the pressures on investigators and trainees to publish in some journals that may charge significantly more than other journals.

More immediate and long-lasting change could be effected by institutions, funding agencies, and publishers coming together to define a fair solution, ideally with negotiations in harmony across continents. The NIH and major international funding agencies, research-funding foundations such as the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and research societies and organizations could join together and exert pressure on publishers similar to that being applied in Germany. For example, the Gates Foundation has recently dictated that the research it funds cannot be published in journals such as Nature and Science(and their affiliated journals) that do not comply with its open access policy, with a temporary arrangement with Science journals recently reported.

In addition, and similar to the efforts by Project DEAL, research institutions and their libraries that collectively pay large sums to the major publishers could unite within or across countries to develop a model whereby institutional subscriptions would also cover publication fees for researchers based in the subscribing institutions using a transparent and fair system."