Paying for publication | Australian Open Access Support Group

"For many researchers the first tangible interaction they have with open access is an acceptance email for an article they have written where the publisher states the author can ‘comply with funder mandates’ by taking up the option of paying an open access article processing charge to make their article open access. Given the variation in costs for this option, often in the several thousands of dollars, this can often result in a concerned telephone call from the researcher to the library or research office. These pages aim to demystify some of the aspects of payment for publication, beginning with publication costs and a description of the hybrid model. Click through to find more about the cost of hybrid. First, a note about what is actually required of researchers in Australia. The NHMRC and ARC open access funding policies are agnostic about the means by which research is made open access. They support the deposit of the Accepted Manuscript of the work in an open access repository (all Australian universities and many other institutions have an open access repository). There is a list here of which journals and publishers permit this, and in most institutions the library is able to assist authors with questions. Publishing in an open access journal (which may or may not charge an article processing fee) and publishing in a subscription journal which offers hybrid open access (for a fee) are also supported under the ARC & NHMRC mandates. Both the ARC and the NHMRC do allow some of their grant allocation to be directed to publication costs. Because project budgets and dissemination pressures vary funded researchers must decide which open access option is most appropriate for their circumstances ..."