Article Processing Charges (APCs) and the new enclosure of research | Impact of Social Sciences

"Drawing on a recent analysis of APC pricing and movements within the commercial publishing sector, Gunnar Sivertsen and Lin Zhang argue that APCs have now firmly established themselves as the predominant business model for academic publishing. Highlighting the inequalities inherent to this model, they posit now is the time to consider alternatives....

While intended to make the scientific literature more accessible, it is now reported that OA publishing fees deter researchers in the global south from performing research and our own study has already raised the same concern from an African perspective. In all parts of the world, APCs can be said to restrict research activity to institutionalised and/or funded activities. The admission to perform research in these contexts is sometimes based on questionable selection mechanisms, it also entirely overlooks unfunded research. In principle, funded science in the public sector should be open to new ideas and observations from the outside. However, research is rapidly closing around state-funded insiders, which is a dramatic change in the history of science and, for example, against the Open Science policy of the EU.

We conclude that paying to perform research already seems to be more than commercially viable as a business model for the publishing industry. APCs have also been very effective in achieving higher rates of Open Access publishing. However, this new paywall for performing research is at odds with fundamental norms of equal opportunities and sharing in scientific work. It creates dependencies and closed doors among researchers. Alternative ways to promote Open Access should be discussed."