The BPC Penalty | Jeff Pooley

COPIM’s Judith Fathallah, in an excellent Liber Quarterly overview of funding models for OA monographs: Book Processing Charges [BPCs] may have their place in the publishing landscape, and no doubt will be used across a range of models for the foreseeable future. But they are not particularly sustainable – or reliable, or indeed equitable. They privilege funded researchers, wealthy institutions, and established academics on permanent contracts. In other words, they penalise those researchers and institutions least able to bear the burden. Fathallah’s paper is focused on the UK context, with special attention to the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) policy—in formation when Fathallah was writing, but now issued. UKRI may be listening. From their explanation document [pdf]: [...]