University of Pretoria

Article Processing Charges:Non commercial & library perspective

Dr Leti KleynManager: Open Scholarship

MERENSKY LIBRARYUniversity of Pretoria

Open access (OA) is free, immediate, permanent, full-text, online access, for any user, web-wide, to digital scientific and

scholarly material, primarily research articles published in peer-reviewed journals. OA means that any individual user,

anywhere, who has access to the Internet, may link, read, download, store, print-off, use, and data-mine the digital content of that article. An OA article usually has limited

copyright and licensing restrictions.

The two different strategies are known as

•Gold OA where journal articles are published in Open Access journals which have no access cost, unlike Traditional Toll Access (TA) journals, the dominant publishing model.

•Green OA refers to journal articles that are deposited (self-archived) in institutional or subject repositories accessible to everyone.

Two routs to Open Access

APCs: The balancing act

APCs: The overthrow

Disrupting the subscription journals’ business model for the necessary large-scale transformation to open access:

A Max Planck Digital Library Open Access Policy White Paper (April 2015)

“Innovation in the payment of publication costs cannot be fully expanded unless subscription costs are simultaneously eliminated or systematically transformed. The libraries’ existing acquisition budgets

must therefore be the crucial fiscal reservoir for such a transformation. All that remains for the implementation of this clear philosophy is to be assured that there is sufficient money in the system for such a switch to

be feasible.”

And so we still subscribe

R10 000 000.00+R 400 000.00+

R10 400 000+

OA Page Charges:$3 000 =

R35 500 +

Total e-journal subscription (2014):R50 130 520

Big Five (2014):R41 708 653

Largest Payment:R18 896 132

Statistics supplied by Soekie Swanepoel, UP Library Resources

APCs & Open Access at UPFaculty Research budget

(2013)Open Access APCs

(estimations)Open Access articles

published 2012/2013 (as reflected on UPSpace)

Economic & Management Sciences R1 266 830 R160 000 75

Education R667 660 R68 000 37

EBIT: School of Engineering R3 420 882

* 38

EBIT: School of Information Technology R40 000 14

EBIT: School of the Built Environment < R 4000 14

Health Sciences R2 108 790 R578 000R196 000 (only 50% of requested fees) + R182 000 (Department of

Physiology)

170

Humanities R2 518 360 * 95

Law R1 263 880 R150 000–R200 000 65

Natural & Agricultural Sciences R5 340 850 R30 000–R40 000 172

Theology R2 235 940 R410 000 107

Veterinary Sciences R1 324 530 * 78

Totals R19 874 722 R1 300 000(excluding School of Engineering,

Humanities & Veterinary Sciences)

869

APCs at UP

INSTITUTIONAL AGREEMENT BioMedCentral (BMC) at UP

GBP Rand Value Lowest/Highest

Articles

2011 ₤10 000 R125 000 ₤985/₤1 057 7

2012 ₤33 000 R451 500 ₤535/₤1 183 30

2013 ₤30 000 R435 00 ₤787/₤1 183 31

2014 ₤40 000 R722 00 ₤1 102/₤1 183 26

Total ₤113 000 R1 733 500 Average: R17 000

94

On average

R18 500Value loss of

30% since 2011

APCs at UP

INSTITUTIONAL AGREEMENT BioMedCentral (BMC) at UP

2009–2014

100 articles540 citations

5.4 c/a6 to 21

BMC5.7

PLOS8.8

Statistics supplied by Sunette Steynberg, UP Research Commons

I choose where I publish

Average price

Graph based on a dataset compiled by Jisc of 6,061 article processing charges (APCs) paid by 20 UK higher education institutions in 2014. It shows the average APC price paid to the top 20 largest publishers (largest in terms of number of APCs). The average price paid for an APC often differs from the prices listed on publisher/journal websites. Obtained from: http://figshare.com/articles/Average_APC_price_2014/1311650

The average APC is £1 581

X R18.54= R30 000+

And so we still trustA recap of recent incidents of selling open access articles, without the publisher acknowledging to the reader/buyer that it is an open access article:

Springer (April, 2015) Wiley (March, 2015) Elsevier (March, 2015) Elsevier (2014)

„It’s yet another nail in the coffin for hybrid OA – we simply can’t trust these publishers to keep this

content open and paywall-free.”

ROSS MOUNCE: http://rossmounce.co.uk/2015/04/27/springer-caught-red-handed-selling-access-to-open-access-

article/

APC sustainability

R2m200 articles since

2011

SUSTAINABILITY

2015 FUND DEPLETED

OA WoS comparison

Total articles(2012–2014)

OA articles Percentage of total

UP 1619 643 39%

UCT 2378 760 32%

US 1365 446 33%

WITS 1960 569 29%

• Funding is available for scholarly peer-reviewed articles which are published in accredited international journals listed on Web of Science or IBSS and which qualify for subsidy from the DHET.

• In the case of co-authorship with international authors, the Fund will pay 60% (in general) of the APC. In the case of collaboration with authors from South African institutions the researcher may only apply for their portion of the APC (50% payment).

• The impact factor of the journal should adhere to the standard determined by the relevant faculty:

Publication Fund Policy Issues

APCs at UPUP APC FUND (6 months report back)

Requests 26

Rejected 4

Retracted 1

Faculties HEALTH: 9 (35%)NAS: 16 (62%)HUM: 1 (2%)

International collaboration 8 (31%)

Vouched R204 800

Journals BMC: 10 (38%)PLOS: 6 (23%)

IF Average 3.42

APCs will not be supported for articles to be published in hybrid (open choice) journals which make only selected articles open access.

Hybrid here & there journals

The Institutional Repository

Statistics supplied by Hendriette Jansen van Vuuren, UP Open Scholarship Programme

Total articles

FinalPDF

Post-print Pre-print No permission

Awaiting permission

2015 671 27% 70% 1% 1% 2%

2014 2 370 48% 47% 2% 1% 2%

2013 2 233 52% 41% 3% 1% 2%

2012 2 060 54% 43% 0% 1% 2%

2011 2 037 46% 48% 1% 1% 3%

TOTAL/AVERAGE

9 371 45% 50% 1% 1% 2%

Permission from publishers

Statistics supplied by Hendriette Jansen van Vuuren, UP Open Scholarship Programme

29%

63%

1% 2%5%

PERMISSION FROM PUBLISHERS

PDF (29%)

Postprint (63%)

Preprint (1%)

No permission(2%)Awaitingpermission (5%)

Embargo periods

Statistics supplied by Hendriette Jansen van Vuuren, UP Open Scholarship Programme

The dilemma

Statistics supplied by Hendriette Jansen van Vuuren, UP Open Scholarship Programme

25%

• Support all initiatives from South African universities and institutions to reduce APCs• Support all initiatives form Government and NRF to take a stand on research output availability and APCs• Renegotiate fees together with other South African partners• Develop an internal institutional system that supports the (free) green route optimal• Rethink copyright and poke holes in embargo periods• Consider the ethics of the situation• Join the revolution in support of affordable Open Access

Pursue EVERY avenue

“ ”The tipping point for African research innovation will not

be merely the ability to fully access and use the new abundance of global knowledge and ideas but to make

an active and significant contribution to its creation.

Piyushi Kotecha (in Abrahams, et al., 2008)