2018 Charleston Library Conference

Article processing charges (APCs) for open access (OA) are continually on the rise. APCs used to be as low as US$500 and now have increased to as much as US$5,000+. Authors are experiencing difficulties receiving OA funding due to the high price of the open access APCs demanded by major publishers and are also having difficulty receiving credit from their institution for their work. Libraries are having difficulties deciphering what OA content is credible and coming from recognized sources. Many small and medium-sized publishers are having to struggle with determining reasonable fees for OA publishing in their publications, due to the costs to produce the work which can be quite high – as for any peer-reviewed book or journal, activities such as a robust peer review process, copy editing/proofreading, as well as the typesetting, online hosting, promotion and distribution of the final contents requires certain human labor and technology support. When the work is published under OA, subscription fees are no longer offsetting these costs, and these publishers are struggling to find another way to subsidize in a manner that can be mutually beneficial to the author, the institution, and to them as the publisher.

Attendees will hear viewpoints from publishers, a librarian, as well as an independent researcher on current challenges and opportunities presented within the OA movement, and ways that everyone can come together to achieve a result that provides credible and trusted publishing outlets for researchers, the highest quality peer-reviewed contents for libraries, an affordable pricing model for APCs, and sustainability for publishers.

A proposed model will be discussed covering how a library’s subscription to publisher contents should offer a waiver for the costs associated with open access APCs for the faculty at the institution subscribing to the contents, along with an engaging Q&A session at the conclusion.