A number of the variations on pricing we see at can be summed up as variable pricing depending on how much work is involved (which seems logical when you think about it). The Journal of Venom Research provides a great example of this approach. The basic OA APC (per year) is GBP 475. This covers unlimited publishing for one year for articles within the recommended size limits. There are extra charges for:

• extra pages
• “if figures, line drawings or tables are of insufficient quality and standard, and do not conform to the journal style, and have to be re-drawn, re-sized or converted into the correct format by the Publisher (minimum charge GB £25 per item). In multi-part figures each part constitutes one item. Authors are generally notified of this at the time of manuscript revision”.
• extensive reference formatting “Costs of extensive formatting of references will be passed on to the authors (minimum £50)”.

Comment: I like this approach. It gives authors and funders an opportunity to consider whether a little extra work to keep the cost down is worth it or not. Perhaps some of the extra pages can become supplementary material and deposited in the institutional repository rather than being included in the article. A busy author may find the optional work and charges convenient; a poor author may find it worthwhile to do the extra work to keep the costs down.

This post is part of the open access article processing charges project.

Cite as:

Morrison, H. (2015). APC pricing that depends on how much work is involved. Sustaining the Knowledge Commons / Soutenir Les Savoirs Communs. Retrieved from https://sustainingknowledgecommons.org/2015/05/28/apc-pricing-that-depends-on-how-much-work-is-involved/

Similar to what we found last year, there were a number of journals that indicated “has charges” in DOAJ as of May 2015 where we have not been able to confirm that the journal actually has any kind of publication fee. In some cases, there is language clearly indicating that there are no fees. Of the sub-sample of 139 journals published by publishers with 9 or fewer journals using APCs (as of May 2014, we are updating based on this sample to look for trends), for 25 journals (18% of the sample) we either could not identify any charges, or we were able to verify that the journal actually does not charge. The “cost not found” category is separate from the “not specified” category where language on the journal website suggests that there are charges but the amounts are not given. One theory I have that might account for some of the discrepancy is the possibility of misinterpretation of author guidelines details for non-english-language journals. Many journals have a lot of numeric information in their author guidelines (number of words, pages, margin and text sizes). It would be easy for a non-native speaker casually suggesting a journal to DOAJ to assume that some of the numbers referred to APCs.

Here are the details:

This post is part of the open access article processing charges project.

Cite as:

Morrison, H. (2015). OA APCs: No cost found. Sustaining the Knowledge Commons / Soutenir Les Savoirs Communs. Retrieved from https://sustainingknowledgecommons.org/2015/05/25/oa-apcs-no-cost-found/

From the Fascism site: MA and PhD students a 50% discount. Not many journals have language specific to students at this point in time, although student discounts may often be subsumed in the category of discounts for authors who cannot afford to pay.

This post is part of the open access article processing charges project.

Cite as:

Morrison, H. (2015). Student discounts. Sustaining the Knowledge Commons / Soutenir Les Savoirs Communs. Retrieved from https://sustainingknowledgecommons.org/2015/05/22/student-discounts/

From the Fascism site:  “Authors of articles of outstanding quality are eligible for a waiver, to the discretion of the editors of the journal”.

This post is part of the open access article processing charges project.

Cite as:  Morrison, H. (2015). APC waivers for outstanding quality. Sustaining the Knowledge Commons / Soutenir Les Savoirs Communs. Retrieved from https://sustainingknowledgecommons.org/2015/05/22/apc-waivers-for-outstanding-quality/

Pre-impact-factor discount: Nature Conservation

Note: Open access fees will be waived for all submissions published in the first four issues of Nature Conservation and will be reduced with 25 % until the journal will be covered by the ISI Web of Science.  All papers published in the first issues will be later ISI covered and will have an Impact factor when the journal receives it.

Introductory discount: Brill‘s language for 4 new open journals is introductory discount. (Brill Open Biology, Brill Open Humanities, Brill Open Law and Brill Open Social Sciences). This terminology is a good practice as it will help to avoid future shocks when journals become successful and publishers increase prices. For medium to long-term budgeting purposes it is important to note that for journals like this today’s price may be very different from tomorrow’s price.

Brill’s Fascism: The APCs (Article Publication Charges) for this journal are reduced to EUR 645 / USD 855 (excluding 21% VAT) for CC-BY-NC licenses in 2015.  The 2014 price was 1,700 USD, so this is about half-price. I wonder if this is really temporary or if it reflects that Brill’s original pricing was too high for authors in this area?

Science Domain International is offering 80 – 95% discounts on their base APC of $500 USD for all of their journals from April to the end of May 2015. Low or free-for-now pricing is a common strategy for new publishers aiming to build their repertoire and reputation. These are great deals while they are available, but for long-term budgeting purposes it may be best not to assume that this will continue.

This post is part of the open access article processing charges project.

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This post is for journals and/or publishers with notable price increases from 2014 to 2015.

Journal of Vision: 25% increase in page charge from $100 to $125 USD effective for submissions after Jan. 1, 2015

Libertas Academica: average 18% to 56% price increases from 2014 to 2015 (separate post)

Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences Online: price increase from 7,000 PKR in 2014 to 12,000 PKR in 2015, a 70% increase.

Research in Applied Economics: price doubled from $100 to $200 USD.

Research Revolution: 25% increase from 1,000 to 1,250 INR for a single author  (1,500 if co-authors)

Review of Research: 30% increase from 1,000 to 1,300 INR

Scientia Agricola: 16% increase from $60 US to $70 US per page for non-subscribers

Theranostics: 32% increase from 1,250 AUD to 1,650 AUD

This post is part of the open access article processing charges project.

Morrison, H. (2015). Notable APC price increases. Sustaining the Knowledge Commons / Soutenir Les Savoirs Communs. Retrieved from https://sustainingknowledgecommons.org/2015/05/22/notable-apc-price-increases/

Libertas Academica offers a 20% discount for authors publishing a second paper in the same journal in the same year. In their words:

Discounts for former authors: Authors who have published a paper in the past 12 months and paid an undiscounted fee may receive a 20% discount on the full fee of their next paper. Authors must complete an application and receive an email confirming application acceptance before manuscript submission.

. From: http://www.la-press.com/author_resources.php?folder_id=121 viewed July 3, 2015.

The following language from the International Journal of Innovative Research and Development makes it easy to picture the author negotiations that must have led to this FAQ. It’s also a good example of something I’ve just noticed this year, a loyalty discount for authors publishing more than one paper in the same journal. I’ll add another column to our list of variations for the loyalty discount.

from: http://www.ijird.com/index.php/ijird/pages/view/faq

IS THE PUBLICATION FEE NEGOTIABLE??

No, the publication fee is fixed.

DO YOU OFFER ANY DISCOUNT?? 

If yes, what is the condition for availing a discount?
Yes, we give a discount of 10%.
In this case, the contributing author has to publish two papers in two consecutive issues (conforming to all the norms of the IJIRD) without availing the IJIRD membership program. When for the third time he/she will publish his/her paper, will unquestionably get a reduction of 10%.
NB: In this case the concerned author has to be one of the contributors and declare his copyrights in all particulars.

This post is part of the open access article processing charges project.

Cite as:

Morrison, H. (2015). Negotiating authors and the loyalty discount. Sustaining the Knowledge Commons / Soutenir Les Savoirs Communs. Retrieved from https://sustainingknowledgecommons.org/2015/05/21/negotiating-authors-and-the-loyalty-discount/