Update and correction December 2019: this early analysis did not take into account publishers and journals that had been removed prior to the beginning of our SKC APC longitudinal study. In 2019, we completed the sample by adding these journals to obtain a more complete picture of the status and APC changes. In brief, from 2010 – 2019 there was an apparent substantial attribution rate of 26%, however this appears to be an anomaly reflecting several new commercial APC based publishers (Bentham Open, Hindawi, Frontiers, BioMedCentral, and Dove Medical Press) that followed a start-up strategy of starting with a large number of journals to cover a broad range of disciplines, then retiring titles that were not successful. For the latest analysis of the 2010 dataset, see:
Analysis of the current status of journals sampled in 2010 (by Solomon & Björk) and/or by the SKC team in 2013 or 2014. In brief: the attrition rate for journals previously sampled is quite low, with 2% of the 1,559 titles previously sampled either apparently or actually no longer publishing. Most of the journals no longer active (34 of the 37), not surprisingly, are from the 2010 sampling. The vast majority of journals found to have APCs or APPCs (article page processing charges), over 90%, clearly had APCs in 2015. A noticeable number of journals previously identified as having publication charges either do not have publication charges, or cannot be confirmed as having publication charges today. The following chart and table provide additional detail. For more detail and documentation on how this data is calculated, see the open access article processing charges dataverse – under the Open access article processing charges longitudinal study 2015 preliminary dataset the data file is called DataSet – Main v.12 current status of previously sampled journals.csv and the accompanying documentation PDF file is called OA APC study 2015 current status journals samples 2010 – 2014 documentation .pdf
| Current status of preliminary sample journals (sampled in 2010, 2013, or 2014) | ||||
| Category | Total (numeric) | Total (percentage) * | 2010 numeric | 2010 percentage |
| Confirmed publication charges | 1,425 | 91% | 828 | 95% |
| Confirmed no publication fees | 51 | 3% | 1 | 0% |
| Title no longer published | 37 | 2% | 34 | 4% |
| No cost found | 35 | 2% | 7 | 1% |
| Other | 11 | 1% | 4 | 0% |
| Total | 1,559 | 100% | 874 | 100% |
| * Note total adds up to 99%, not 100% due to rounding error | ||||
Citation: if referring to updated information on the 2010 dataset, please see and cite the 2019 post, not this one which will be retained for historical purposes:
Morrison, H. (2019). 2010 – 2019 APC update. Sustaining the Knowledge Commons. Retrieved from https://sustainingknowledgecommons.org/2019/11/26/2010-2019-apc-update/
Sustaining the Knowledge Commons / Soutenir les savoirs communs 