6 April 2020
A new report published by Springer Nature indicates that a better understanding of the sources of funding for article processing charges (APCs) could accelerate the transition to open access publishing. 'APCs in the wild' refer to those APCs that are funded from sources that cannot easily be identified or tracked, in other words, those funding streams that fall outside of centrally managed library or institution budgets.
The report draws on data from a survey of over 1000 Springer Nature authors, as well as 16 interviews with representatives from institutions. The goal of the research was to explore the scale of 'wild' funding streams and their impact on the transition to OA publishing.
Key findings:
- APC funding is complex; authors use a wide range of funding sources, often in combination
- monitoring of APC funding streams is challenging because many APCs are still 'in the wild', particularly for fully OA journals
- over a quarter of Springer Nature authors surveyed only used 'wild' funding sources for their APC, a further 50% combined a 'wild' APC source with funds from more easily monitored sources
- the level of APC 'wildness' also varies regionally as different OA policies and funding mechanisms have created different landscapes
- over 50% of authors are not confident that their APCs could be monitored by their institution
Success stories from interviews with institutions show that APC monitoring is achievable. For example, some institutions are able to monitor the majority of their APCs 'in the wild' through policies that require authors to contact the library for advice about OA funding options on acceptance of their article for publication. Other institutions have created financial workflows that allow for identification of APCs via accounting codes. However, both these approaches require a high level of coordination, as well as investment in resources.
The interviews further acknowledge the role of publisher OA agreements, such as transformative agreements, in helping to reduce the administrative burden both for institutions and authors by centralising funding streams. By reviewing the complex funding landscape, and by improving monitoring and tracking of funds from outside of the library (including from research grants), it may be possible to utilise these combined funds for publisher OA agreements, or to create central funds for OA.
Springer Nature plans to conduct further research to identify APC monitoring blockers and enablers with the aim of gaining a global picture of institutional activity.