Fair, Affordable and Open Access to Knowledge: The Caul Collection and Reporting of APC Information Project

Article processing charges (APCs) are fundamental to the business models of many Hybrid and Gold open access (OA) journals. The need to quantify the volume of APC payments paid on behalf of institutional researchers has therefore never been greater. New publishing models will have profound implications for future institutional budgets, and libraries urgently require better information about potential costs and savings.

In 2018, the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) commissioned a project to examine the financial impact of APC payments on universities in Australia and New Zealand. The project aims to develop a methodology for the estimation of APC payments based on data from sources such as Scopus, Web of Science and Unpaywall. In order to test this methodology, the Working Group began a pilot project in February 2019. As part of this pilot, data on publications produced by researchers at six local universities in 2017 were collated and analysed.

This paper will explain the rationale behind the project methodology. It will present the preliminary findings of the pilot, and flag some of the lessons learnt to date. In addition, the paper will identify future changes. It will be of interest to any librarian concerned with the potential impact of changing publishing models on institutional budgets.