Article Processing Charges (APCs)
Why have I been asked to pay to publish my article?
Article Processing Charges (APCs) are charged to authors of scholarly articles during the publication process. APCs are used by open access journals in lieu of subscription fees that libraries and readers traditionally have paid to gain access to research articles. APCs shift the burden of journal production costs (editing, peer review, hosting, archiving, preservation), to authors from readers. Paying an APC results in an article that is available to anyone with an internet connection. Corporate, non-profit, society, academic, and other publishers use a variety of models to meet their income needs and publishing service costs, and charging APCs is one model.
Why pay an APC?
- Visibility: Typically paying an APC leads to increased readership of your article through open access. Your colleagues at universities and colleges worldwide, non-profits, government agencies, and the general public will have immediate access to your work, regardless of their library's ability to afford journal subscriptions. Increased access has been shown to lead to increased citation rates as well.
- Journal quality: Authors may find that top-ranking journals charge APCs (e.g. publishers such as PLoS, BMC, and Copernicus)
- Copyright: APC-funded articles often* include provisions that allow the author to retain more rights to their work and also give readers additional usage rights. Creative Commons licenses range from attribution only to stricter non-commercial and/or no-derivatives versions.
Article Processing Charges (APCs)
- Foreign authors: 100 USD
- Indian authors: INR 2000