Presentation at the SciELO SA User Group meeting Johannesburg 8 September 2015 Speaker: Leti Kleyn

1. University of Pretoria
Article Processing Charges:
Non commercial &
library perspective
Dr Leti Kleyn
Manager: Open Scholarship
MERENSKY LIBRARY
University of Pretoria

2. Open access (OA) is free, immediate, permanent, full-text,
online access, for any user, web-wide, to digital scientific and
scholarly material, primarily research articles published in
peer-reviewed journals. OA means that any individual user,
anywhere, who has access to the Internet, may link, read,
download, store, print-off, use, and data-mine the digital
content of that article. An OA article usually has limited
copyright and licensing restrictions.

3. The two different strategies are known as
•Gold OA where journal articles are published in Open Access
journals which have no access cost, unlike Traditional Toll
Access (TA) journals, the dominant publishing model.
•Green OA refers to journal articles that are
deposited (self-archived) in institutional or
subject repositories accessible to everyone.
Two routs to Open Access

4. APCs: The balancing act

5. APCs: The overthrow
Disrupting the subscription journals’ business model for the necessary large-scale
transformation to open access:
A Max Planck Digital Library Open Access Policy White Paper (April 2015)
“Innovation in the payment of publication costs cannot be fully
expanded unless subscription costs are simultaneously eliminated or
systematically transformed. The libraries’ existing acquisition budgets
must therefore be the crucial fiscal reservoir for such a
transformation. All that remains for the implementation of this clear
philosophy is to be assured that there is sufficient money in the
system for such a switch to be feasible.”

6. And so we still subscribe
R10 000 000.00+
R 400 000.00+
R10 400 000+
OA Page Charges:
$3 000 =
R35 500 +
Total e-journal
subscription (2014):
R50 130 520
Big Five (2014):
R41 708 653
Largest Payment:
R18 896 132
Statistics supplied by Soekie Swanepoel, UP Library Resources

7. APCs & Open Access at UP
Faculty Research budget
(2013)
Open Access APCs
(estimations)
Open Access articles
published 2012/2013 (as
reflected on UPSpace)
Economic & Management Sciences R1 266 830 R160 000 75
Education R667 660 R68 000 37
EBIT: School of Engineering
R3 420 882
* 38
EBIT: School of Information Technology R40 000 14
EBIT: School of the Built Environment < R 4000 14
Health Sciences R2 108 790 R578 000
R196 000 (only 50% of requested
fees) + R182 000 (Department of
Physiology)
170
Humanities R2 518 360 * 95
Law R1 263 880 R150 000–R200 000 65
Natural & Agricultural Sciences R5 340 850 R30 000–R40 000 172
Theology R2 235 940 R410 000 107
Veterinary Sciences R1 324 530 * 78
Totals R19 874 722 R1 300 000
(excluding School of Engineering,
Humanities & Veterinary Sciences)
869

8. APCs at UP
INSTITUTIONAL AGREEMENT BioMedCentral (BMC) at UP
GBP Rand Value Lowest/
Highest
Articles
2011 ₤10 000 R125 000 ₤985/ 1 057₤ 7
2012 ₤33 000 R451 500 ₤535/ 1 183₤ 30
2013 ₤30 000 R435 00 ₤787/ 1 183₤ 31
2014 ₤40 000 R722 00 ₤1 102/ 1 183₤ 26
Total ₤113 000 R1 733 500 Average:
R17 000
94
On average
R18 500
Value loss of
30%
since 2011

9. APCs at UP
INSTITUTIONAL AGREEMENT BioMedCentral (BMC) at UP
2009–2014
100 articles
540 citations
5.4 c/a
6 to 21

10. BMC
5.7
PLOS
8.8
Statistics supplied by Sunette Steynberg, UP Research
Commons
I choose where I publish

11. Average price
Graph based on a dataset compiled by Jisc of 6,061 article processing charges (APCs) paid by 20 UK higher education
institutions in 2014. It shows the average APC price paid to the top 20 largest publishers (largest in terms of number of
APCs). The average price paid for an APC often differs from the prices listed on publisher/journal websites. Obtained
from: http://figshare.com/articles/Average_APC_price_2014/1311650
The average
APC is £1 581
X R18.54
= R30 000+

12. And so we still trust
A recap of recent incidents of selling open access
articles, without the publisher acknowledging to
the reader/buyer that it is an open access article:
Springer (April, 2015)
Wiley (March, 2015)
Elsevier (March, 2015)
Elsevier (2014)
„It’s yet another nail in the coffin for hybrid OA –
we simply can’t trust these publishers to keep this
content open and paywall-free.”
ROSS MOUNCE:
http://rossmounce.co.uk/2015/04/27/springer-caught-red-handed-selling-access-to-open-access-
article/

13. APC sustainability
R2m
200 articles since
2011
SUSTAINABILITY
2015 FUND
DEPLETED

14. OA WoS comparison
Total articles
(2012–2014)
OA articles Percentage of total
UP 1619 643 39%
UCT 2378 760 32%
US 1365 446 33%
WITS 1960 569 29%

15. • Funding is available for scholarly peer-reviewed articles which
are published in accredited international journals listed on Web of
Science or IBSS and which qualify for subsidy from the DHET.
• In the case of co-authorship with international authors, the Fund
will pay 60% (in general) of the APC. In the case of collaboration
with authors from South African institutions the researcher may
only apply for their portion of the APC (50% payment).
• The impact factor of the journal should adhere to the standard
determined by the relevant faculty:
Publication Fund Policy Issues

16. APCs at UP
UP APC FUND (6 months report back)
Requests 26
Rejected 4
Retracted 1
Faculties HEALTH: 9 (35%)
NAS: 16 (62%)
HUM: 1 (2%)
International collaboration 8 (31%)
Vouched R204 800
Journals BMC: 10 (38%)
PLOS: 6 (23%)
IF Average 3.42

17. APCs will not be supported for articles to be published in hybrid
(open choice) journals which make only selected articles open access.
Hybrid here & there journals

18. The Institutional Repository
Statistics supplied by Hendriette Jansen van Vuuren, UP Open Scholarship Programme
Total
articles
Final
PDF
Post-print Pre-print No
permission
Awaiting
permission
2015 671 27% 70% 1% 1% 2%
2014 2 370 48% 47% 2% 1% 2%
2013 2 233 52% 41% 3% 1% 2%
2012 2 060 54% 43% 0% 1% 2%
2011 2 037 46% 48% 1% 1% 3%
TOTAL/
AVERAGE
9 371 45% 50% 1% 1% 2%

19. Permission from
publishers
Statistics supplied by Hendriette Jansen van Vuuren, UP Open Scholarship Programme
29%
63%
1% 2%
5%
PERMISSION FROM PUBLISHERS
PDF (29%)
Postprint (63%)
Preprint (1%)
No permission
(2%)
Awaiting
permission (5%)

20. Embargo periods
Statistics supplied by Hendriette Jansen van Vuuren, UP Open Scholarship Programme

21. The dilemma
Statistics supplied by Hendriette Jansen van Vuuren, UP Open Scholarship Programme
25%25%

22. • Support all initiatives from South African universities and
institutions to reduce APCs
• Support all initiatives form Government and NRF to take a stand on
research output availability and APCs
• Renegotiate fees together with other South African partners
• Develop an internal institutional system that supports the (free)
green route optimal
• Rethink copyright and poke holes in embargo periods
• Consider the ethics of the situation
• Join the revolution in support of affordable Open Access
Pursue EVERY avenue

23. “ ”
The tipping point for African research innovation will not
be merely the ability to fully access and use the new
abundance of global knowledge and ideas but to make
an active and significant contribution to its creation.
Piyushi Kotecha (in Abrahams, et al., 2008)