The cost of open access publication of papers by Spanish authors in five areas of the social sciences

Abstract

The open publication of articles involves processing costs known as an «article processing charge» (APC). The aim of this paper is to determine the total cost for articles published in Open Access via APC by Spanish authors in five areas of the social sciences. To do this, Spanish papers indexed in the thematic categories of Humanities (Multidisciplinary), Sociology, Information Science & Library Science, Education & Educational Research, and Communication in the Web of Science Core Collection during the period 2012-2019 will be analyzed, and the publishing journals, funding institutions and APCs will be identified. The articles were published in 223 journals and the most published were Communication & Society (41), Comunicar (34), and Profesional de la Información (20). The total APC was 481,120.40 euros and the average cost was 1,129 euros. The journals with the highest expenditure were Computers & Education (34,416 euros), Scientometrics (30,380 euros) and IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies (26,026 euros). The most frequent publication models were DOAJ Gold (54%), Green Published (32%), and Green Accepted (28%). In 53% of the articles it was stated that funding came from the Spanish Government (mainly through ministries), in 25% from regional governments, in 21% from the European Union, and in 20% from universities. The average cost of APCs in the journals in which Spanish authors published is within the normal amounts worldwide, with APCs being more expensive in journals with higher impact and in the areas of Information Science & Library Science and Sociology. This study can be used to guide policy and institutional support on open access and the cost of APCs, since academic institutions and those responsible for managing academic resources need to be aware of these costs.