Faculty Attitudes Towards Article Processing Charges for Open Access Articles

Article Processing Charges (APCs) are significant charges for publishing Open Access (OA), and have no accepted standards for authors to source the funds or negotiate the charges. While there is a growing body of literature exploring academic authors’ perceptions of OA publishing, there is little data on how authors pay for APCs. The aim of this study was to examine how authors prepare for and fund APCs, as well as their perceptions of these charges. In early 2021 the authors deployed a survey to Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai faculty members via email. The survey was completed by 310 faculty, representing 10.6% of the active researcher population. Our findings show that about 50% of respondents include anticipated APC costs in grant applications, and that 16% of faculty will pay APCs using personal funds. Questions evaluating perception of APCs show that while the majority of respondents support the concept of Open Access, most believe that charges are too high and should not fall on authors.