Researchers Outside APC-Financed Open Access

The article processing charge (APC) financed Open Access is apublication model that provides immediate and free access to scientific articles. Morethan half of the world’s Open Access articles are published according to this concept.However, a side effect of the model is that research is not published if researcherscannot pay the publication charge. The study examines the nature of this phenomenon, itsextent, and implications. The study places a special focus on authors who are notaffiliated with a research institution. The proportion of these authors is identifiedamong 2,184 Danish authors in Danish periodicals in 2010. The possibility for poorresearchers to receive compensation from publishers is investigated as well. Paying theAPC is a problem for many researchers—represented by around 30% of authors who havepublished in Danish journals (unemployed scientists, students, as well as retired andprivate employees). Grants from publishers exist, but they are small and too uncertainto ensure that research is published optimally. This study predicts that a large amountof valuable research risks not being published if this publishing model dominateswithout alternatives or countermeasures