Correlations in APC, IF, and Publication Output from Authors in Lower Income Countries

Open Access (OA) scholarly journals typically follow a fee-based publishing model where authors pay article processing charges (APCs) to publish their content, allowing readers to access it free of charge without any restrictions. This fee-based structure places the financial burden on authors, as opposed to those who choose to publish in subscription-based journals, where there is generally no cost to the authors. To reduce or remove financial barriers, publishers may provide APC waivers or discounts to authors based in low- or middle-income countries. We explored the relationship between impact factor and APC with publication output from low- and middle-income countries in a wide range of journals. We compare the geographic distribution of published content in a subset of OA journals in physical sciences, biological sciences, and social sciences. We chose journals that have different APC amounts, as these can vary widely (e.g., megajournals in the physical sciences with APCs as low as 675 USD [IOP SciNotes] to as high as 6290 USD [Nature Communications]. Correlated trends in higher publication output from authors in lower-income countries in journals with lower APCs, and lower publication output in higher APC journals could indicate that APC amounts are a factor for authors when choosing which journals to target for publication. This analysis will identify concerns around equity in OA publishing and discuss whether the current mechanisms are sufficient to support authors from lower-income countries in publishing their research in journals of their choice with desired high impact.