Delta Think: “Open Access Charges – Continued Consolidation and Increases”

From a Delta Think Blog Post by Dan Pollock:

The latest analysis of list prices suggests prices in general are increasing, although averages for some publishers have fallen. This month, we examine the headlines and variations that lie underneath them. In the following months we will look at spreads of prices and optimization and how the competitive landscape is evolving.

Headline Changes

To compare like for like, we analyze non-discounted, CC BY charges. Overall, list prices continue to increase slowly:

• Two years ago, high-impact journals began to offer OA options, which led to above-average price increases. This year, like last year, sees overall price increases following their underlying averages.
• The highest price point for fully OA journals remains at $8,900. We now see a couple of dozen or so fully OA (“gold”) journals charging above $5,300, whereas this was the highest price for all but two last year.
• The highest price for a hybrid journal is now $11,690, up from $11,390 last year.
• Outliers aside, fully OA journal APCs are less expensive than hybrid, averaging around 59% of hybrid average APCs. Last year it was 57%; the year before 58%.
• The average hybrid APC has increased by 4.2%, compared with an average 3.5% increase last year¹.
• The average fully OA APC has increased by 4.3%, compared with an average 4.1% increase last year².

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APCs continue to rise but have settled to their long-term trends after the entrance of the expensive high-impact journals to the market a couple of years ago. Last year they rose below the average level of inflation in many countries.

Learn More, Read the Complete Post, View Charts (791 words)

Filed under: Companies (Publishers/Vendors), News, Open Access