SCOAP3 Article Processing Charges announced

As part of the SCOAP³ tendering process conducted by CERN for the benefit of SCOAP³, the agreed-upon Article Processing Charges (APCs) for SCOAP³ participating journals are now publicly available.

Within the SCOAP³ model, these APCs are not paid by authors, but centrally by SCOAP³, from a common fund to which libraries, library consortia, research institutions and funding agencies jointly contribute

Following the effective award of contracts to several journals, and starting January 1st 2014, these journals will publish all SCOAP³ Articles submitted by any author as Open Access in perpetuity under a CC-BY license. Publishers will reduce their subscription fees, where those exist, to account for this conversion of entire journals, or parts thereof, to Open Access. SCOAP³ Articles are defined as either all articles appearing in journals mostly carrying High-Energy Physics content, or articles appearing in “broad band” journals which have been submitted by researchers to arXiv.org under the corresponding categories.

In detail, the maximum yearly payment by SCOAP³ for each journal in 2014 will be based on the individual journal APC and number of SCOAP³ Articles published in 2011 (the latest year for which complete data are available). The APCs themselves and the SCOAP³ budget envelope are fixed for the duration of the three-year contract period (through 2016). In 2015 and 2016, the maximum yearly payments are eligible to grow at a capped rate of between 4% for “large” journals and 25% for “small” journals, to account for potential growth in the number of articles.

The APCs, the reference number of SCOAP³ Articles for 2011 and the corresponding fraction of each journal appear here, in alphabetical order:

Contracts between publishers and CERN, acting for the benefit of SCOAP³, will be signed after the successful conclusion of three crucial next steps in the SCOAP³ process:

1. Reconciliation of subscription fee reductions between publishers and SCOAP³ participating libraries, to take place in the last quarter of 2012 and into the first quarter of 2013;
2. Conclusion of a memorandum of understanding between CERN and SCOAP³ partners, which will define a robust governance structure to oversee the operation and future development of SCOAP³;
3. Completion of the SCOAP³ budget envelope through re-direction of those subscription funds by existing and prospective SCOAP³ partners.