An Unsustainable Equation: Average Article Processing Charges Exceed Swedish Average PhD Salaries

Paper i proceeding, 2025

Open Access (OA) publishing has transformed scholarly communication by enhancing the visibility and accessibility of research. However, the rising costs of Article Processing Charges (APCs) pose significant financial challenges for researchers and institutions. In this paper, we investigated APC expenditure trends for publications from Swedish institutions, examining the relationship between total costs and publication volumes, variations in APCs among publishers, and the financial impact of gold and hybrid OA models over five years, focusing on six major academic publishers. Additionally, we explored disciplinary differences in APCs and access preferences, particularly between STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and non-STEM fields. We sourced the publication dataset for this study from Scopus, including articles and reviews authored by researchers affiliated with Swedish institutions between 2019 and 2023. We categorized the publications using the SciVal tool and applied the Fields of Research and Development classification scheme to ensure structured and comparable disciplinary analysis. We obtained APC data from an openly available dataset and performed the analysis using a custom R script. Our findings reveal that OA publishing peaked in 2021, followed by a gradual decline, a trend likely driven by the surge in research dissemination during the COVID-19 pandemic. Total APC expenditure increased by 83%, rising from $12 million in 2019 to $22 million in 2023. Notably, the average APC exceeds the monthly average wage of Swedish PhD students, highlighting the financial burden of OA publishing. Hybrid OA models were found to be approximately 24% more expensive than gold OA models. Significant cost disparities were also observed among publishers. STEM fields incurred higher APCs than non-STEM fields, and a lack of gold OA journals in the Humanities was evident for several publishers. These findings highlight the financial strain associated with OA publishing and its uneven impact across disciplines and publishers. The study provides insights for policymakers, funding agencies, and academic institutions seeking to foster equitable and sustainable OA practices.