A new study commissioned by the Knowledge Exchange argues that there can be benefits to publishers if they switch to a model based on submission fees.
The report “Submission fees – A tool in the transition to Open Access?”, written by Mark Ware, concludes that this model could be particularly relevant to journals with a high rejection rate. They could combine submission fees with article processing charges in order to make the transition to open access easier.
The model has attracted interest but publishers regard the risks, particularly those involved in any transition, as outweighing the perceived benefits. To support any transition, funders, institutions and publication funds could explicitly allow submission fees as a cost as this is often unclear in their policies.
This new study draws on research (conducted SQW Ltd on behalf of the Wellcome Trust), which also concluded that submission fees could play a key role in helping publishers transition to an open access model.
When a publisher offer a Wellcome-compliant open access model (i.e. deposition of the final paper in PMC/UKPMC at the time of publication, and a licence which allows the work to be re-used), then publisher submission fees are an allowable expense.
