An article processing charge (APC) is a fee paid to the publisher to make an article immediately available and openly accessible. Under the Gold Open Access model (see section titled What is open access?), article processing charges are paid to cover publishing costs. APCs support the publisher's business model, where the cost of publication is moved from the reader (via subscriptions) to the author (via the APC).
As a WSU Researcher, you can choose to make the Author Accepted Manuscript available via Research Profiles and Repository, under the 'Green' Open Access model, and avoid paying ANY article processing charges.
This will satisfy the mandates for open access as required by both ARC and NHMRC, and will result in your research being openly available, after any embargo periods, for the broader community.
Before you pay an APC, check:
A review of some of the standard considerations for choosing a journal can assist in deciding whether or not to pay APCs. For example:
Contact your School Librarian if you are unsure about the publishing source you are considering.
The next step, Open access publishing workflow, provides direction on what to consider for open access publishing.
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