The majority of Open Access journals cover their costs through article processing charges (APCs). As a result, researchers who do not have access to funds to cover these fees can find themselves unable to publish in these OA journals. Recognising that no researcher should be excluded from publishing their findings in Open Access, cOAlition S is actively supporting two initiatives, detailed below, to make OA publishing more equitable.

Pricing framework to foster global equity in scholarly publishing

Developed by Information Power following consultation with the funder, library/consortium, and publisher communities, the pricing framework to foster global equity in scholarly publishing is introduced to enable discussion, promote greater transparency and inspire publishers and other service providers to implement more equitable pricing across different economies. To support this, the framework provides users with guiding principles, data, information, and tools.

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More equitable framework

Moving away from APCs

Since September 2023, cOAlition S, in partnership with Jisc and PLOS, have been working with a multi-stakeholder working group to identify business models and arrangements that enable equitable participation in knowledge-sharing for the benefit of science and society. Comprising librarians, library consortia representatives, funders and publishers, the group has developed a framework which aims to assess how equitable a business model or arrangement is.

How Equitable Is It?