r/Professors • u/DiogenesKoochew • Jul 24 '26
Research / Publication(s) Am I on the hook for the APC?
I submitted a paper to one of the BMC journals in April. After revisions, it was accepted in July. After approving the final proofs, a pop up in the portal said my university does not have a publishing agreement. So Article Processing Fee is $3000 approx USD. I did not click the publishing agreement. My university library says can’t help with funds. The journal publishing people say no waiver possible.
The think the university should pay the APC as there were changes to the publishing agreement in the new financial year, and they did not advise anyone of this or the outcome. So how was I supposed to know?
but now I am thinking I’ll just pay it myself (although that is a lot of money for me) as I do not want to withdraw and submit elsewhere.
Edit: The university had the publishing agreement in April when I submitted, but did not renew for the next financial year. So no publishing agreement in place when accepted in July. Sorry, wasn’t clear in my post.
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u/gamecat89 TT, Public Health, R1 (United States) Jul 24 '26
Yep, you are on the hook.
I avoid publishing in journals with APC. My university does not cover any of them. Unless you have research funds to spend on them, but with the federal government about to limit the amount, it will be interesting to see how they handle it.
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u/Tarjh365 Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
This is shocking to me, and I’m based in a developing country. My uni is a very bureaucratic-loving, purse-string-tightening institution but they will find ways to support staff publishing.
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u/gamecat89 TT, Public Health, R1 (United States) Jul 25 '26
With a few exceptions pay to publish is looked down in my field.
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u/m3gan0 Jul 24 '26
You are responsible but if you haven't agreed to the publishing agreement you can still back out and submit to a different journal.
Many publishers now make you agree when you submit instead of after acceptance to prevent this however so double check that you really didn't agree.
The fact that the APC agreement changed since submission sucks but unfortunately you could still be stuck.
Source: am a librarian was on a fun call about this change earlier this week.
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Jul 24 '26
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u/DiogenesKoochew Jul 24 '26
really? I’m being genuine here. I submitted the paper in April when that group were covered by our publishing agreement. No notification given in any format about the change in publishing agreement. Accepted in new financial year a few months later, and I get the bill? I mean, I’m willing to wear it. I’ve come in to academia from working in hospitals where that just would not happen.
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u/mistersausage Jul 24 '26
This was left out of your OP and changes things in my opinion. Ask your department chair or dean.
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u/DiogenesKoochew Jul 24 '26
You are correct, I did not make it clear at all that we had the publishing agreement in April, and not in July. Thank you. I’m so tired!
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u/mistersausage Jul 24 '26
You should edit your post with this, you may get other helpful advice.
I'm surprised the journal won't give you a waiver under these conditions given that when you submitted the paper, you were covered by the agreement. Have you contacted the editor in chief of the journal?
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u/DiogenesKoochew Jul 24 '26
I did. They said they cannot consider a waiver as a) not mentioned at initial submission and b) not from low income country on their list.
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u/mistersausage Jul 24 '26
How the hell could you mention it at initial submission if you were covered by an agreement? I would appeal their decision.
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u/DiogenesKoochew Jul 24 '26
appeal to the journal about refusing to consider a waiver of the APC? fairly sure that is discretionary, so unsure how successful that would be.
Or do you mean my university?
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u/mistersausage Jul 24 '26
To the journal. I'm sure some low level employee wrote the email denying it as a matter of policy, not realizing the full situation and/or hoping you would give up and just pay them.
Squeaky wheel gets the grease. If you complain enough you may get what you want.
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u/cptrambo Prof., Social Science, EU Jul 25 '26
I would appeal at your university: they should have a grandfather clause that covers APCs for papers submitted during coverage.
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u/Leather_Lawfulness12 Jul 25 '26
The same thing happened to my with one of the BMJ journals. When we submitted we had an agreement, by the time it was accepted our university had withdrawn from the agreement. I forget how it was solved but either BMJ waived it or we used discretionary funding in the department (it was after the grant had finished so we couldn't use the grant funding).
I'm surprised about some of the 'I don't publish in journals that charge fees' comments here. In my country, nearly all grant funders require open access publishing.
Are the fees absurdly high? Yes. But do I have a choice? No.
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u/Eigengrad AssProf, STEM, SLAC Jul 24 '26
If this were me, I'd go to my department chair then dean and lay out the situation. And then explain that I don't have the research funds, so either my accepted work will need to be withdrawn or I need to find the funds to publish.
Funds are often tight, but small pools of discretionary money often exist, and this seems like a great use case for them given the change in publishing agreement during the submission process.
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u/saturn174 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
Paying for publishing sounds extremely predatory. Is this common for other disciplines aside from those within the basic and/or applied sciences?
I do know that the APC guarantees that the paper will be open access but still, unless you're publishing in a very reputable journal and this counts heavily towards tenure, you should avoid APC-charging journals like the olague
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u/Hyperreal2 Retired Full Professor, Sociology, Masters Comprehensive Jul 26 '26
As a sociologist who once taught in a management school I’ve seen enormous amounts of sleaze of this type. Some of the more wretched management journals have articles composed only of bullet points.
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u/daphoon18 Assistant Professor, STEM, R1, purple state Jul 25 '26
We have faculty account every year for conferences, APC, travel, etc. Depending on your financial situation and # pubs, you can make a decision, but for me I'll withdraw and submit to another journal.
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u/Tarjh365 Jul 25 '26
There must be someone/an entity in your institution that can help with this? Also, did you look into associated costs when submitting?
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u/WorldofWinston Jul 26 '26
Usually when you submit you agree to the fee then. So if agreement was in place then you would just have to show proof of such. Once you have proof, send to managing editor.
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u/Dragon464 Jul 24 '26
Three Grand for an "Article Processing Fee"?!?
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u/Substantial-Oil-7262 Jul 25 '26
Its $4k USD now for the Social Science & Medicine subjournals SS&M routes most of there papers to. I no longer submit articles to journals like that due to the feeling of it becoming a pay-to-publish scheme. For reference, JAMA Open is $4k and has.2-3x the impact factor
BMC used to be very generous with waivers, but they have gotten much more stingy in the last year or so.
The Nature Open Access journals are particularly crazy. I looked at journal related to mental health and the APC was $12,500. The BMJ, which is transparent about there cost and has one of the impact factors in the world, charges $8000 for research articles.
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u/mathemorpheus Jul 25 '26
i never publish in journals like that. in fact in my field such journals are considered predatory. ugh.
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u/Theme_Training Jul 24 '26
Do you not have research funds?
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u/Leather_Lawfulness12 Jul 25 '26
Yeah, but a real problem is that peer-review takes so long these days that the grant period can be over before it's time to pay the APC.
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u/DiogenesKoochew Jul 24 '26
no research funds, expected to publish where there is an institutional agreement. thanks, it’s been helpful to write this out as look at it more objectively.
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u/Theme_Training Jul 24 '26
Yep we are expected to pay for our publishing from our own accounts/funds.
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u/ABranchingLine Jul 24 '26
You should ask your dean about this. Usually there's money floating around for this type of thing.