Quick Insights from the Wellcome Trust Paid APCs 2012/13 Dataset

~ Ernesto Priego

[Updated. I replaced the spreadsheet on figshare twice as a couple of publisher names had to be corrected. This left a version with 101 unique publisher names –note that some might still be subsumable to other publisher names in the set.

I have also corrected the first bar chart and added another one two on this post. Please bear in mind there might still be errors in the source data. The spreadsheet, write-up and charts are shared “as is” and “as available”; the information presented reflects the data as manually curated and refined in the latest dataset version at http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.966427.

This means that the number of publishers and costs and outputs associated to each publisher will depend on how the Publisher field has been refined; other quantifications and visualisations of the original dataset or other versions that have been refined differently are therefore likely to differ. I do not work for nor am I currently associated with the Wellcome Trust or any of the publishers mentioned here; these are not “official” figures and are openly shared here as research work in progress and should therefore be taken in that spirit].

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In March 2014 the Wellcome Trust released a dataset via figshare giving information on their funding of Article Processing Charges in 2012/13.

The dataset  includes all papers that the Trust is aware of paying money for.

Cameron Neylon subsequently shared a dataset on figshare (and github) with some of the inconsistencies refined:

Neylon, Cameron (2014): Wellcome Trust Article Processing Charges by Article 2012/13. figshare.
http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.964812

I worked with his version of the  dataset and manually refined inconsistencies in the Publisher field (same publishers appeared under different names and spellings and other text formatting issues). I did not refine the journal titles.

I also focused on 11 publishers from the dataset and obtained totals as well as their maximum and minimum APCs.

I shared this version of the spreadsheet as

Priego, Ernesto; Neylon, Cameron (2014): Wellcome Trust APC spend (2012-13) Spreadsheet with Publisher Names Refined. figshare.
http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.966427

Some figures that stand out:

  • Number of Publishers (once refined): 101
  • Number of Published Outputs in the dataset: 2127
  • Total amount paid in APCs according to the dataset: £3,884,787.52
  • Highest APC in the dataset: £13,200.00, for the monograph: ‘Fungal Disease in Britain and the United States 1850-2000’ (Palgrave Macmillan)
  • Highest APC payment for an article in the dataset: £6000 for ‘Laboratory Science in Tropical Medicine’, in the Public Service Review journal.
  • Lowest APC in the dataset: £45.94  for the journal article ‘The association between breastfeeding and HIV on postpartum maternal weight changes over 24 months in rural South Africa’  on the American Society for Nutrition Journal.
  • APC average (excluding the £13,000 one for the book) £1820.01
Total Cost (£) Paid by the Wellcome Trust to 11 Selected Publishers (out of 101 Publishers in complete dataset) . Chart by Ernesto Priego
Total Cost (£) Paid by the Wellcome Trust to 11 Selected Publishers
(out of 101 Publishers in complete dataset) . Chart by Ernesto Priego
Number of Published Outputs Paid by the Wellcome Trust from 11 Selected Publishers in 2012/13 Chart by Ernesto Priego
Number of Published Outputs Paid by the Wellcome Trust
from 11 Selected Publishers in 2012/13
Chart by Ernesto Priego
Lowest and Highest Article Processing Charges from 11 Selected Publishers as Paid by the Wellcome Trust According to 2012_13 Dataset . Chart by Ernesto Priego
Lowest and Highest Article Processing Charges from 11 Selected Publishers as Paid by the Wellcome Trust According to 2012_13 Dataset . Chart by Ernesto Priego

 

Total Cost (£) charged to Wellcome by Selected Publishers (inc VAT when charged). Figures from 2012/13 Wellcome Trust Dataset (public domain), including Number of Outputs, Max APC and Min APC. From spreadsheet by Ernesto Priego
Total Cost (£) charged to Wellcome by Selected Publishers (inc VAT when charged). Figures from 2012/13 Wellcome Trust Dataset (public domain), including Number of Outputs, Max APC and Min APC. From spreadsheet by Ernesto Priego

With many thanks to Cameron Neylon.

Hopefully this helps in some way to provide a quicker idea of the average cost of APCs from the major for-profit publishers.

Published by Ernesto Priego

My passion is creating opportunities for discovery, creativity and innovation. I am an advocate for enhanced access to information as a public good. I enjoy fostering engagement and openness, facilitating collaboration and mentoring. My main focus is multi-disciplinary and involves practically and theoretically connecting the dots between varied, closely-related fields and topics: comics studies; human-computer interaction design, library and information science, digital humanities, scholarly communications, publishing studies, digital innovation and material culture, intellectual rights and open science, access, data and educational resources. I love writing and spreading the word about the things I believe in. I love higher education and the Internet and I define myself as a digital scholarship advocate. I love working collaboratively and on my own. You can still follow me and/or contact me via Twitter @ernestopriego.