IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/scient/v123y2020i2d10.1007_s11192-020-03402-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Market power of publishers in setting article processing charges for open access journals

Author

Listed:
  • Sumiko Asai

    (Meiji University)

Abstract

While open access journals provide readers with articles free of charge through the journals’ networks, authors are required to pay article processing charges to the publishers. This study simultaneously estimates the article processing charges for 535 open access journals independently launched by publishers along with citation scores and number of articles in a journal to identify the determinants of charges. The results show that open access journal publishers set higher article processing charges for more frequently cited journals with more articles. However, concentration measured by the share squared of the number of articles in an academic field is not shown to influence the charges significantly. Moreover, this study finds that large subscription journal publishers do not generally set higher article processing charges for their open access journals. Instead, they incorporate open access journal publishers that have already accomplished great achievements into their company groups. These findings suggest that large subscription journal publishers may influence the open access journal market through mergers and acquisitions of prominent open access journal publishers in the future, although they do not yet have market power.

Suggested Citation

  • Sumiko Asai, 2020. "Market power of publishers in setting article processing charges for open access journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 123(2), pages 1037-1049, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:123:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1007_s11192-020-03402-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-020-03402-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-020-03402-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11192-020-03402-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Theodore C. Bergstrom, 2001. "Free Labour for Costly Journals?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 183-198, Fall.
    2. Ling Ling Wang & Xuan Zhen Liu & Hui Fang, 2015. "Investigation of the degree to which articles supported by research grants are published in open access health and life sciences journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 104(2), pages 511-528, August.
    3. David J. Solomon & Bo‐Christer Björk, 2012. "A study of open access journals using article processing charges," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(8), pages 1485-1495, August.
    4. Mark J. McCabe, 2002. "Journal Pricing and Mergers: A Portfolio Approach," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(1), pages 259-269, March.
    5. Vincent Larivière & Stefanie Haustein & Philippe Mongeon, 2015. "The Oligopoly of Academic Publishers in the Digital Era," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(6), pages 1-15, June.
    6. Stephen Pinfield & Jennifer Salter & Peter A. Bath, 2017. "A “Gold-centric” implementation of open access: Hybrid journals, the “Total cost of publication,” and policy development in the UK and beyond," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 68(9), pages 2248-2263, September.
    7. Mathias Dewatripont & Victor Ginsburgh & Patrick Legros & Alexis Walckiers, 2007. "Pricing of Scientific Journals and Market Power," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 5(2-3), pages 400-410, 04-05.
    8. Bo-Christer Björk & David Solomon, 2015. "Article processing charges in OA journals: relationship between price and quality," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 103(2), pages 373-385, May.
    9. Pierre Dubois & Adriana Hernandez-Perez & Marc Ivaldi, 2007. "The Market of Academic Journals: Evidence from Data on French Libraries," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 5(2-3), pages 390-399, 04-05.
    10. David J. Solomon & Bo-Christer Björk, 2012. "A study of open access journals using article processing charges," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(8), pages 1485-1495, August.
    11. Sumiko Asai, 2019. "Changes in revenue structure of a leading open access journal publisher: the case of BMC," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 121(1), pages 53-63, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lin Zhang & Yahui Wei & Ying Huang & Gunnar Sivertsen, 2022. "Should open access lead to closed research? The trends towards paying to perform research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(12), pages 7653-7679, December.
    2. György Csomós & Jenő Zsolt Farkas, 2023. "Understanding the increasing market share of the academic publisher “Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute” in the publication output of Central and Eastern European countries: a case study o," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(1), pages 803-824, January.
    3. Sumiko Asai, 2023. "Does double dipping occur? The case of Wiley’s hybrid journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(9), pages 5159-5168, September.
    4. Abdelghani Maddi, 2021. "Game theory and scholarly publishing: premises for an agreement around open access," Papers 2106.13321, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2021.
    5. Raminta Pranckutė, 2021. "Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus: The Titans of Bibliographic Information in Today’s Academic World," Publications, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-59, March.
    6. Abdelghani Maddi & Esther Lardreau & David Sapinho, 2021. "Open access in Europe: a national and regional comparison," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(4), pages 3131-3152, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Oliver Budzinski & Thomas Grebel & Jens Wolling & Xijie Zhang, 2020. "Drivers of article processing charges in open access," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 124(3), pages 2185-2206, September.
    2. Sumiko Asai, 2019. "Changes in revenue structure of a leading open access journal publisher: the case of BMC," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 121(1), pages 53-63, October.
    3. Milan Frederik Klus & Alexander Dilger, 2020. "Success factors of academic journals in the digital age," Business Research, Springer;German Academic Association for Business Research, vol. 13(3), pages 1115-1143, November.
    4. Sumiko Asai, 2023. "Does double dipping occur? The case of Wiley’s hybrid journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(9), pages 5159-5168, September.
    5. William H. Walters, 2022. "Can differences in publisher size account for the relatively low prices of the journals available to master’s universities through commercial publishers’ databases? The importance of price discriminat," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(2), pages 1065-1097, February.
    6. Sergio Copiello, 2020. "Business as Usual with Article Processing Charges in the Transition towards OA Publishing: A Case Study Based on Elsevier," Publications, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-14, January.
    7. Andre Bruns & Niels Taubert, 2021. "Investigating the Blind Spot of a Monitoring System for Article Processing Charges," Publications, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-9, September.
    8. Justus Haucap & Nima Moshgbar & W. Benedikt Schmal, 2021. "The impact of the German 'DEAL' on competition in the academic publishing market," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(8), pages 2027-2049, December.
    9. Abdelghani Maddi & David / Sapinho, 2022. "Article Processing Charges, Altmetrics and Citation Impact: Is there an economic rationale?," Post-Print hal-03552377, HAL.
    10. Abdelghani Maddi & David Sapinho, 2022. "Article processing charges, altmetrics and citation impact: Is there an economic rationale?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(12), pages 7351-7368, December.
    11. Abdelghani Maddi & David Sapinho, 2021. "Article Processing Charges based publications: to which extent the price explains scientific impact?," Papers 2107.07348, arXiv.org.
    12. Stephan Puehringer & Johanna Rath & Teresa Griesebner, 2021. "The political economy of academic publishing: On the commodification of a public good," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(6), pages 1-21, June.
    13. María Bordons & Borja González-Albo & Luz Moreno-Solano, 2023. "Improving our understanding of open access: how it relates to funding, internationality of research and scientific leadership," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(8), pages 4651-4676, August.
    14. Campbell, James D., 2015. "Ownership and pricing of information: A model and application to open access," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 29-42.
    15. Li Yan & Wang Zhiping, 2023. "Mapping the Literature on Academic Publishing: A Bibliometric Analysis on WOS," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(1), pages 21582440231, March.
    16. Rousseau, Sandra & Catalano, Giuseppe & Daraio, Cinzia, 2021. "Can we estimate a monetary value of scientific publications?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(1).
    17. Stuart Lawson, 2015. "Fee Waivers for Open Access Journals," Publications, MDPI, vol. 3(3), pages 1-13, August.
    18. Nathan Berg, 2002. "Coping with journal-price inflation: leading policy proposals and the quality-spectrum," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 4(14), pages 1-7.
    19. Azar, Ofer H., 2008. "Evolution of social norms with heterogeneous preferences: A general model and an application to the academic review process," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 65(3-4), pages 420-435, March.
    20. Jørgen Burchardt, 2014. "Researchers Outside APC-Financed Open Access," SAGE Open, , vol. 4(4), pages 21582440145, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Open access journal; Article processing charge; Market power;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • L86 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Information and Internet Services; Computer Software

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:123:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1007_s11192-020-03402-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.