Article Processing Charge for Open Access Articles in Iran

Fatemeh Sohani; Maryam Shekofteh; Azam Shahbodaghi; Sara Jambarsang

doi:10.14429/djlit.44.5.19991

Fatemeh Sohani Department of Medical Library and Information Science, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran - 1516745811, Iran https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4789-887X
Maryam Shekofteh Department of Medical Library and Information Science, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran - 1516745811, Iran https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1079-4583
Azam Shahbodaghi Department of Medical Library and Information Science, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran - 1516745811, Iran https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8043-9464
Sara Jambarsang Center for Healthcare Data Modeling, Departments of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of public health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd - 8916188635, Iran https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8295-7812

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14429/djlit.44.5.19991

Keywords: Publishing model, Open access articles, Open access journals, Article processing charge, Iran

Abstract

The present research aimed to investigate the Open Access (OA) and non-OA publishing models and the Article
Processing Charge (APC) in Iranian researchers’ articles. The study population included all researchers’ articles
from Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (SBMU), Tehran, Iran, indexed in the Scopus database from
2017-2019. The publication model of the articles was determined by referring to the original article, the type of
journal, and their APC rate through the journal website, and the country of the journals’ publishers using the Scimago database. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics and SPSS software. Five thousand ninety-seven articles (54.5 %) were published as OA and 4255 articles (45.5 %) as a non-OA. 57.1 % of OA articles were published in APC OA journals, 20.3 % in non-APC OA journals, and 11.7 % in hybrid journals. $ 4,899,027.15 was spent on publishing 3,506 OA articles; the average cost per article was $1,397.32. Publication costs for Iranian researchers are obstacles to publishing OA articles in APC journals. It is necessary to provide sufficient support to researchers by universities and the Ministry of Health and Medical Education of Iran. Considering the low economic capacity of Iranian researchers, international journals should also consider discounts for them.