[An article from The Conversation written by Laurent Bainier – Editor-in-Chief of The Conversation France]
Researchers produce articles, often peer-review those of their peers voluntarily, and contribute to the formatting of publications. However, the dissemination of these works is controlled by commercial publishers. With the rise of open access, a new model has emerged: APCs, publication fees that researchers or their institutions must pay to make their articles accessible.
As a result, the system now combines two paying logics. Institutions continue to pay subscriptions, while increasingly funding APCs. In France, these fees could exceed 50 million by 2030. In addition, there are over 90 million euros in subscriptions to journals. Economically unsustainable.
Solutions exist, such as the open access scientific publishing model from the Academy of Sciences and CNRS, free for both authors and readers. But they are slow to become widespread. Why? What are the logics that push researchers to continue to play the game of APCs? How can we promote open access? Our two guests, researcher Patrick Couvreur and the Director of Heritage and Scientific Resources at the Academy of Sciences Justine Fabre, help us see more clearly in this new episode of The Great Conversation.
