Problems with Open Access Publishing
1. Article Processing Charges (APCs)
Cost for publishing the paper shifts from the readers to the authors of papers.
Costs range from hundreds to thousands, depending on the journal.
Who is Disadvantaged? Academics at smaller institutions, independent academics, academics from less wealthy countries.
2. "Academic Imperialism"
Funding agencies infrequently offset the cost of Article Processing Charges for researchers and universities in low to medium income countries.
This creates an imperialistic imbalance of power in favor of researchers of wealthy countries.
3. Incentivization of Predatory Journals
"Pay to publish" model motivates capitalist gain above academic rigor.
Predatory journals do not enforce rigorous research standards and their resulting poor reputations harm the reputations of researchers.
4. Feedback Loop: Journal's Reputation and Authors' Reputations
Open access publications with the best reputations charge the highest APCs; researchers will pay it to benefit their own reputations.
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Only researchers with money being able to achieve a good reputation and expert power.
Is Plan S the solution?
Plan S exists to combat a lot of the problems listed above. However:
"Forcing everyone to use OA will: likely lock in place high APCs, may prevent scholars from publishing in their preferred journals, may place severe limitations on journals published by professional societies, and may cause a loss of income for professional societies."(Dudley, 2021, p. 11).