"We estimate that $3.7 billion was spent on APCs in 2025, of which 87% went to five publishers—Elsevier, Springer Nature, MDPI, Wiley, and Frontiers. Global spend has quadrupled in seven years, even after adjusting for inflation." #openaccess #publishing #academia
arxiv.org/abs/2608.16322
arxiv.org
Estimating global article processing charges paid to 14 publishers for open access between 2019 and 2025
This study presents estimates of the global expenditure on article processing charges (APCs) paid to 14 publishers for open access (OA) between 2019 and 2025. APCs are charged for publishing in fully ...
