The whitepaper which was published in April 2020, explores data from PվƵ authors on the source of article processing charge (APC) funding, along with feedback from institutional interviews to facilitate a greater understanding of where funding for APCs originates and how these sources are being used.
Accelerating the transition to OA will involve bringing together multiple different funding streams, as well as tackling complex questions regarding redistribution of existing funds. Developments in OA business models and infrastructure are improving the ability to monitor article OA status and spending, a step that is crucial to enabling institutions and research funders to make informed decisions about funding for Gold OA, in particular with regard to agreements with publishers. However, there are still many APCs 'in the wild', in other words payments that are harder to monitor and that institutions and funders may be unaware of. This report explores the scale of ‘wild’ funding streams that remain for the most part unmonitored but which could be harnessed to accelerate a transition to OA.
