ArticleBMJ open2021
Publishing at any cost: a cross-sectional study of the amount that medical researchers spend on open access publishing each year.
Article in BMJ open, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- The NIH 2025 Public Access Policy: Immediate access, unequal costs.PLoS medicine · 2026Article
- Promoting awareness of open access publishing in speech-language therapy and audiology: Lessons from multilingual language assessment research.The South African journal of communication disorders = Die Suid-Afrikaanse tydskrif vir Kommunikasieafwykings · 2026Article
- Ophthalmology journal article processing charges for publications in a post-COVID world.Digital journal of ophthalmology : DJO · 2026Article
- Exploring the landscape of lymphatic filariasis research in India: A scientometric analysis of two decades from 2000 to 2024.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Article
- Has open access in neurosurgery made access easier but sharing harder? A National survey from an LMIC (Turkey).Neurosurgical review · 2025Article
- An Evidence-Based Framework for Medical Student Research Training.Medical science educator · 2024Article
- Access to evidence-based care: a systematic review of trauma and surgical literature costs across resource settings.Trauma surgery & acute care open · 2024Article
- The Changing Medical Publishing Industry: Economics, Expansion, and Equity.Journal of general internal medicine · 2023Article
- Responsible dissemination of health and medical research: some guidance points.BMJ evidence-based medicine · 2023Article
- Female Dynamics in Authorship of Scientific Publications in the Public Library of Science: A 10-year Bibliometric Analysis of Biomedical Research.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2023Article
- The impact of article processing charge waiver on conducting research in low-income countries.Conflict and health · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo estimate the financial costs paid by individual medical researchers from meeting the article processing charges (APCs) levied by open access journals in 2019.
designCross-sectional analysis. DATA SOURCES: Scopus was used to generate two random samples of researchers, the first with a senior author article indexed in the 'Medicine' subject area (general researchers) and the second with an article published in the ten highest-impact factor general clinical medicine journals (high-impact researchers) in 2019. For each researcher, Scopus was used to identify all first and senior author original research or review articles published in 2019. Data were obtained from Scopus, institutional profiles, Journal Citation Reports, publisher databases, the Directory of Open Access Journals, and individual journal websites.
main outcome measuresMedian APCs paid by general and high-impact researchers for all first and senior author research and review articles published in 2019.
resultsThere were 241 general and 246 high-impact researchers identified as eligible for our study. In 2019, the general and high-impact researchers published a total of 914 (median 2, IQR 1-5) and 1471 (4, 2-8) first or senior author research or review articles, respectively. 42% (384/914) of the articles from the general researchers and 29% (428/1471) of the articles from the high-impact medical researchers were published in fully open access journals. The median total APCs paid by general researchers in 2019 was US$191 (US$0-US$2500) and the median total paid by high-impact researchers was US$2900 (US$0-US$5465); the maximum paid by a single researcher in total APCs was US$30115 and US$34676, respectively.
conclusionsMedical researchers in 2019 were found to have paid between US$0 and US$34676 in total APCs. As journals with APCs become more common, it is important to continue to evaluate the potential cost to researchers, especially on individuals who may not have the funding or institutional resources to cover these costs.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.