Economic Evaluation of Article Processing Charges (APCs) in Iranian and International Journals Indexed in Scopus: A Scientometric Approach to Research Publishing Policy

Purpose: The emergence of open access (OA) publishing has had a significant impact on the academic publishing industry, where article processing costs (APCs) have become a major source of revenue for many journals. The diversity in APCs across journals has raised questions about their fairness, transparency, and justification. Paying attention to the indicators determining article processing costs in Iranian journals, as well as the functioning of the Scientific Journals Commission in this regard, was one of the main objectives of this project. The present study was conducted to investigate the status of APCs in Iranian journals indexed in Scopus and to compare the total value of domestic journals with other journals in the world using a documentary and survey method.
Methodology: The method of conducting this research was carried out using documentary and content analysis methods. In this method, 376 Iranian journals indexed in Scopus database were extracted and examined based on the type of quartile and also the subject area. The indices of total value, average total value and average price of article processing cost were calculated for each category. Also, by reviewing top official documents, the functioning of the Scientific Journals Commission in this regard was examined.
Finding: The results of the documents showed that the type of journal, place of publication, peer review process, layout, and printing are among the main factors affecting APC, while the total value of the journal is directly dependent on the APC rate and the number of articles published during a year. According to the statistics of 2024, 376 Iranian journals had a share of 1.28% of the total journals indexed in Scopus, but in practice, they indexed only 17,289 articles (0.49%) of the total articles indexed in this database. The number of articles indexed in journals varied according to the quartile type, with 1,983,553, 812,497, 436,445, and 272,219 articles published in journals in the first to fourth quartiles, respectively. This is while only 24,278 articles were published in journals without a quartile. This means that an average of 217, 107, 65, and 45 articles were published in journals in the first to fourth quartiles, respectively, which indicates a high tendency of researchers to publish their articles in higher quality journals. This also increases the average APC of these journals compared to the lower quartile. The total value of Iranian journals was also only $195 million, which was a very small share of 0.39% compared to the $50 billion value of all indexed journals. The results also indicated that the APC rate and, consequently, the average APC and the average price of all journals in the Iranian medical sciences group were much higher than those of non-medical journals and were almost twice as high. A review of upstream documents in the field of publications also showed that before 2021, it was forbidden for publications to charge fees for the review, acceptance, and publication processes of articles. The compilation and notification of the regulations on "Determining the Cost of Processing Articles in Open Access Scientific Journals" in May 2022 was the first official action of the Publications Commission in determining the cost of processing articles with open access journals. The results of this research showed that the price set for processing articles in Iranian journals is not proportional to the country's inflation. Given that no review has been carried out in this regard since 2022.
Conclusion: In determining article processing costs, the Publications Commission should pay special attention to the main determining indicators in estimating APC, such as the type of publications, the indexed level of the publication (national or international), the type of articles published in the publication, the number of citations received by the publications, the impact factor of the publication, and the quartile of the publication. Given that the process of scientific review of articles and publication in academic journals is carried out within the university, it is therefore proposed to speed up the work process by separating these two areas. In such a way that the scientific review of articles (evaluation and review of articles, appointment of peer reviewers) is carried out by the university, and the publishing department (website management, page layout, and payment of personnel costs and recurring costs of articles) is carried out by reputable publishers. In other words, each university should have a private publisher next to it so that it can delegate its publishing department to it.