EU data support not paying hybrid journal fees, study suggests

Hybrid journals added €400 to cost of average open-access paper for Horizon 2020 researchers

Data from the EU’s 2014-20 R&D programme suggest the European Commission chose wisely when it decided the replacement programme, Horizon Europe, should stop funding open-access publication of research papers in ‘hybrid journals’ that mix open and paywalled content, a study has suggested.

The study, carried out by external organisations and published by the Commission on 7 September, estimated that the average cost to the previous Horizon 2020 programme of a researcher publishing a paper with publisher-facilitated ‘gold’ open access was €2,200. But the cost of such publication in a hybrid journal was €2,600.