How much APCs rose, publisher by publisher
List prices for open-access publishing at six large publishers, 2019 to 2023. The median charge, how far it moved, and which titles rose fastest — from an open, peer-reviewed price dataset.
Median APC by publisher
| Publisher | Journals | Median 2019 | Median 2023 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Springer Nature | 2240 | $2,690 | $3,090 | +15% |
| Elsevier | 1990 | $2,500 | $3,145 | +26% |
| Wiley | 1424 | $3,000 | $3,450 | +15% |
| MDPI | 202 | $1,007 | $1,782 | +77% |
| Frontiers | 61 | $2,490 | $3,295 | +32% |
| PLOS | 7 | $2,350 | $2,655 | +13% |
Median across journals priced in both 2019 and 2023, in USD. Medians resist the pull of a few very expensive flagship titles.
Fastest-rising titles
| Journal | Publisher | 2019 | 2023 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice | Elsevier | $750 | $2,990 | +299% |
| Journal of the Korean Statistical Society | Elsevier | $750 | $2,890 | +285% |
| Endeavour | Elsevier | $750 | $2,840 | +279% |
| World Electric Vehicle Journal | MDPI | $302 | $1,114 | +269% |
| International Journal of Turbomachinery, Propulsion and Power | MDPI | $302 | $1,114 | +269% |
| Operations Research Letters | Elsevier | $750 | $2,760 | +268% |
| Structural Change and Economic Dynamics | Elsevier | $1,100 | $3,930 | +257% |
| Clinical Infection in Practice | Elsevier | $560 | $2,000 | +257% |
These are historical list prices, not current fees. They show the direction of travel; for what a journal charges today, check its own page or our comparisons.
Source
Butler, Hare, Schoenfelder, Schares, Alperin, Haustein (2024). An open dataset of article processing charges from six large scholarly publishers (2019-2023). arXiv:2406.08356 / Harvard Dataverse doi:10.7910/DVN/CR1MMV — licensed CC BY 4.0. Aggregated by JournalFees; reproduced with attribution.