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HSRC

APC Services

Administration of Article Processing Charges facilitated by eResearch Knowledge Centre (eRKC)

 

The eResearch Knowledge Centre is mandated to administer the payment of Article Processing Charges (APC) from the 2019/2020 financial year for the HSRC. Due to the complexities around the management and payment of Article Processing Charges (APC’s), a need was identified to appoint a service provider to streamline these processes on behalf of the HSRC.

An Article Processing Charge (APC) is the most common funding method for publishing in open access journals. The publications are accessible in either an open access journal or in a subscription journal in which some of the articles are open access. This fee is typically charged to an author’s institution or research funder to cover the cost associated with publishing.

Publication charges (or article processing charges) applies upon article acceptance, after a successful peer-review process while at times submission fees are required before the onset of the peer-reviewed process.

The APC workflow is as follows:

  • The HSRC researcher will submit an article for publishing to the publisher. The publisher will notify the author whether the paper has been accepted for publishing, and also at this stage indicates the Article Processing Charges of publishing in Open Access.
  • The Research Programme notifies Mr Abel Modise in the eRKC of the publication and sends the acceptance letter for publication, together with the quotation and the publisher’s contact details and this will be forwarded to the service provider, WWIS.
  • Mr Modise will verify the publication’s validity and accreditation, considering aspects of possible predatory publishing.
  • If the journal is valid, eRKC will send the invoice to WWIS for payment.
  • WWIS will secure payment of the APCs within three (3) days of receipt of the publisher invoice on behalf of the HSRC, and invoice the HSRC accordingly in ZAR.
  • A monthly reconciliation will be supplied to HSRC by WWIS. Journaling between units will be based on the amount paid to the service provider every month.

For more information on APC processes please contact Abel Modise (amodise@hsrc.ac.za – x2044)