New CUP open access policy 'prevents double-dipping'

Cambridge University Press is launching a policy to prevent charging both authors and subscribers for open access journal content (so-called double-dipping).

Matthew Day, head of open and data publishing at Cambridge University Press, said; ‘We believe that double-dipping is wrong and we want to be clear about how we are preventing it.’
 
The new policy discounts 2016 subscription prices for journals that have received open access (OA) article processing charges (APCs) from authors in the last full journal volume (that is, in 2014). If the fraction of OA articles in a journal was at least 5 per cent and the income from APCs was at least £5,000, then the Press is discounting renewed subscriptions by the lower of the percentage OA or the percentage APC income.

All open access articles are included, except those in supplements published in addition to a volume's subscription content. Subscribers already receiving a substantial discount on a journal’s subscription price, via a consortium package for example, will not receive an additional discount on their collection access fee as a result of these changes.
 
CUP says the effect of the policy is that the renewal prices for six hybrid journals are being reduced by between 2.6 per cent and 7.7 per cent.
 
Mandy Hill, managing director of academic at Cambridge University Press, said; ‘We’ve previously had an anti-double-dipping policy in place, but this new policy is stronger and more transparent. It is an important part of how we serve the needs of the academic community.’