Please see our new transparent journal pricing policy, which is applied to journal subscription prices from 2022.
The policy below is NO LONGER CURRENT. It was introduced in 2018 and applied to 2019-2021 journal subscription prices.
At Cambridge we aim to price our journals fairly and transparently. In particular, we believe it is unfair to ‘double dip’ by charging subscribers for content that has been made Open Access through the payment of an article processing charge (APC).
Starting in 2018, we define double-dipping as occurring when Open Access content effectively replaces subscription (non-Open Access) content. Where non-Open Access content in a journal has been reduced over a 4-year rolling window as a result of the publication of Open Access articles, the Open Access portion of the journal’s content is acknowledged through a reduction in subscription prices over the following three years.
The Open Access landscape continues to evolve. We will be conducting further reviews of our journals pricing policy in order to continue to operate a fair and sustainable model, and as a result our new double-dipping policy is likely to be revised within three years.
Worked example of our policy
Step 1 – Assess the change in non-OA articles over the past 4 years
Example journal | 2014 | 2017 |
Non-OA articles | 100 | 95 |
Change in non-OA articles |
| 5 |
Step 2 – Assess how many of the OA articles double dipped, if any
1. There is no double-dipping if there is no drop in the number of non-OA articles.
2. If the number of OA articles is less than the drop in non-OA articles, then all the OA articles are considered to be double-dipping.
3. If the number of OA articles is equal to or greater than the drop in non-OA articles, then the number of double-dipping OA articles is the drop in non-OA articles.
In our example journal, five OA articles led to double-dipping in 2017:
| 2017 |
OA articles | 15 |
Drop in non-OA articles | 5 |
Double-dipping OA articles | 5 |
Step 3 – Calculate the value of double dipping
We divide the total APC revenue in the analysis year (2017 in our example) by the total number of OA articles and then multiply by the number of double dipping OA articles.
| 2017 |
OA articles | 15 |
APC revenue | £30,000 |
Double-dipping OA articles | 5 |
Double-dipping revenue | £10,000 |
Step 4 – Determine the discount for the pricing year
We spread the discount over three years, so we take one-third of the double-dipping revenue as a percentage of the subscription revenue and apply this as a discount % in the pricing year (2019 in this example) and the two subsequent years (2020 and 2021).
| 2017 |
Subscription revenue | £200,000 |
Double-dipping revenue as percentage of subscription revenue | 5 % |
Double-dipping discount for 2019, 2020 and 2021 | 1.67 % |
This discount will return the full value of the double-dipping (£10,000) in three years. If in 2018 the journal publishes more double-dipping articles, then a new discount will be added to the 2017 discount for the next pricing year (2020).