An article processing charge (APC), also known as a publication fee, is a fee which is sometimes charged to authors. Most commonly, it is involved in making an academic work available as Open Access (OA). When an article is published in an Open Access format it is freely available to all readers. A subscription is not necessary. APCs are designed to compensate for the lack of subscription funds.
APCs can be a considerable expense. Many journals charge thousands of dollars to publish. APCs can be covered by the author team, the authors' department(s), grant funding, or sometimes through a transformational agreement (see below).
Information on APCs can be found on the journal's Author Information page.
Transformative agreements (TAs) are a publishing model that may allow authors to bypass APCs. TAs are an agreement between the library and certain publishers. The library agrees to specific purchasing requirements, often at an additional cost; in exchange the publisher offers a set number of waived APCs in specific journals.
For more information on transformative agreements and TAs offered by specific publishers, go to the Rush Guide to Transformative Agreements