PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

This article investigates the question, if it is economically feasible for a largepublishing house to waive article processing charges for the group of 47 so called least developed countries (LDC). As an example Springer-Nature is selected. The analysisis based on the Web of Science, OpenAPC and the Jisc collections Springer compact journal list. As a result, it estimates an average yearly publication output of 520 publications (or a share of 0.26% of the worldwide publication output in Springer-Nature journals) for the LDC country group. The loss of revenues for Springer-Naturewould be 1,1 million $ if a waiver would be applied for all of these countries. Giventhat money is indispensable for development in the case of LDC (e.g. life expectancy,health, education), it is not only desirable but also possible in economic terms for apublisher like Springer-Nature to waive APCs for these countries without much loss inrevenues.