Cost Modelling Tool Now Available

Business chart by S Falkow CC BY NC 2.0

This cost modelling tool is intended to be used to help establish an internal business case to set up an APC fund for Open Access publishing. It allows you to model different cost projections based on variables such as FTE, number of articles, REF submission targets, and % Green vs Gold OA.

There are two Excel files available: one is blank and the other contains sample values to show a worked example and so that you can get an idea of the kinds of results it provides.

JISC OA Cost Model Version 0.17 Example

JISC OA Cost Model Version 0.17 Blank

Both files include a Powerpoint Quickstart guide embedded within the home page. This steps you through the workflow and shows how to edit the various variables to customise your model.

The tool is a development of initial work undertaken Northumbria University in 2014 which led to the University Executive approving a £100K/annum internal fund for Gold Open Access costs.

We anticipate that this will be most useful to institutions which have received a lower/no block grant from RCUK, but there may be other use cases that we have not yet considered.

This is an interim version of the tool and it is still under development. Our Pathfinder would welcome any comments or questions about this tool in order to improve and widen usability.

Mark Harland, Senior Planning Analyst, and part of our Pathfinder team at Northumbria, has done most of the work on this tool. Please email mark.harland@northumbria.ac.uk or alternatively leave a comment on this blog post.

This tool is released under a Creative Commons Attribution license.

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