The last few years I have published my papers (i.e. the ones where I'm corresponding author) open access as much as possible, but I just sent my latest paper to JCP. Here's why.
Why not OA?
The paper isn't "impactful" enough for free OA options such as Chemical Science and ACS Central Science.
When it comes to impact-neutral journals my main consideration is price. My go-to journal in the past has been PeerJ where I purchased a life-time membership years ago. My two co-authors also have memberships so we could have published the article for free. Unfortunately, the current paper is not "bio enough" for PeerJ.
It's also not "organic" enough for Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry (which is free) and it doesn't fall in to any of the categories for Living Journal of Computational Molecular Science ($100).
The next-most cheapest options are ACS Omega ($750) or RSC Advances (£500 ≈ $670). When I published in ACS Omega earlier this year I discovered that you still sign away copyright to the ACS who then graciously agrees to publish it under an CC license if you pay them $750! In my book that's not OA and I don't think I'll publish there again.
I was all set to send it to RSC Advances but a few months ago I discovered that the RSC is engaging in the sort of behaviour I would normally expect from Elsevier. I don't see why I should support the RSC with an additional £500.
That's the only journals I know of with APCs less than $1000 and I simply don't have that kind of money to spend on publications right now.
Why JCP?
In March 2016, AIP Publishing switched to a new publishing agreement where authors retain copyright but give the AIP an exclusive licence to publish. As a copyright owner you are allowed to, for example
1. Reprint portions of the Work (excerpts, figures, tables) in future works created by the
Author, in keeping with professional publication ethics.
2. Post the Accepted Manuscript (AM) to their personal web page or their employer’s
web page immediately after acceptance by AIP Publishing.
3. Deposit the AM in an institutional or funder-designated repository immediately after
acceptance by AIP Publishing.
5. Reprint the Version of Record (VOR) in print collections written by the Author, or in the
Author’s thesis or dissertation. It is understood and agreed that the thesis or
dissertation may be made available electronically on the university’s site or in its
repository and that copies may be offered for sale on demand.
10. Post the VOR to their personal web page or their employer’s web page 12 months
after publication by AIP Publishing.
11. Deposit the VOR in an institutional or funder-designated repository 12 months after
publication by AIP Publishing.
12. Update a prior posting with the VOR on a noncommercial server such as arXiv, 12
months after publication by AIP Publishing.
Just to be clear, most non-OA journals allow you to post the accepted manuscript in a repository 12 months after publication, while JCP allows you to do this immediately as well as posting the version of record (i.e. the typeset manuscript!) 12-months later.
So it's not OA, because reuse is restricted, but the version of record will be openly accessible after 12 months. And at least I feel like I am dealing with a publisher that is not looking for any opportunity to screw me, or the scientific community in general, over. But maybe I'm just getting sentimental in my old age ...
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
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