Are article processing charges still a thing?

APCs came up this week when an academic reported a journal wanting $2500 from him to publish a four-page letter. They are a way for publishers to make money from research they don’t pay to publish when they can’t charge people to read it

It’s enough to get open access a bad name but APCs don’t apply for people who work at members of the Council of Australian University of Librarians.

CAUL has reached a range of agreements with publishers large and small so that the costs of reading and publishing are covered by a university’s subscriptions.