This registration describes a scoping review protocol aimed at systematically mapping, synthesizing, and critically analyzing the scientific literature on Article Processing Charges (APCs) and their impact on equity in scholarly publishing. The study follows the PRISMA-ScR guidelines and includes a comprehensive search strategy conducted across PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect, covering the period from 2000 to 2025. This review adopts a conceptual and analytical approach to explore structural, economic, and epistemological dimensions of APC-based open access models. The study incorporates a narrative synthesis, thematic categorization, an Evidence Gap Map (EGM), and a Summary of Findings (SoF) framework to assess patterns, strengths, and gaps in the literature. This project is not hypothesis-driven but designed to identify knowledge gaps and inform future research and policy development in open science and scholarly communication. To our knowledge, this is one of the first studies integrating Evidence Gap Mapping and Summary of Findings approaches in the analysis of APC-related inequalities.
JUAN LUGO (Thu,) studied this question.