OpenAPC expanded: Contracts in Focus

Since 2014, OpenAPC has been collecting and publishing cost data on open access publishing from research institutions and consortia. Until now, the infrastructure has been purely publication-centered: contract information was previously only visible indirectly, through associated articles. Given the growing variety of publishing agreements – including transformative agreements, memberships, and agreements with fully open-access publishers – it has become evident that a purely article-centered perspective alone is insufficient to adequately capture cost structures.To address this issue, the OpenAPC infrastructure has been adjusted to include a separate data set for contracts. This data set contains contract-related metadata and cost data, adheres to the openCost schema, and ensures compatibility with emerging standards for exchanging publication cost data. Separating contract- and publication-related information enables an accurate aggregation of diverse payment models without compromising existing article-based analyses.The presentation outlines the conceptual framework for this expansion, describing its data structure and workflows. It then discusses the impact on how publication costs are collected and analyzed. The addition of a contract-focused approach improves transparency of complex publishing agreements, reduces the reporting workload for institutions, and enhances the analytical value of OpenAPC data for long-term cost monitoring.