Open access (OA) publishing is growing rapidly. Article processing charges (APCs) now significantly impact scholarly equity and institutional budgets. The University of Houston (UH) is a research-intensive public university with diverse disciplines. As UH is expanding its research output and engaging more in open access publishing, analyzing APC expenditures helps the UH Libraries enhance the current open publishing services and institutional agreements with publishers. This study combines OpenAlex metadata with records from UH’s Open Access and APC support program. This study analyzes publishing behavior from 2021 to 2025. This study classifies publications using OpenAlex primary fields as top-level concepts. An author fractional contribution method assesses cost burdens across collaborative outputs more accurately. The analysis examines temporal and disciplinary APC patterns: annual expenditure, median and average costs, and publication volumes. Building on this foundation, the study investigates three critical dimensions: 1) Comparisons between UH’s APC publishing trends and broader North American institutional patterns; 2) Disciplinary variations in APCs and their evolution over the five-year period; 3) The extent of APC concentration at the publisher and journal levels. The findings will provide UH Libraries with evidence-based insights for developing OA support programs that are tailored to the needs of different disciplines. This approach aims to mitigate inequitable cost burdens, evaluate APC agreements and encourage sustainable access to scholarly publishing at the University of Houston.
