One factor impacting the budget is the increasing number of Open Access manuscripts published in Applied Animal Science (AAS). In 2021, 51.4% of published manuscripts were Open Access whereas for the first two issues of 2022 73.3% of manuscripts were published as Open Access. All fees collected for Open Access manuscripts are passed on 100% to Elsevier. In 2021, Open Access fees totaled $57,800 compared with $53,910 for regular manuscripts. Through April, manuscript fees were $9,645 and $26,500 for regular and Open Access manuscripts. If this trend continues, revenues for AAS will be considerably lower than budgeted for 2022. In addition to the loss of revenue from publication, ARPAS pays a subscription fee for member access to AAS. For 2022 this is budgeted at $50,000. Open Access manuscripts can be accessed by anyone regardless of membership. The trend for publication in an Open Access format is required by many groups that fund research and several journals have transitioned to 100% Open Access formats.

In summary, the 2021 final budget was +$19,752.66 and the 2022 budget to date is positive. While this provides a positive outlook, the impact of increasing numbers of manuscripts published in Open Access format should be evaluated as this negatively impacts the budget.