Article got accepted into PRL -- do I pay the costs? Last week we got an article accepted into PRL (Physical Review Letters). As is standard, they afterwards sent out an email saying


  To help defray editorial and production expenses, APS, a
  not-for-profit, society publisher, expects authors of manuscripts to
  pay appropriate publication charges; publication charges are
  contributions from authors' institutions to the cost of disseminating
  research results and should be regarded as an essential and proper
  part of their research budget.  You are requested to make a payment of
  $765 toward the cost of disseminating your research results.  However,
  the inability to pay this charge will not affect the publication
  process of your manuscript.


So they say they expect us to pay, but at the same time they say the publication process continues independently of whether this happens.

What is the 'proper'/'sensible' thing to do? What is commonly done?
What are your options? You can pay or delete the email.

If you pay, your group will have $765 less. That's the only difference in outcomes. These charges are completely voluntary and have no effect on anything if you choose not to pay. In my experience, you'll never hear about this again. You will not have to justify your decision.

What do most people do? From my observations, the majority of groups simply don't pay voluntary charges, regardless of available funds.

What should you do? This is a matter of opinion. You (or the PI with the money) should decide whether APS deserves a $765 donation for the purposes they state, or whether it can be put to better use at your institution.