What Are Article Processing Charges in Journal Publishing?

Introduction to Article Processing Charges

Article processing charges (APCs) are the fees many open access journals charge to publish an accepted article, usually paid by the author’s institution or funder rather than by readers. This guide explains what APCs pay for, why they vary so widely, the main criticisms, how authors can manage the cost, and where the model is heading as funders push back.

Under the traditional subscription model, publishers charge institutions and libraries for access; under the APC model, they bill the authors of accepted manuscripts instead, so anyone can read the published article free of charge.

The emergence of APCs has transformed the landscape of scholarly publishing. Some hail it as a move toward democratizing knowledge, while others argue it burdens researchers unfairly.

Regardless of one’s stance, APCs are now a significant part of the journal publishing ecosystem. Understanding how they work helps authors decide where to publish and what it will cost.

What Are Article Processing Charges?

APCs are the fees journal publishers charge their authors to make authors’ accepted research articles open access in peer-reviewed journals. Rather than readers or institutions paying subscription fees to access content, APCs shift the cost burden toward the researchers.

APCs emerged in response to the open access movement, which advocated for research to be freely available online to everyone rather than locked behind paywalls. They provide an alternative revenue source for journals, allowing them to recover costs while providing universal access.

Typically, APCs range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per article published. However, there is significant variation across journals and disciplines. High-impact journals tend to charge more, reflecting their prestige. The fees are also meant to cover editorial and peer review costs.

Usually, the author’s university or research funder pays the APC rather than individual researchers. Research grants often budget for publication fees as part of their dissemination plans. Some publishers offer waivers or discounts to authors facing financial hardship or based in low-income countries.

While APCs facilitate open access, they have also attracted criticism for creating an economic barrier, especially for independent researchers without institutional funding support.

Figure 1. Who pays: subscriptions versus article processing charges

How APC-funded open access moves the cost of publishing from readers to authors and their funders

Subscription model

1. Who paysLibraries and institutions
2. WhenEvery year, to keep access to the journal
3. ResultSubscribers can read; everyone else meets a paywall

APC-funded open access

1. Who paysThe author’s funder or institution, sometimes the author
2. WhenOnce per article, after acceptance
3. ResultAnyone can read the article free on publication

What an APC is meant to pay for

• Managing peer review
• Editing and copyediting
• Production and formatting
• Online hosting
• Archiving and distribution
• Usage and citation tracking

Understanding the Purpose of APCs

APCs help fund the costs associated with publishing academic and scientific research in open access journals. Rather than relying solely on subscriptions, APCs provide an alternative route to cover expenses like managing peer review, editing, production, online hosting, archiving, and distribution of articles.

The main purpose of APCs is to facilitate open access to research literature, allowing it to be freely read and shared by anyone. Charging the fees enables journals to make all published content immediately available to the public without paywalls or access restrictions. This increases visibility, readership, and the potential impact of published work.

Supporters also see APCs as a way to distribute publishing costs more equitably among stakeholders. Instead of institutions or libraries bearing the full burden via subscriptions, the fees shift some of these costs to the authors and funders directly benefiting from publication. Supporters argue that this market-driven model encourages competition between journals.

The fees also pay for the services journals provide to authors, including:

• Organizing peer review
• Copyediting and formatting manuscripts
• Publishing and promoting articles
• Managing submissions and communications
• Archiving and distributing articles
• Tracking metrics such as downloads and citations

Through APCs, open access journals can continue facilitating scholarly communication and advancing scientific research through these publishing activities.

However, there are also criticisms of APCs. Some argue they place an unfair burden on authors, restrict less funded researchers from publishing, and motivate questionable practices from profiteering publishers. Critics point to how academic publishers make money, and some have gone as far as calling academic publishing a greedy industry.

The costs and benefits of the fees continue to be debated among different scholarly communities.

Variations in APCs

APCs can vary significantly between different academic journals and scientific disciplines. The main factors are outlined below.

Because prices vary so widely across thousands of journals, averages say little. The figure that matters is the fee charged by the journals you are actually considering and whether your institution has an agreement with their publisher.

Journal Reputation and Impact

More reputable journals with higher impact factors tend to charge higher APCs. For example:

• Nature Communications charges $7,350 per article.
• PLOS Biology charges $5,500 for a research article when the author’s institution is not part of its Community Action Publishing scheme.
• Many smaller and society journals charge far less, and a large number charge nothing.

Figure 2. Selected APC list prices range from nothing to more than $7,000

Published fee for a research article, US dollars, as of 1 November 2026

• Nature Communications$7,350
• PLOS Medicine (institution not a member*)$6,300
• PLOS Biology (institution not a member*)$5,500
• PLOS Pathogens$2,926
• PLOS Climate$2,400
• Diamond open access journalsNo fee to authors or readers$0

View as table

Journal	APC (US$)
Nature Communications	$7,350
PLOS Medicine (institution not a member*)	$6,300
PLOS Biology (institution not a member*)	$5,500
PLOS Pathogens	$2,926
PLOS Climate	$2,400
Diamond open access journals	$0

Open Access Model

Hybrid journals (subscription journals that let authors pay to make a single article open) often charge more than fully open access journals. A study by Haustein and colleagues found that hybrid fees exceeded gold fees at the six large publishers it examined. Hybrid journals also earn subscription income, which is why cOAlition S funders do not pay hybrid APCs, a practice critics call double dipping.

Academic Discipline

Charges for humanities and social sciences journals tend to be lower than in the sciences, and many humanities journals charge nothing. This reflects differences in the research funding available in each field.

Journal Location

Journals published in Europe and North America frequently charge higher APCs than journals published in developing countries. Lower staff, infrastructure, and overhead costs in some regions allow journals there to charge less.

Article Type and Length

The type of article also matters. Some journals charge less for short communications, letters, or case reports than for full research or review articles, so check the fee schedule for the article type you plan to submit.

In short, APCs can vary widely based on factors such as impact factor, open access model, academic discipline, country of origin, and article type. Overall, the most prestigious, high-impact journals tend to charge the most.

Controversies and Criticisms of APCs

While APCs have enabled more open access publishing, this model is not without controversy. Some common criticisms of the charges include:

Concerns About Access and Equity

There are concerns that APCs limit access to publishing for researchers with insufficient funding. This disproportionately affects researchers from low-income countries and less well-funded fields. Some argue the APC model restricts who can publish research, undermining the goals of open access.

Financial Burden on Authors

APCs essentially shift the cost of publishing from readers to authors. While waivers are sometimes available, authors without institutional or grant support may have to pay substantial fees out of pocket or seek funding. This adds financial pressure, particularly on independent researchers and graduate students.

Lack of Transparency and Questionable Practices

Some publishers have been accused of using APCs to maximize profits. These concerns sit within a wider debate about how academic publishers make money and the profits of the largest publishers in the world.

There are also concerns about a lack of transparency in how APC revenue is used. Predatory journals, which in recent years have grown in number at an alarming rate, exploit the APC model, charging authors fees while offering little or no genuine peer review.

The Future of Open Access Publishing

APCs are not going away, but the pressure on them is growing. Haustein and colleagues estimated that, after adjusting for inflation, APC spending with six large publishers almost tripled from about $910 million in 2019 to about $2.5 billion in 2023. Funders are responding: in July 2025 NIH asked for comments on limiting the publication costs its grants will pay. The options included a $2,000 cap per article (or $3,000 for journals that pay peer reviewers), a $6,000 cap combined with a per-grant limit, or no publication costs at all. Check the NIH Guide for the policy currently in force.

Figure 3. APC spending with six large publishers almost tripled in five years

Estimated APCs paid to Elsevier, Frontiers, MDPI, PLOS, Springer Nature and Wiley, adjusted to 2023 US dollars

• Gold (fully open access journals)
• Hybrid (subscription journals)

$0$1bn$2bn$3bn

$910m

$1.34bn

$1.91bn

$2.27bn

$2.54bn

20192020202120222023

View as table

Year	Gold (US$m)	Hybrid (US$m)	Total (US$m)
2019	674.1	236.2	910.3
2020	977.4	362.0	1,339.4
2021	1,447.7	465.8	1,913.5
2022	1,700.1	566.5	2,266.6
2023	1,766.6	771.7	2,538.3

Transformative Agreements

Many universities and library consortia now pay publishers a single fee under read-and-publish agreements that covers both subscription access and APCs for their authors. These deals have sped up the move to open access, but critics argue that they lock in the APC model and the position of the largest publishers. We assess them in The Transformative Agreements That Are Not So Transformative.

Diamond and Other Non-APC Models

Diamond open access journals charge neither readers nor authors and are funded by universities, societies, governments, or consortia. Free, open-source platforms such as Open Journal Systems keep the cost of running such journals low. Other options include Subscribe to Open, where a journal opens each year’s content if enough libraries keep subscribing, and collective schemes in which institutions pay a fixed annual fee instead of per-article charges. We look at whether the diamond model can last in Can Diamond Open Access Be a Sustainable Model?

Crowdfunding has also been proposed as an alternative. Even so, APCs remain central to open access publishing, particularly among large commercial publishers, even though most journals in the DOAJ charge no fee.

A Two-Speed Market

One likely outcome is a split market. Highly selective journals are likely to keep charging premium APCs, increasingly paid through institutional agreements rather than by individual authors, while a growing share of articles appears in low-cost or no-fee journals. For authors, the practical lesson is to check funder rules and institutional agreements before choosing where to submit.

How to Manage APCs

Paying APCs to publish in open access journals can be a significant research expense. However, there are ways authors can reduce or cover these costs through careful planning and by using the support available.

Figure 4. Ways to cover an APC, in the order to check them

Work through these before you submit; most options must be arranged in advance

1. 1
   Check your funder's rules

   Will it pay APCs, and from which budget? Some funders exclude hybrid journals (cOAlition S members, for example) or are considering caps.

   Know what is allowable before choosing a journal
2. 2
   Check for an institutional agreement

   Your library may have a read-and-publish deal with the publisher that covers the fee centrally.

   If covered, the author usually pays nothing
3. 3
   Look for an APC fund or grant budget

   Ask the library or research office about an open access fund, and cost the APC into grant applications where the funder allows it.

   If approved, the fund or grant pays
4. 4
   Ask for a waiver or discount at submission

   Many publishers waive or reduce fees for authors in lower-income countries or in financial need. Requests usually have to be made when you submit, not after acceptance.

   If granted, the fee is reduced or removed
5. 5
   If nothing applies, change the route

   Consider a reputable diamond open access journal that charges no fee, and share a preprint so the work is openly available.

   Open access without an APC

Seek Institutional Funds and Grants

Many academic institutions have dedicated APC funds or will provide grants to cover publishing fees. Authors should inquire about accessing these funds with their university library, research office, or department. Some institutions also partner with research funders to subsidize APCs. For the US and UK in particular, see How to Secure APC Funding for Open Access Publishing in the US and UK.

Apply for APC Waivers and Discounts

If institutional funding is unavailable, authors can ask the journal about fee waivers or discounts. Many journals offer full or partial APC waivers for authors from low-income countries or those facing financial hardship. Discounts may also apply to society members or first-time authors.

Ask About Costs Before You Submit

APCs are published list prices, and reduced fees usually come through formal waiver or discount schemes rather than one-to-one negotiation. Many publishers consider these requests only at submission, not after acceptance. If you expect to publish several articles with one publisher, ask your library whether an institutional agreement already covers them.

Consider Preprint Servers

Posting a preprint on a server such as arXiv or bioRxiv makes your findings freely available at no cost, whichever journal you eventually choose. Check the journal’s preprint policy before posting.

Understand Open Access Funding Mandates

Many major research funders now require the work they fund to be made open access, either in a journal or through a repository. Grant budgets often include funds for APCs. Authors should clarify what publishing costs are allowable expenses under the grant. Some funders also limit which routes they will pay for: cOAlition S members, for example, do not pay APCs in hybrid journals.

With planning and resourcefulness, researchers can fulfill publishing goals while managing APCs. Using institutional support, publisher discounts, payment plans, and funding mandates can make open access publication more affordable.

Conclusion

APCs play an important role in today’s academic and scientific publishing world. While they are not without their controversies, they help support open access publishing and provide journals with revenue to cover the costs of managing peer review, editing, production, and online hosting. Understanding APCs is key to developing a successful publishing strategy for authors.

Before you submit, check each target journal’s APC, its waiver policy, and whether your institution has an agreement with the publisher. If cost is a concern, contact the journal’s editorial office before submission, since many publishers will not consider waiver requests later. Funder rules on APCs are changing quickly, so check them each time you plan a submission.