Managing Author Processing Charges (APCs)
Author processing charges are on the rise and with recent changes to the NIH Public Access Policy, authors are frequently having to pay unexpected or exorbitant fees. There are resources, however, that you can use to find an affordable journal. This page also details what to do if you are asked to pay an open access fee to comply with the NIH Public Access Policy.
Funded Research
For funded research, prevention is better than cure. Make sure you are aware of your journal's open access policy before submitting to ensure your paper will not be subject to an embargo period, which violates the NIH Public Access Policy. To do this, look up the journal in Open Policy Finder.
Or, go to the journal's website and look for the "For Authors" section. Look for the words "fully open access" and make sure there is no mention of APCs. Or, see if a diamond open access policy is mentioned; this type of publishing model has no fees for its authors.
If your paper has already been accepted, we have outlined your options for managing APCs.
Find an Affordable Journal
If you are looking for a journal with affordable APCs, check the following lists:
- The Directory of Open Access Journals no fee journal list
- Good Academic Journals in Ethical Terms (Systematic Review Consultants Ltd.)
- MGB has a page on publication fees for Elsevier and Springer (VPN required). Sort the Excel spreadsheet's USD column by smallest to largest.
You can also look up specific journals by title in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). The APC fees will be noted:
Non-NIH Funded Research
If your research is not NIH funded (or funded by another inapplicable funder) and one of the authors has a Harvard affiliation, you can look into depositing your article into Harvard’s institutional open access repository DASH, and requesting an open access waiver for the article. Harvard explains: "If your article is subject to the NIH Public Access Policy, your obligations under that Policy cannot be waived. The same may be true of open-access policies at other funding agencies." Always check first with your funder or look up your funder's requirements in Open Policy Finder.
I'm on the Hook for a Fee!
The resources above can be used to find an affordable open access journal. But perhaps you already signed an agreement with a publisher and are now facing a fee resulting from changes to the NIH Public Access Policy.
If this is the case for you, you have a few options:
- Negotiate with the publisher, citing recent changes in the NIH Policy. Specifically, you need to request that your manuscript be published without an embargo period in order to comply with the Policy.
- Withdraw the manuscript and use the resources on this page to find a new, affordable open access journal. Or submit to a journal with no embargo policy. To do this:
- Look up the new journal in Open Policy Finder and look for a no embargo option.
- Find a journal on the PMC Journal List that says:
- Release Delay (Embargo): 0 months
- Agreement to Deposit: All articles
- Check if any author has an affiliation with a library offering a transformative agreement, which helps shoulder the cost of publishing. Treadwell currently does not have any, but it's worth checking the institutions of your collaborators. Locate the library of the institution and ask there.
- See if any team member qualifies for a waiver or society discount. If the corresponding author is located in a low-income (or sometimes middle-income) country, many publishers will offer a waiver. Below are waivers and discounts for major publishers:
Society Discounts
LMIC Waivers
