Publication Fees
PLOS employs several business models to support equitable Open Access. Most OA journals offset publication expenses – including the cost of peer review management, journal production, and online hosting and archiving – by charging a fee for each article published (APC). Our partnerships with institutions and funders aim to simplify the process for authors and reduce the burden of cost.
Publication fees vary by journal and are payable upon article acceptance. Fees are subject to change and charged at the applicable rates effective on your submission date.
Future of Open Access
We are working alongside institutions to empower researchers from all demographics, geographies, and disciplines to open their research.
All PLOS journals provide APC-alternative models for institutions to support their authors’ Open Access publication goals. Institutional partnerships, either through centralized annual payments, direct-billing or Community Action Publishing membership can eliminate the cost and management of publication fees for many PLOS authors.
Find out if your institution is one of our Institutional Partners.
CURRENT FEES
For researchers not currently included in an institutional partnership model, our individual publication fees are listed below.
Institutions geographically located in Research 4 Life countries are automatically included in our partnership models for PLOS Biology, PLOS Climate, PLOS Global Public Health, PLOS Mental Health, PLOS Medicine, PLOS Sustainability and Transformation and PLOS Water. Researchers at these institutions will never be subject to fees at these journals.
PLOS ONE
Registered Report Protocol $1,477*
Registered Report Article $856
Lab Protocols $1,214
Study Protocols $1,931
All other articles $1,931
PLOS Climate
Research Article $2,100
PLOS Complex Systems
Research Article $2,926
PLOS Computational Biology
Research Article $2,841
PLOS Digital Health
Research Article $2,575
PLOS Genetics
Research Article $2,841
PLOS Global Public Health
Research Article $2,100
PLOS Mental Health
Research Article $2,205
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
Research Article $2,670
PLOS Pathogens
Research Article $2,841
PLOS Water
Research Article $2,100
Under our Community Action Publishing model for PLOS Biology, PLOS Medicine and PLOS Sustainability and Transformation authors will only incur fees if their institutions are not members of the journal’s collective action community. These non-member fees are as below:
PLOS Biology
Research Article $5,500
Pre-registered Research Article $5,500
Short Reports $5,500
Methods and Resources $5,500
Meta-Research Article $5,500
Discovery Report $4,675
Update Article $3,150
PLOS Medicine
Research Article $6,300
PLOS Sustainability
and Transformation
Research Article $3,000
* all $ pricing is USD. Non-member fees above are for work submitted after February 6 2023.
OPEN ACESS FUNDING SUPPORT
There is growing momentum to encourage Open Access publishing through funding initiatives. Globally, authors benefit from the increasing availability of institutional, government, and foundation Open Access funds. Funding assistance for publication fees are available from many organizations, including PLOS.
Institutional Open Access Funds
Many institutions already support their researchers by setting aside financial resources to cover or reduce the cost of their Open Access publications.
If you do not see your institution on our list of Institutional Account Participants, contact your librarian to see if there are other support options available to you.
You can also encourage your institution to partner directly with PLOS to support all future publications in our journals. Simply fill out this form and we’ll do the rest!
Funder Fee Support
More and more funders are encouraging researchers to publish in Open Access journals where their work can be read, and shared by all. Contact your funder directly to find out if they allow fees to be included as line items on a grant or provide specific article processing grants.
All PLOS journals comply with major funder requirements for Open Access sharing so authors don’t need to worry about their article’s eligibility.
We believe that lack of funds should not be a barrier to Open Access publication.
PLOS is working to lower financial barriers to publication through our institutional partnership models. We also provide direct support to authors through our Research4Life and Publication Fee Assistance programs.
Research4Life
Publication in any PLOS journal is free for authors whose research is funded primarily (50% or more of the work contained within the article) by an institution located in a Research4Life Group A country.
Authors whose research funder is based in a Research4Life Group B country also publish for free in PLOS Biology, PLOS Climate, PLOS Global Public Health, PLOS Medicine, PLOS Mental Health, PLOS Sustainability and Transformation and PLOS Water. For all other journals, the publication fee will be reduced to $500.
Authors must indicate they require Research4Life fee assistance at the time of manuscript submission. Authors from Group B countries who need additional support should apply for PLOS Publication Fee Assistance (below) instead of Research4Life
PLOS Publication Fee Assistance Program
The PLOS Publication Fee Assistance (PFA) program was created for authors unable to pay all or part of their publication fees and who can demonstrate financial need.
An author can apply for PFA when submitting an article for publication. A decision is usually sent to the author within 10 business days. PLOS considers applications on a case-by-case basis.
PLOS publication decisions are based solely on editorial criteria. Information about applications for fee assistance are not disclosed to journal editors or reviewers.
- Authors should exhaust all alternative funding sources before applying for PFA. The application form includes questions on the availability of alternative funding sources such as the authors’ or co-authors’ institution, institutional library, government agencies and research funders. Funding disclosure information provided by authors will be used as part of the PFA application review.
- Assistance must be formally applied for at submission. Requests made during the review process or after acceptance will not be considered. Authors cannot apply for the fee assistance by email or through direct request to journal editors.
Still have questions? Fee Assistance FAQs