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 Medicine, PLOS Sustainability and Transformation, PLOS Climate, PLOS Global Public Health, and PLOS Water. Researchers at these institutions will never be subject to fees at these journals.
PLOS ONE
Registered Report Protocol $1,339*
Registered Report Article $775
Lab Protocols & Study Protocols $1,100
All other articles $1,749
PLOS Climate
Research Article $2,100
PLOS Global Public Health
Research Article $2,100
PLOS Water
Research Article $2,100
PLOS Computational Biology
Research Article $2,575
PLOS Digital Health
Research Article $2,575
PLOS Genetics
Research Article $2,575
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
Research Article $2,420
PLOS Pathogens
Research Article $2,575
PLOS Community Action Publishing took effect January 1, 2021 for PLOS Biology and PLOS Medicine and is now available for PLOS Sustainability and Transformation. Authors will only incur fees if their institutions are not members of the journal’s collective action community. For work submitted in 2021 these non-member fees are as below:
PLOS Biology
Discovery Report $3,350
Update Articles $2,350
All Other Articles $4,000
PLOS Medicine
Research Article $4,000
PLOS Sustainability
and Transformation
Research Article $3,000
* all $ pricing is USD
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. Since our founding, PLOS has provided publication fee support to authors.
In 2019 PLOS provided $1.7 million in individual fee support to its authors, through the PLOS Global Participation Initiative (GPI) and Publication Fee Assistance Program.
PLOS Global Participation Initiative
The PLOS Global Participation Initiative (GPI) aims to lower barriers to publication based on cost for researchers around the world who may be unable, or have limited ability, to publish in Open Access journals.
Authors’ research funded primarily (50% or more of the work contained within the article) by an institution or organization from eligible low- and middle-income countries is automatically eligible for assistance. If the author’s research funder is based in a Group 1 country, PLOS will cover the entire publication fee and there will be no charge. For authors whose research funder is part of Group 2, PLOS will cover all but part of the publication fee — the remaining publication fee will be $500.
Authors must apply for GPI funding at time of manuscript submission. Authors from Group 2 countries who need additional support should apply for PLOS Publication Fee Assistance (below) instead of the PLOS GPI.
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