Article processing charge (APC)
An article processing charge is money paid to a publisher so that an accepted article is published open access rather than behind a subscription. It is charged per article, usually after acceptance and before publication, and it is separate from any assessment of the research itself.
Reviewed 1 August 2026
In practice
What it is not
An APC is not a submission fee and not a payment for peer review. Journals that charge a submission fee take money whether or not the paper is accepted; an APC is normally only due once a paper has been accepted. It is also not a page charge or a colour charge, which some subscription journals levy separately.
Who actually pays
The charge is nominally on the author, but in practice it is often met by a funder, an institution, or a national agreement. Where none of those exists, the corresponding author pays personally — which is the situation this site was built for.
Why the amount varies so much
There is no common basis. The same publisher will charge different amounts across its own titles, and the figure reflects what the market will bear rather than a cost calculation.
Common misconceptions
Paying an APC does not increase the chance of acceptance. Publishers that follow the Research4Life guidelines keep the fee decision separate from peer review.
A journal with no APC is not necessarily lower quality. Society and university journals have operated without author charges for decades.