Hybrid journal
A hybrid journal earns money from subscriptions and additionally offers authors the option to pay so that their own article is open access. The rest of the issue stays behind the paywall. This dual income is why hybrid titles are treated differently in waiver policies.
Reviewed 1 August 2026
In practice
Why waivers usually exclude hybrids
Publishers reason that an author without funds can still publish in a hybrid journal at no cost by taking the subscription route. The article is simply not open access. On that logic the waiver is unnecessary, so it is not offered.
The catch for funded authors
Some funders will not accept the subscription route because they require immediate open access. For those authors the hybrid exclusion is a real barrier rather than a theoretical one.
The exception
Of the publishers checked here, IOP Publishing states that its discounts apply equally to article charges in fully open access and hybrid open access journals.
Common misconceptions
Publishing in a hybrid journal does not have to cost anything. The subscription route is free to the author.
Hybrid is not a quality tier. It describes the business model, not the standard of the journal.