PLOS Medicine — publication fee
Verified list price, waiver route and what authors actually paid.
Checked 16 September 2026
The PLOS Medicine article processing charge is $6,460 (list price, before tax), read from the publisher's page on 16 September 2026.
Fees at a glance
| Publisher | PLOS |
|---|---|
| Model | gold OA |
| APC (list) | $6,460 |
| Research4Life | Group A: free; Group B: free |
| Median actually paid | €4,889 across 22 articles (2023) OpenAPC, incl. VAT, EUR — not converted from list price |
APC vs proposed NIH limits
The $3,000 scenario applies only if the journal pays its reviewers and publishes the reviews. We do not verify that, so this journal is not shown as meeting it either way.
Proposed in NIH RFI NOT-OD-25-138 (30 July 2025). Not finalized as of 23 September 2026. Compared against this journal’s list APC in US dollars, as printed above — no currency is converted. What was proposed.
Waivers and discounts
PLOS: publication is free for authors at institutions in Research4Life Group A countries; for Group B the fee is reduced to $940 (free in PLOS Biology, PLOS Medicine and PLOS Sustainability and Transformation).
Compared with
Peer review, speed and licence
| Submission to publication | 32 weeks average stated by the journal |
|---|---|
| Peer review | Single anonymous |
| Licence | CC BY |
| Author keeps copyright | Yes |
| Plagiarism screening | Yes |
| Long-term preservation | CLOCKSS, PMC |
| Open access since | 2004 |
What PLOS Medicine states in its record in the Directory of Open Access Journals, read 16 October 2026. The journal supplies these fields; DOAJ does not audit turnaround times. DOAJ record.
Sources for this page
- Fee
- plos.org
- Checked
- 16 September 2026
- Paid median
- OpenAPC v5.11.4-4-1 (ODbL), n≥5
- Review & licence
- DOAJ (CC0), read 16 October 2026
List prices before tax, waivers, agreements or country-tiered adjustments. Reconfirm on the publisher's page before submitting.
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