Publisher

ACM — publication fee waivers

ACM is unusually direct about the discretionary route: it states that such waivers are rare, and that simply writing to say you cannot pay is typically not enough. For 2026 conference articles outside ACM Open, ACM is running a temporary subsidy — $250 per article where a named co-author is an ACM or SIG member, $350 where none is, against list prices of $700 and $1,000. Geographic discounts apply on top of the subsidised rate.

Policy checked 1 August 2026

The policy in full

Classification used	ACM agreements with EIFL and Research4Life, plus the World Bank list of economies
Full waiver	Countries covered by ACM's EIFL and Research4Life agreements — 100%
Partial discount	Lower-middle-income countries on the World Bank list — 50%, unless the country already gets 100% through EIFL or Research4Life
Which author counts	Author location; ACM Open institutional licences are applied first
Hybrid journals	Not stated
How it is applied	Automatic for geographic waivers; discretionary route on request
When	Checked against ACM Open participation and the geographic policy at publication
Scope	From 1 January 2026 all ACM publications are fully open access

Country list

This publisher states the rule but does not publish a single consolidated country list we could verify. We record the rule and link to the source rather than infer which countries it covers. If you know of a published list, tell us.