Research4Life
Research4Life is a public-private partnership that gives institutions in lower and middle-income countries access to academic content. Its Group A and Group B classification has become the most widely used basis for APC waiver eligibility, though that was not its original purpose.
Checked 1 August 2026
How it works
The five factors
Eligibility is determined by five factors: total gross national income from World Bank data, GNI per capita, the United Nations list of least developed countries, the human development index, and healthy life expectancy from the World Health Organization.
Group A thresholds
A country qualifies for Group A by meeting at least one condition: listed as a UN least developed country; total GNI of USD 500 million or less; GNI of USD 5 billion or less with GNI per capita of USD 10,000 or less; GNI of USD 15 billion or less with GNI per capita of USD 3,000 or less; or GNI of USD 200 billion or less where the human development index is 0.60 or lower or GNI per capita is USD 1,500 or lower.
Group B thresholds
Countries not in Group A qualify for Group B by meeting at least one condition: GNI per capita of USD 6,300 or less with healthy life expectancy of 55 or lower; total GNI of USD 1.5 billion or less; GNI of USD 25 billion or less with GNI per capita of USD 10,000 or less; or GNI of USD 300 billion or less where the human development index is 0.67 or lower or GNI per capita is USD 6,300 or lower.
The waiver guidelines
Research4Life publishes a set of best practice guidelines for APC waivers, drawn up by a taskforce of publisher partners together with DOAJ, STM and Yale University. Twelve publishers have expressed support: Elsevier, Springer Nature, Hindawi, Wiley, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, IOP Publishing, Canadian Science Publishing, Sage, Taylor & Francis, the Royal Society and SPIE Press.
Access and fees are separate
Research4Life exists to provide access to read the literature. Whether a publisher also waives publication charges for the same countries is a separate decision, and several publishers that support the guidelines set eligibility from World Bank income bands instead of the Research4Life groups.