Publication fee waivers for authors in Afghanistan
Wiley and Taylor & Francis both apply a 100% reduction for corresponding authors in Afghanistan.
Publisher policies checked 1 August 2026
Afghanistan gets the same treatment at both publishers
Eligibility is read from the corresponding author's affiliation. Neither publisher applies these reductions to hybrid journals.
Every publisher we have checked
| Publisher | For Afghanistan | Hybrid | How it is applied |
|---|---|---|---|
| ElsevierResearch4Life | Not stated | No | Automatic |
| WileyResearch4Life | No fee | No | Automatic |
| Taylor & FrancisWorld Bank income class plus a GDP ceiling | No fee | No | Request required |
| Springer NatureWorld Bank income class plus a GDP ceiling | Not stated | Not stated | Request required |
| SageResearch4Life; some journals use World Bank income levels instead | Not stated | No | Automatic |
| IOP PublishingWorld Bank income class | Not stated | Yes | Automatic or on request |
| PLOSResearch4Life | Not stated | Not stated | Automatic through the Global Equity agreement |
| Oxford University PressResearch4Life, EIFL and government affordability metrics | Not stated | No | Automatic |
| American Physical SocietyResearch4Life | No fee | Yes | Automatic |
| American Chemical SocietyWorld Bank income class | $965–$1,750 | No | Automatic |
| AIP PublishingResearch4Life + World Bank | No fee | No | Automatic |
| Optica Publishing GroupOwn country list | No fee | Not stated | Automatic |
| FrontiersNeed-based | Request required | n/a (OA) | Fee support form |
| Copernicus PublicationsResearch4Life + EED | No fee | n/a (OA) | Automatic |
| The Royal SocietyOpen Access Equity | No fee | Yes | Automatic |
| De Gruyter BrillWorld Bank + EIFL | 80% off | Partial | Automatic |
| JMIR PublicationsWorld Bank | No fee (all authors) | n/a (OA) | Request required |
| KargerCountry income | Request required | No | Request required |
| ThiemeResearch4Life | No fee | No | Request required |
| American Society for MicrobiologyResearch4Life | No fee | Not stated | Automatic |
| Mary Ann LiebertResearch4Life | Case-by-case | No | Request required |
| Portland PressResearch4Life | No fee | Not stated | Automatic |
| Emerald PublishingWorld Bank | No fee | No | Automatic |
| Wolters KluwerR4L / Institutional | Institutional only | Not stated | Institutional agreement |
| AACRWorld Bank | Full or partial | Yes | Geographic / case-by-case |
| eLifeCase-by-case | Typically covered | n/a (OA) | Request required |
| PensoftIncome + career stage | Varies by journal | n/a (OA) | Request required |
| Royal Society of ChemistryResearch4Life | Discretionary | Not stated | Request required |
| Company of BiologistsResearch4Life | Available | No | Automatic / institutional |
| Bristol University PressResearch4Life | Available | Not stated | Not stated |
| EDP SciencesResearch4Life | Available | Not stated | R4L alignment |
Seven publishers publish a policy but not a country list. We record the rule and link to the source rather than guess which countries it covers.
No-fee journals published in Afghanistan
DOAJ lists 5 open access journals whose publisher is based in Afghanistan. 5 of them charge authors nothing — no APC and no other fees. The no-fee titles:
| Journal | Open access since | Weeks to publication |
|---|---|---|
| غالبPolitical science · FA, PS, EN | 2013 | 12 |
| Razi International Medical JournalMedicine · EN | 2021 | 16 |
| مجلۀ علمی-تحقیقی سمنگانPhilosophy · FA, EN, AR | 2023 | 20 |
| Journal of Social Sciences and HumanitiesSocial sciences (General) · EN | 2024 | 8 |
| Afghan International Journal of ScienceTechnology · EN | 2025 | 8 |
Publisher country, fees, start year and weeks from submission to publication as each journal states them in its DOAJ record (CC0), read 16 October 2026. Where a journal is published says nothing about who may submit, and a DOAJ listing is not an indexing or quality ranking; check each journal's author guidelines. Confirm the fee on the journal's own site before you submit.
Three things that catch authors out
The waiver follows the corresponding author, not the paper
If a co-author abroad is listed as corresponding, the reduction is lost — even when the research and every other author sit in Afghanistan. At Elsevier it goes further: all authors must be in the same group, and a mix of Group A and Group B authors brings a full waiver down to 50%.
Hybrid journals are excluded almost everywhere
Few publishers extend waivers to hybrid titles: IOP Publishing and the American Physical Society say explicitly that theirs do. Elsewhere the reduction usually applies to fully open access journals only, or the policy does not say. In a hybrid journal you can still publish at no cost under the subscription route — the article simply will not be open access.
Two publishers make you ask
Wiley, Sage, Elsevier and PLOS apply the reduction automatically. Taylor & Francis and Springer Nature require a request at submission. An author who waits for the system to notice pays in full.
What authors in Afghanistan can use
Checked on publishers’ and national bodies’ own pages, 3 October 2026
Afghanistan is in Research4Life Group A, so the large publishers waive APCs in full in their fully open access journals.
- Wiley: 100% waiver (fully open access journals).
- Taylor & Francis: 100% waiver.
- Springer Nature: full waiver (low-income list).
- Elsevier: full waiver through Research4Life Group A; no APC in its pricing pilot either.
- Oxford University Press: 100%.
- Cambridge University Press: open access fully funded in its gold and hybrid journals (Open Equity Initiative).
The Ministry of Higher Education is at mohe.gov.af. DOAJ lists 5 journals published in Afghanistan, all free to publish in.
Sources for this section
- Research4Life — Eligibility
- Wiley — Open access waivers and discounts
- Taylor & Francis — Eligible countries for APC waivers
- Springer Nature — APC waiver countries
- Elsevier — Pricing and Geographical Pricing for Open Access
- Oxford University Press — APC waiver policy
- Cambridge University Press — Cambridge Open Equity Initiative
- Ministry of Higher Education, Afghanistan
- DOAJ — Directory of Open Access Journals (data export of 1 July 2026)
Want us to check which journals waive the fee for authors in Afghanistan? Free manual check. Ask for the free check →
Related
Sources for this page
- Wiley
- Wiley — Open Access Waivers and Discounts — checked 1 August 2026
- T&F
- Taylor & Francis — Eligible countries — checked 1 August 2026
- —
- Fully open access journals. Hybrid titles are noted separately in the table.
- —
- Where a publisher does not publish a country list, we say so instead of inferring one.
- No-fee journals
- DOAJ journal records (CC0), read 16 October 2026
Compare publisher policies
Waiver rules differ between publishers — who counts as the eligible author, whether hybrid journals are included, and whether you need to apply or it happens automatically.
ALL PUBLISHER POLICIES →