Publication fee waivers for authors in Nigeria
Wiley and Taylor & Francis both apply a 50% reduction for corresponding authors in Nigeria.
Publisher policies checked 1 August 2026
Nigeria 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 Nigeria | Hybrid | How it is applied |
|---|---|---|---|
| ElsevierResearch4Life | Not stated | No | Automatic |
| WileyResearch4Life | 50% off | No | Automatic |
| Taylor & FrancisWorld Bank income class plus a GDP ceiling | 50% off | 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 | Reduced | Yes | Automatic |
| American Chemical SocietyWorld Bank income class | $965–$1,750 | No | Automatic |
| AIP PublishingResearch4Life + World Bank | Case-by-case | No | Request required |
| FrontiersNeed-based | Request required | n/a (OA) | Fee support form |
| Copernicus PublicationsResearch4Life | No fee | n/a (OA) | Automatic |
| The Royal SocietyOpen Access Equity | No fee | Yes | Automatic |
| Microbiology SocietyEIFL | No fee | Yes | Automatic |
| De Gruyter BrillWorld Bank + EIFL | 30% off | Partial | Automatic |
| JMIR PublicationsWorld Bank | Discount (all authors) | n/a (OA) | Request required |
| KargerCountry income | Request required | No | Request required |
| ThiemeResearch4Life | 50% off | No | Request required |
| Mary Ann LiebertResearch4Life Group B | 50% off | No | Request required |
| Portland PressResearch4Life | Discount | Not stated | Request required |
| Emerald PublishingWorld Bank | 50% off | No | Automatic |
| Wolters KluwerR4L / Institutional | Institutional only | Not stated | Institutional agreement |
| AACRWorld Bank | 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 Nigeria
DOAJ lists 65 open access journals whose publisher is based in Nigeria. 5 of them charge authors nothing — no APC and no other fees; 60 charge an APC. The no-fee titles:
| Journal | Open access since | Weeks to publication |
|---|---|---|
| Journal of Sustainable Development Law and PolicyLaw · EN | 2012 | 24 |
| The Proceedings of the Nigerian Academy of ScienceScience · EN | 2013 | 12 |
| Ilorin Journal of Economic PolicyEconomics as a science · EN | 2014 | 12 |
| ArụmarụkaPhilosophy (General) · EN | 2021 | 12 |
| Proceedings of the Nigerian Society of Physical SciencesScience · EN | 2023 | 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 Nigeria. 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 Nigeria can use
Checked on publishers’ and national bodies’ own pages, 3 October 2026
Nigeria is in Research4Life Group B, so publishers that follow Research4Life give discounts rather than full waivers.
Automatic reductions
- Wiley: 50% in fully open access journals.
- Elsevier: 50% in fully open access journals when all authors are in Group B countries or a mix of Group A and B; its pricing pilot charges 20% of the list APC.
- Sage: 50% in gold open access journals.
- PLOS: free in PLOS Biology, PLOS Medicine and PLOS Sustainability and Transformation for authors without external funding; USD 940 in other PLOS journals.
- Cambridge University Press: open access fully funded in its gold and hybrid journals (Open Equity Initiative).
Springer Nature, BMC and Taylor & Francis give no automatic reduction for Nigeria; ask for a discretionary waiver at submission. MDPI has no country-based waiver, and Frontiers offers fee support by application.
National bodies
- TETFund funds institutions to publish their own journals, but its 2023 intervention guidelines have no line for paying authors’ APCs. Its research grants require publication in a reputable journal, and it does not sponsor conferences run by predatory organisers.
- We found no predatory-journal guidance or approved-journal list on the National Universities Commission site.
- In 2022 the Nigerian Academy of Science recommended a list of reputable journals and training to spot predatory ones.
Free-to-publish journals from Nigeria
African Journals Online lists 370 journals from Nigeria, more than any other country. In DOAJ, only 6 of the 60 Nigeria-published journals charge no fees, so check the fee page of a Nigerian open access journal before you submit.
Sources for this section
- Research4Life — Eligibility
- Wiley — Open access waivers and discounts
- Elsevier — Open access choice and Research4Life discounts
- Elsevier — Pricing and Geographical Pricing for Open Access
- Sage — Gold open access article processing charges
- PLOS — Fees
- Cambridge University Press — Cambridge Open Equity Initiative
- Springer Nature — APC waiver countries
- Taylor & Francis — Eligible countries for APC waivers
- TETFund — 2023 intervention guidelines
- National Universities Commission
- SciDev.Net — Nigeria tackles predatory journals
- AJOL — Nigeria
- DOAJ — Directory of Open Access Journals (data export of 1 July 2026)
Want us to check which journals waive the fee for authors in Nigeria? 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 →