Scholarly Publishing

Why have I been asked to pay to publish my article?

Article Processing Charges (APCs) are charged to authors of scholarly articles during the publication process.  APCs are used by open access journals in lieu of subscription fees that libraries and readers traditionally have paid to gain access to research articles. APCs shift the burden of journal production costs (editing, peer review, hosting, archiving, preservation), from the readers to the authors. Paying an APC results in an article that is available to anyone with an internet connection. Charging APCs is one model that Corporate, non-profit, society, academic, and other publishers use to meet their income needs and publishing service costs.

APCs should not be confused with page charges long associated with both print and digital publications. Page charges are used to cover administrative costs as well as the cost of print publication, but do not make the article available in an open access (OA) model.

Faculty Researchers

University Libraries is not responsible for paying APCs. Check with your department chair or funder for options. 

Check for the journal's Green OA policy which will allow the author(s) to share an accepted manuscript or pre-print into their institutional repository. 

Graduate Students

Publishing and copyright charges for electronic theses and dissertations. 

The open access option through UA Libraries is free of charge.

Making the Choice: Open Access vs. Traditional Journals

Find journals that do not charge APCs: 

• Eigenfactor Index of Open Access Fees

  Lists fine-free open access journals for all fields.

• Directory of Open Access Journals

  Use this directory to retrieve a list of open access journals without ACPs.