An article processing charge (APC), also known as a publication fee or page charge, is a fee which is sometimes charged to authors in order to publish an article in an academic journal. It is common in open access journals (hybrid or fully open) as well as in fully closed journals. This fee is usually paid by an author's institution or research funder rather than by the author themselves.

APCs are journal dependent, and may differ from title to title. It is the responsibility of the journal editorial board to take a decision on whether an APC is charged and the amount.

APCs are a separate concept from open access; an open access journal may be funded by other means though it is common that journals charge an APC for open access publications since they cannot recover costs by subscription or access charges.

Open access journals that charge an APC and do minimal or poor-quality reviewing are called Predatory Open Access Journals. Beall’s List records possibly offending journals and publishers.

See also: Article Submission Charges. 

Example Publisher Policies on APCs

• SpringerOpen

• BioMed Central

• Hindawi Publishing Corporation

Online Payment Systems

The following online payment tools can assist with managing online payments:

• PayPal

• PayFast

• Quicket