Journals With No Publication Fee: Free-to-Publish Open Access Options (2026)

A growing share of high-quality open access journals are free to publish in. This 2026 guide gives the full picture: diamond OA journals by field, APC waiver processes per major publisher, Plan S and Read-and-Publish institutional deals, country-eligibility rules for automatic waivers, the green-OA preprint workflow, and worked examples of zero-APC Q1 journals you can actually target.

What "No Publication Fee" Actually Means

Open access publishing usually involves an Article Processing Charge (APC) — a fee paid by the author or their institution to make the article freely available. APCs range from a few hundred to over $11,000 USD for some elite journals.

But many high-quality journals publish OA at no cost to the author. They fall into four categories:

• Diamond OA — Always free to read AND always free to publish in. No APC at any submission. Funded by universities, societies, or government bodies.
• APC waiver journals — Charge an APC normally but grant full or partial waivers based on country, hardship, or institutional agreement.
• Subscription journals — Free to publish (paid by readers via subscription) but the article is paywalled unless an OA option is selected.
• Read-and-Publish institutional deals — Your library has pre-paid for a quota of APCs at major publishers; you publish for free within the quota.

Diamond Open Access: The Gold Standard

Diamond OA is the cleanest model: free to read for everyone, free to publish for the author. The journal is funded by an institution, society, or public funder. No APC at any point.

Notable diamond OA characteristics:

• Published under Creative Commons (CC-BY, CC-BY-NC, etc.).
• Many are run by university presses, government research institutes, or learned societies.
• Some are Q1 in their subject category — DOAJ vetting + Scopus indexing is the quality bar, not absence of APC.
• Plan S has explicitly accelerated diamond OA growth since 2021 by directing funder money toward diamond models.

Zero-APC Q1 Journals: Real Examples by Field

These are real Q1/Q2 journals (verify quartile annually) where authors pay nothing. Approximate 2026 status:

Medicine and Health Sciences

• eLife — Zero APC since 2023. Q1 in life sciences. New "publish, review, curate" model.
• BMJ Open — APC charged but waivers for low-income countries; many SciELO Brazil health journals are zero-APC and Scopus-indexed.
• Bulletin of the World Health Organization — Zero APC, public-funder operated, Q1 in public health.

Biology and Life Sciences

• eLife — Multi-field life sciences, zero APC.
• PLOS Hub journals (selectively waived) — Hardship waivers commonly granted.
• Many SciELO biology journals — Zero APC, Scopus-indexed, especially strong in Latin American biology.

Mathematics

• Algebraic Combinatorics, Annals of Mathematics, several IMS journals.
• Mathematics arXiv overlay journals — papers reviewed and "published" while remaining on arXiv.
• Most pure-math journals are diamond OA or subscription-only (free to authors either way).

Computer Science

• Logical Methods in Computer Science — Diamond OA, Scopus-indexed.
• The Journal of Machine Learning Research (JMLR) — Diamond OA, Q1 in machine learning.
• Discrete Mathematics & Theoretical Computer Science — Diamond OA.

Physics

• SciPost Physics — Diamond OA, Q1.
• Quantum — Diamond OA, Q1 in quantum physics.

Social Sciences and Humanities

• Many ERIH PLUS-indexed humanities journals — Diamond OA, especially European university press journals.
• Open Library of Humanities (OLH) — Multi-journal diamond OA platform.
• Many SciELO and AJOL journals — Zero APC.

For a curated catalog, browse our free-to-publish journals list by field, indexing status, and quartile.

How APC Waivers Actually Work

Most major publishers offer waivers. The mechanics differ by publisher.

Country-based automatic waivers

If your corresponding-author affiliation is in a World Bank-classified low-income country, you usually get a full APC waiver automatically at submission. Lower-middle-income countries typically get a 50% discount. The classification is the World Bank annual list.

Hardship waivers (any country)

If you lack funding regardless of country, most publishers accept a brief hardship-waiver application at submission. Approval rates are 30-50% for genuine cases. Apply at submission, not after acceptance — waiver decisions are kept independent of editorial review to avoid bias.

Major-publisher waiver policies (2026)

Plan S and the cOAlition S Funder Network

Plan S is an initiative by major international funders requiring that funded research be published OA immediately. The cOAlition S now includes 28+ major funders: Wellcome Trust, ERC, UKRI, FWF (Austria), NWO (Netherlands), ANR (France), NIH partially, and many national European funders.

What Plan S means for you:

• If you have grant funding from a cOAlition S member, your output must be OA immediately on publication.
• You can satisfy Plan S via gold OA (with APC), diamond OA (zero APC), or by depositing the accepted manuscript in an open repository on publication (green OA with no embargo).
• Plan S has driven significant growth in Read-and-Publish deals and diamond OA over 2021-2026.
• NIH's 2024 Public Access Policy aligns with Plan S principles but operates separately.

Read-and-Publish (Transformative) Agreements

Your institution may have a Read-and-Publish deal with a major publisher: your library pays a single annual fee that covers both subscription access AND APC publication for authors at your institution. Major publishers offering R&P deals in 2026 include:

• Elsevier (ScienceDirect + Cell Press portfolio)
• Springer Nature (broad portfolio + Nature for some institutions)
• Wiley
• Taylor & Francis
• Cambridge University Press
• Oxford University Press
• SAGE
• IOP Publishing
• ACS Publications (selected institutions)
• Royal Society of Chemistry
• De Gruyter
• Brill

Always check with your subject librarian before paying any APC out of pocket. Many researchers pay for OA when their institution already covers it. Most libraries can confirm coverage in 1-2 business days.

Green Open Access: Publish Paywalled, Self-Archive Free

If your target journal is subscription-only or has an APC you cannot pay, you can still satisfy most funder OA mandates via green open access:

1. Submit the paper to a paywalled subscription journal as normal.
2. Upon acceptance, deposit the accepted manuscript (post-peer-review, pre-typeset version) in a public repository: arXiv, bioRxiv, SSRN, EuropePMC, or your institutional repository.
3. Respect the publisher's embargo period (typically 6-24 months for green OA). Many publishers now permit zero-embargo green OA for Plan S compliance.
4. The repository version satisfies most OA mandates without paying any APC.

Check publisher self-archiving policies on SHERPA RoMEO. Most major publishers permit some form of green OA — many now with zero embargo.

Preprints: arXiv, bioRxiv, SSRN, EuropePMC, OSF

Preprints sit alongside the formal publication: a version of your paper posted publicly before peer review. Free to post. Citable. Searchable in Google Scholar. They are the highest-leverage zero-cost OA strategy:

• arXiv — physics, math, CS, statistics, quant-bio, quant-fin.
• bioRxiv — biology, biomedical sciences.
• medRxiv — medical sciences.
• SSRN — social sciences, economics, finance, law.
• EuropePMC — biomedical, life sciences.
• OSF Preprints — multidisciplinary.
• ChemRxiv — chemistry.
• EarthArXiv — earth sciences.

Preprints typically increase formal-publication citation count by 40-60% because they are accessible during the long peer-review cycle.

How to Find Free-to-Publish Journals in Your Field

1. JournalsHub catalog. Free-to-publish journals list filtered by field, quartile, and indexing status.
2. DOAJ. The Directory of Open Access Journals has an explicit "no APC charges" filter.
3. SciELO and AJOL. Regional OA networks with many zero-APC Scopus-indexed journals.
4. Your library's OA guide. Most university libraries maintain a current list of R&P agreements and diamond OA options in your subject.
5. Subject-specific learned societies. Many run their own diamond OA journals not always indexed by general directories.
6. The Open Library of Humanities (OLH) and SciPost — diamond OA platforms publishing multiple journals.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are free-to-publish journals lower quality?

No. Diamond open access journals run by universities, learned societies, and public funders are often highly rigorous. DOAJ vetting, Scopus indexing, and SJR quartile are reliable quality indicators regardless of whether a journal charges an APC. Many Q1 journals are zero-APC.

What is the difference between gold and green open access?

Gold OA: article published on the journal's website and freely available immediately (may or may not have an APC). Green OA: author deposits a preprint or accepted manuscript in an open repository (arXiv, bioRxiv, institutional repository) after an embargo period. Green OA is usually free.

What is diamond open access?

Diamond open access means the journal is free to read AND free to publish in. Funded by universities, research institutions, or societies — never by author fees. The gold standard for equitable scholarly publishing.

What is a transformative or "Read and Publish" agreement?

An institutional deal where the library pays a single annual fee that covers BOTH subscription access for readers AND APC publication for authors at that institution. Major publishers (Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, Cambridge, Oxford, SAGE) all offer these. Check with your library before paying any APC out of pocket.

How do APC waivers work for low-income country authors?

Most major publishers automatically waive APCs for authors from World Bank low-income countries (and partially for lower-middle income). The waiver is usually applied at submission — declare your institution's country and the publisher checks against the waiver-eligible list. Research4Life publishers grant the most generous waivers.

Can I get an APC waiver from a country not on the standard list?

Often yes. Most publishers offer hardship waivers for any author who lacks funding, regardless of country. Apply at submission with a brief written justification. Acceptance is independent of editorial review to avoid bias. Success rates vary but are typically 30-50% for genuine hardship cases.

Are arXiv, bioRxiv, and SSRN considered publications?

They are preprints, not formal publications. Most tenure committees do not count preprints alone toward publication record. But preprints (1) establish citation precedence, (2) increase downstream citations of the formal publication by 40-60%, and (3) are increasingly required by funders. Always preprint as well as submitting to peer-reviewed venues.

Is PLOS ONE actually free to publish?

No — PLOS ONE charges around $1,800-$2,000 APC as of 2026. It is widely OA-indexed but not zero-APC. Confusion is common because PLOS offers waivers for low-income country authors. For truly zero-APC PLOS-style outlets, look at eLife (zero APC since 2023) or many SciELO journals.

How do I find zero-APC journals in my specific field?

Three steps: DOAJ — filter by "no APC charges"; JournalsHub catalog — filter by APC = 0 and your field; ask your subject librarian for a list of diamond OA journals in your area. Many subject-specific learned societies also publish free OA journals not always surfaced by general search.

Is Plan S still active in 2026?

Yes. Plan S (cOAlition S) continues with 28+ major funders including Wellcome, ERC, UKRI, and major European national funders. Plan S requires that funded research be published OA immediately. NIH's separate 2024 public access policy works alongside it. Check your funder's specific OA mandate before submitting.

Conclusion

You don't need to pay thousands of dollars to publish open access. A growing number of high-quality Scopus and WoS-indexed journals publish at zero cost to authors through diamond OA, institutional Read-and-Publish agreements, or APC waivers. Use the JournalsHub free-to-publish list to discover zero-APC options in your field, and always check your library's transformative agreements before assuming you'll need to pay. Pair with a preprint on arXiv / bioRxiv / SSRN to maximize visibility while costing nothing.