To provide open access, PLOS journals use a business model in which our expenses — including those of peer review, journal production, and online hosting and archiving — are recovered in part by charging a publication fee to the authors or research sponsors for each article they publish.
Our prices, which have not been raised since August 2009, are as follows:
- PLOS Biology US$2900
- PLOS Medicine US$2900
- PLOS Computational Biology
US$2250
- PLOS Genetics US$2250
- PLOS Pathogens US$2250
- PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
US$2250
- PLOS ONE US$1350
PLOS is committed to the widest possible global participation in open access publishing. To determine the appropriate fee, we use a country-based pricing model, which is based on the country that provides 50% or more of the primary funding for the research that is being submitted. Research articles funded by Upper Middle and High Income Countries incur our standard publication fees. Corresponding authors who are affiliated with one of our Institutional Members are eligible for a discount on this fee. Such authors will be informed of the discount applicable after submission of their manuscript.
Fees for Low and Lower Middle Income Countries are calculated according to the PLOS Global Participation Initiative for manuscripts submitted after 9am Pacific Time on September 4, 2012 (this program is not retroactive).
- Group One: Countries from this list will not be charged for publishing
- Group Two: Countries from this list will be charged a flat $500
Our fee waiver policy, whereby PLOS offers to waive or further reduce the payment required of authors who cannot pay the full amount charged for publication, remains in effect. Editors and reviewers have no access to whether authors are able to pay; decisions to publish are only based on editorial criteria.
