No article processing charges — ever
A directory of 14,590 peer-reviewed open access journals that charge authors nothing to publish. Filter by subject, indexing database, publisher, country and licence to find the right home for your paper.
Free APC Journals is a directory of 14,590 peer-reviewed open access journals that charge authors no article processing charge (APC). Every journal is fully open access and can be filtered by subject, indexing database, publisher, country, language and licence.
Every field, classified with the Library of Congress Classification.
Article processing charges routinely run into four figures. That is a real barrier for early-career researchers, independent scholars and authors without grant funding — and it has nothing to do with how rigorous a journal is.
Every journal listed here is fully open access, operates a documented peer review process, publishes under an open licence and states its charges openly. Their costs are met by universities, learned societies, ministries and library consortia instead of by authors.
Ranked by transparency score — how completely each journal documents its policies. This is not an impact metric.
CHIMIA International Journal for Chemistry
Swiss Chemical Society Switzerland ISSN 2673-2424
Jornal Brasileiro de Medicina Tropical
Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical (SBMT) Brazil ISSN 1678-9849
MDPI AG Switzerland ISSN 2673-4591
Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale
Gruppo Italiano Frattura Italy ISSN 1971-8993
Paulo Márcio Cruz Brazil ISSN 1980-7791
Hosokawa Powder Technology Foundation Japan ISSN 2187-5537
Where a journal is published often reflects how it is funded.
Universities, societies and presses that publish without charging authors.
Journals accepting manuscripts in languages other than English.
An article processing charge is a fee a journal asks the author to pay so the published article is free for everyone to read. APCs commonly range from a few hundred to several thousand US dollars. The journals in this directory charge no APC at all — their costs are covered by universities, learned societies, government bodies or library consortia instead of by authors.
No. Charging no APC is a funding model, not a quality signal. Every journal in this directory operates a documented peer review process, states an editorial policy, and publishes under an open licence. Many no-APC journals are also covered by Scopus, Web of Science and PubMed.
This directory lists 14,590 peer-reviewed open access journals across 518 subject areas that charge authors no article processing charge, published by 7,920 publishers in 132 countries.
A journal is listed only if it is fully open access, charges authors no article processing charge, operates a documented peer review process, publishes under an open licence, and states its editorial policy publicly. Indexing coverage is verified and maintained by our editors. See our methodology page for the full criteria.
Yes. The directory is free to search and use, requires no account, and no journal can pay for a listing or for better placement.
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