Free APC Journals is an independent directory of peer-reviewed open access journals that charge authors no article processing charge.
Why this exists
Open access was meant to remove barriers to reading research. For many authors it simply moved the barrier from the reader to the writer. Article processing charges routinely run into four figures, and researchers without grant funding — early-career academics, independent scholars, and authors across the Global South — end up choosing venues by what they can afford rather than what fits their work.
Thousands of legitimate, peer-reviewed, fully indexed journals charge nothing at all. They are usually funded by universities, learned societies, government bodies or library consortia. They are also hard to find, because they have no marketing budget. This directory exists to make them findable.
What we list
Every journal in this directory is fully open access, operates a documented peer review process, publishes under an open licence, and charges authors no article processing charge. Journals that levy other fees — submission charges, page charges, colour charges — are flagged separately so you can filter them out entirely.
For each journal we record what it publicly states about its own practices: peer review model, licensing, copyright terms, long-term archiving, plagiarism screening and persistent identifiers. Each of those links back to the journal's own statement, so you can verify any of it yourself rather than taking our word for it.
What we add
The first thing most authors need to know is which abstracting and indexing databases cover a journal, and that information is scattered and inconsistently published. We maintain that layer ourselves: indexing coverage is assigned and reviewed by our editors, and every journal page shows what we have verified.
We also compute a transparency score from the policy signals a journal publishes. It measures how completely a journal documents its practices — not how influential it is. It is not an impact factor and should never be read as one.
How we are funded
We do not charge journals, publishers or authors, and there is no paid placement. No journal can buy a listing, a badge or a higher position.
Corrections
If a journal's details are wrong, out of date, or the journal has begun charging an APC, tell us and we will fix it.