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Article-processing charges FAQ
- Why does PMC Biophysics have article-processing charges?
- What do the article-processing charges pay for?
- How much is PMC Biophysics charging?
- Does PhysMath Central offer discounts on article-processing charges?
- How do PhysMath Central's charges compare with other publishers?
- Are any taxes included in this charge?
- Why a flat charge rather than one based on page numbers?
- Who is responsible for making the payment?
- Which funding agencies explicitly allow direct use of their grants to cover article-processing charges?
- How do I pay?
- Can charges be waived if the author cannot pay?
- Will I have to pay if my institution is a BioMed Central member?
- Do changes to APC rates, exchange rates and/or institutional membership status affect the amount payable for a submitted article, if it goes on to be published?
- Do authors from low-income countries have to pay APCs?
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Why does PMC Biophysics have article-processing charges?
Publishing with open access is not without costs. PMC Biophysics defrays those costs via article-processing charges, because it does not have subscription charges for its research content, believing instead that immediate, world-wide, barrier-free, open access to the full text of research articles is in the best interests of the scientific community.
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What do the article-processing charges pay for?
- immediate world-wide barrier-free open access to the full text
- developing and maintaining electronic tools for peer review and publication
- preparation in various formats for online publication
- securing full text inclusion in a number of permanent archives such as arXiv.org (USA)
- securing inclusion in CrossRef (enabling electronic citation in other journals that are available electronically)
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How much is PMC Biophysics charging?
We charge a flat fee of £950/$1480/€1160 for each accepted manuscript.
There is a surcharge of £50/$75/€55 for any payments for individual articles that are not made by credit card.
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Does PhysMath Central offer discounts on article-processing charges?
PhysMath Central offers various discounts on APCs, which are outlined below. The discounts are exclusive of each other and cannot be accumulated.
Discount reference Discount amount Notes Qualifying journals Supporter Member discount 15% on full APC Submitting author must be from Supporter Member institution. All journals published by PhysMath Central Reviewer discount 20% off full APC Submitting author must have been the reviewer to be awarded the discount. The review must have been returned on time and within the last 12 months.
Reviewer discount only applies to the journal in which the review was undertaken. For the purposes of this discount the PMC series (those journal with names beginning PMC) count as one.
All journals published by PhysMath Central
Please note that if the submitting author's organization is a BioMed Central Prepay Member, the cost of the article processing charge is covered by the Membership. Please check if your institution is a BioMed Central Member.
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How do PhysMath Central charges compare with other publishers?
PhysMath Central's article processing charges are extremely competitive. In general, PhysMath Central's charges are amongst the lowest of any publisher offering open access publication - see our APC comparison table.
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Are any taxes included in this charge?
No. Authors resident in any of the countries of the European Union have to add Value-Added Tax (VAT, currently 17.5%). Institutions paying the fee on behalf of the author can in most cases have the VAT refunded, or, by providing PMC Biophysics with their VAT registration number*, avoid paying VAT altogether.
*except UK
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Why a flat charge rather than one based on page numbers?
The size of an article is a poor indicator of the actual amount of work involved in obtaining peer reviews and in preparing the article for publication. A more useful discriminator might be the state an article is in when submitted, and its complexity, but the lack of objective tools to measure these has lead us to conclude that a flat fee is the fairest approach at this stage.
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Who is responsible for making the payment?
Whoever submits the manuscript is responsible for making or arranging the payment (for instance, via his or her institution).
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Which funding agencies explicitly allow direct use of their grants to cover article-processing charges?
Many funding agencies allow the use of grants for this purpose, and an increasing number such as the Wellcome Trust, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the US National Institutes for Health strongly encourage open access publication. The following is a list of funding agencies we know of that have confirmed that they allow the payment of article processing charges:
- Academy of Finland (Finland)
- BIOTEC (Thailand)
- California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (US)
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Canada)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France)
- Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (Spain)
- Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (Italy)
- Danmarks Grundforskningsfond (Denmark)
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Germany)
- FAPESP (Brazil)
- Fondazione Telethon (Italy)
- Fonds zur Forderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (Austria)
- Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Belgium)
- Health Research Board (Ireland)
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
- Indian Council of Medical Research (India)
- INSERM (France)
- International Human Frontier Science Program Organization (International)
- Israel Science Foundation (Israel)
- Max Planck Society (Germany)
- Medical Research Council (UK)
- National Health Service (UK)
- National Institutes of Health (US) Are you an NIH grantee? More details
- National Science Foundation (US)
- Natural Environment Research Council (UK)
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Netherlands)
- Rockefeller Foundation (US)
- South African Medical Research Council (South Africa)
- Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (Sweden)
- Swedish Research Council (Sweden)
- Swiss National Science Foundation (Switzerland)
- Wellcome Trust (UK) More details
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How do I pay?
You will need to arrange payment of the APC unless a waiver has been granted, or your institution has covered the cost through a membership scheme.
The submitting author must confirm, at the time of submission, that they will organize payment should the article be accepted for publication.
Following peer review, once a manuscript has received editorial acceptance in principle, the article processing charge becomes payable, and formatting checks on the manuscript will commence. Once formatting checks are completed, and payment of the article processing charge has been received, the article will be published.
Payment can be made by any of the following methods:
- Credit card payment can be made online using a secure payment form as soon as the manuscript has been accepted in principle.
- Invoice payment is due within at most 30 days of the manuscript receiving editorial acceptance in principle.
Prompt payment is advised, as the article will not be published until payment is received. Payment other than by credit card carries an administrative surcharge of £50/$75/€55 depending on your payment currency. If you pay via online credit card, a receipt will be sent by email once payment has been processed. Receipts upon payment of an invoice are available on request.
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Can charges be waived if the author cannot pay?
Individual waiver requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis and may be granted in cases of lack of funds. To apply for a waiver please request one during the submission process. A decision on the waiver will normally be made within two working days. Submission of the article to the journal can then be completed.
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Will I have to pay if my institution is a BioMed Central member?
Generally, if the submitting author's organization is a BioMed Central member, the cost of the article processing charge is covered by the membership, and no further charge is payable. In the case of authors whose institutions are supporter members of BioMed Central, however, a discounted article processing charge is payable by the author. Please click here to check if you institution is a BioMed Central member.
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Do changes to APC rates, exchange rates and/or institutional membership status affect the amount payable for a submitted article, if it goes on to be published?
No. The APC payable for your article is detemined at the time you agree to pay, as part of the submission process. This means:
- If the APC goes up between submission and publication, you still pay the lower APC.
- If the exchange rates change between submission and publication, you still pay the amount in your applicable currency that you agreed to pay when you submitted.
- If your institution ceases to be a member between submission and publication of your article, you still get the benefit of the membership. Conversely, if your institution becomes a member after you submit an article, that article will not in general be covered by the membership.
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Do authors from low-income countries have to pay APCs?
Authors from more than 80 low-income countries receive automatic waivers on submission and so do not have to pay article processing charges. This policy is supported by BioMed Central's Open Access Waiver Fund.
