Individual Open Access Paths and Pricing for Authors
Find your route to open access
A growing number of authors choose to publish open access. ACS offers a variety of journals, open access license types, and routes to open access publication to meet individuals' unique needs.
Most authors enjoy reduced- or no-cost open access publishing
A large number of our authors qualify for financial support from their research funder or representative institution through an ACS institutional open access agreement. A generous additional range of discounts and promotions help make open publishing more accessible to authors who don’t qualify for institutional or funder support.
We also provide step-by-step instructions for publishing open access using grant or personal funding.
Choose your route to open access
All ACS Publications journals provide one or more routes to open access publication. In most cases, authors publishing as open access using grant or personal funds can choose between two Creative Commons licenses.
- Diamond open access: Articles selected for publication in ACS Central Science and ACS Chemical Health & Safety are published as diamond open access under a CC BY license. Publication in these journals is completely free of charge for authors and readers, with all associated costs covered by the American Chemical Society.
- Immediate open access to the final article with payment of an Article Publishing Charge (APC): also known as ‘gold’ OA, this option is available in all ACS journals. The final published article will be made immediately available for anyone to read without subscription. This option also includes immediate self-archiving of the accepted manuscript at no additional cost.
- Open access to the final article after a 12-month embargo: authors publishing in ACS hybrid journals can choose to pay a reduced APC to make their article available as open access 12 months after the initial publication date. The final published article will require a subscription to access during the initial 12-month period.
- Immediate self-archiving of the accepted manuscript with payment of an Article Development Charge (ADC): authors publishing in ACS hybrid journals who wish, or are required, to make their accepted manuscript available in a repository at time of publication can do so following payment of an article development charge (ADC). The final published article will require a subscription to access.
- Self-archiving of the accepted manuscript after a 12-month embargo: authors publishing in ACS hybrid journals can deposit their accepted manuscript in an institutional or funder repository free of charge as long as it is publicly available no sooner than 12 months after publication. The final published article will require a subscription to access.
Get an Estimate for your Open Access Options *
Only for authors intending to pay using grant or personal funds.
Please note: Your institution may have an agreement providing partially or fully discounted open access charges. Check to see if you're covered.
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Special pricing and promotions
Special pricing and promotions
ACS Premium Package members are eligible for a $250 USD discount on listed prices for open access publication in all ACS journals. This option is included in the tool above.
ACS offers full waivers or significantly discounted article publishing charges for papers in our fully open access journals whose submitting corresponding authors are based in countries classified by the World Bank as low-income economies as of July 2022.
Submitting corresponding authors from World Bank Group A countries will receive a full waiver of article publishing charges.
Submitting corresponding authors from World Bank Group B countries are eligible for significantly discounted article publishing charges.
These discounts are included in the tool above, and will be automatically applied upon acceptance. Find out more here.
Authors based at institutions which subscribe to the ACS All Publications Package are eligible for a discount of $250 on APCs when publishing in hybrid journals. This will be applied automatically upon checkout. (Please note this is not currently included in the tool above.)
Your librarian will be able to confirm your institution’s subscription status.
The following ACS open access publications are offering special introductory sponsored open access publishing. Special thanks to the institutions partnering with ACS, who make it possible to offer introductory no-fee open access publication.
- Artificial Photosynthesis: APCs automatically waived for all articles accepted before December 31, 2026
- Chem & Bio Engineering: APCs automatically waived for all articles submitted by December 31, 2026 if they are accepted after peer review
- Environmental Health Perspectives: APCs automatically waived for all articles submitted by December 31, 2026 if they are accepted after peer review
- Photon Science: APCs automatically waived for all articles submitted by December 31, 2027 if they are accepted after peer review
- Polymer Science & Technology: APCs automatically waived for all articles submitted by December 31, 2027 if they are accepted after peer review
If your institution participates in a qualifying ACS institutional open access agreement, article publishing charges for these journals will automatically be covered by the agreement after the dates listed above.
Authors publishing in any of ACS’ hybrid journals may opt to publish the article open access after a 12 month embargo and receive a $2,000 USD discount. Discounted APCs for hybrid journals are shown in the tool above.
This embargo period allows the article to be offered under subscription access for 12 months prior to becoming available via open access.
Copyright retention options
Publishing open access with ACS provides authors with the option to retain copyright.
After completing the Journal Publishing Agreement, authors are given the option to publish open access and retain copyright. Those who wish to publish open access will then select which Creative Commons license type meets their needs. Completing this process and selecting either a CC BY or CC BY-NC-ND license will ensure that the author retains copyright.
Authors publishing with ACS through the zero-embargo green open access route retain copyright on their accepted manuscript with a CC BY license, and can post it to a funder or institutional repository immediately upon acceptance.
Automatic PubMed Central deposit
Any article that an author chooses to make open access with ACS will automatically be sent to PubMed Central (PMC) and Europe PMC for deposit after issue and license completion. For authors who choose a 12 month embargo discount, the article will be sent to PMC after the embargo period. Authors are also free to deposit the accepted manuscript version of their article in their institutional and/or research funder’s designated open access repository (either immediately upon publication following payment of an article development charge, or after a 12-month embargo period with no fees to pay).
Creative Commons licenses
In most cases, publishing open access with ACS using grant or personal funds provides authors with their choice of two Creative Commons licenses:
| License type | Description |
|---|---|
Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 public use license (Plan S compliant) |
Permits the broadest form of re-use, including for commercial purposes, provided that author attribution and integrity are maintained. Note that if you are funded by a signatory of Plan S, you may be required to publish under a CC BY license. |
Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 public use license |
Permits non-commercial access & reuse, provided that author attribution and integrity are maintained, but does not permit creation of adaptations or other derivative works without the copyright holder’s permission. |
All research articles published in ACS Central Science and ACS Chemical Health & Safety always receive a CC BY license.
Please note that your institution or funder may require you to apply a particular Creative Commons license when publishing your work. If you’re not sure which license type to apply to your work, check your funding agreement or ask a librarian at your institution.
We made it easier for readers of ACS content to identify open access articles and quickly see what permissions are afforded. Learn more here.
Article development charge (ADC) for zero-embargo green open access
Article development charge (ADC) for zero-embargo green open access
This option represents a unique middle-ground between the free 12-month embargo route and full open access publishing charges. It only applies to those authors who do not already benefit from an institutional open access agreement and is a reduced-cost and grant-friendly means for complying with mandates to make the accepted manuscript immediately available.
The article development charge (ADC) is a flat fee of $2,500 USD and is due after acceptance.
- The ADC covers the cost of ACS’ publishing services from initial submission through to the final editorial decision.
- It does not apply for those served by an institutional open access agreement.
- The ADC is not a submission fee nor a deposition fee.
- The ADC affords authors the right to openly share the accepted manuscript immediately by any means they choose.
- At present, it appears that the ADC, like an APC, may be covered by all US federally funded grants.
To continue enhancing opportunities for researchers and students from under-resourced regions, ADC waivers or discounts will be automatically applied to papers from corresponding authors from all countries that currently receive special country pricing for article publishing charges (APCs).
The ADC will only be payable if all the following criteria apply:
- The article has been submitted to an ACS hybrid journal;
- The manuscript includes funder- or institution-recommended language regarding zero-embargo green open access; and
- The corresponding author’s institution does not participate in an institutional open access agreement, and they have not indicated that they intend to publish the version of record as immediate ‘gold’ open access.
For more information about this option, please see our zero-embargo green open access page.