Data report · data dated 4 October 2026
What Scopus journals charge to publish, October 2026
Of 11,945 Scopus-indexed journals with a known list fee, 396 (3.3%) charge nothing. Among the 11,549 that charge, the median article processing charge is US$3,190, and 9.6% charge US$1,000 or less. Quartile Q1 journals have a median of US$3,460; Q4 journals, US$2,290.
By Vijayakumar P and Rani C. Fees are publisher list prices for open access, not what every author pays. See how we measured.
The numbers at a glance
- 11,945
- Scopus journals with a known fee
- 3.3%
- charge no fee
- US$3,190
- median fee among those that charge
- 2.9%
- of charging journals ask over US$5,000
How are fees spread?
Only 3.3% of journals with a known fee charge nothing. Most of the rest (76.5%) ask between US$2,001 and US$5,000.
| Fee band | Journals | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 396 | 3.3% |
| US$1 to 500 | 662 | 5.5% |
| US$501 to 1,000 | 444 | 3.7% |
| US$1,001 to 2,000 | 1,266 | 10.6% |
| US$2,001 to 3,000 | 2,625 | 22% |
| US$3,001 to 5,000 | 6,214 | 52% |
| Over US$5,000 | 338 | 2.8% |
Do better-ranked journals charge more?
The median fee falls with each step down in quartile, from US$3,460 in Q1 to US$2,290 in Q4. A high fee does not buy a high quartile, and every quartile includes journals that charge nothing (204 in Q1, 15 in Q4).
| CiteScore quartile | Journals | Charge nothing | Median fee (charging) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 | 6,306 | 204 | US$3,460 |
| Q2 | 3,629 | 107 | US$3,090 |
| Q3 | 1,499 | 55 | US$2,675 |
| Q4 | 431 | 15 | US$2,290 |
Which subjects are cheapest?
Subjects with at least 100 journals that have a known fee, cheapest median first. Open a subject to see its journals, cheapest first.
| Subject | Journals | Charge nothing | Median fee (charging) | US$1,000 or less |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agriculture & Food | 807 | 3.5% | US$2,740 | 22.6% |
| Communication & Media | 341 | 5.6% | US$2,760 | 9% |
| Computer Science & IT | 1,158 | 4.3% | US$2,896 | 8.6% |
| Operations & Transportation | 203 | 4.9% | US$2,990 | 9.3% |
| Engineering | 2,077 | 4.5% | US$2,995 | 9.6% |
| Environment & Earth Sciences | 2,172 | 4.1% | US$3,060 | 12.6% |
| Linguistics & Language | 250 | 9.2% | US$3,090 | 14.1% |
| Mathematics & Statistics | 1,102 | 2.6% | US$3,137 | 9.4% |
| Medicine & Health | 4,452 | 2.7% | US$3,190 | 9.8% |
| Physics & Astronomy | 1,089 | 2.7% | US$3,230 | 6.2% |
| Finance | 176 | 1.7% | US$3,290 | 6.4% |
| Economics & Econometrics | 612 | 3.9% | US$3,290 | 6.3% |
| Life Sciences & Biology | 2,688 | 2.5% | US$3,290 | 9.7% |
| Materials Science | 672 | 4.2% | US$3,325 | 5.7% |
| Education | 584 | 2.7% | US$3,390 | 13% |
| Business & Management | 610 | 2.1% | US$3,400 | 8.5% |
| Law | 508 | 4.1% | US$3,400 | 10.3% |
| Social Sciences | 1,497 | 3.3% | US$3,400 | 9.2% |
| Arts & Humanities | 932 | 3.8% | US$3,400 | 10.6% |
| Chemistry & Chem. Eng. | 1,579 | 4.1% | US$3,450 | 6.9% |
| Psychology | 641 | 0.6% | US$3,460 | 6.8% |
| HRM & Organizational Behavior | 124 | 2.4% | US$3,550 | 6.6% |
Checklist before you pay an article processing charge
- Confirm on the journal's own page that Scopus still lists it as Active, and note the coverage years.
- Find the fee on the publisher's page, not on a third-party list. List prices change, and waivers are common.
- Check whether you can publish for free by the subscription route and pay only for open access.
- Ask whether your institution or country has a deal. In India, check the ONOS list first.
- Look for a waiver or discount for your country or career stage.
- Read the journal's quartile in your own subject, not just its best subject.
- Never pay a fee to anyone who contacted you first.
How we measured, and what this does not tell you
- Which journals: 32,103 journals have an Active Scopus source status in the list we hold. 11,945 of them have a known fee, so this report covers 37.2% of Active Scopus journals. Journals with no fee on record are left out, not counted as free.
- Where fees come from: the article processing charge each publisher lists for open access, as recorded by OpenAlex (which draws on DOAJ and publisher pages), converted to US dollars. It is a list price. Waivers, discounts and national deals are not applied.
- Hybrid journals: many journals also publish by the subscription route at no cost to the author. A high list fee describes the open access option only.
- Quartiles: Scopus CiteScore best-subject quartile. A journal without a quartile is left out of the quartile table only.
- Dates: Scopus status and quartiles are as of July 2026; this page was built from data dated 4 October 2026. See the methodology for matching rules and refresh dates.
- A fee says nothing about quality. Judge a journal by its indexing, its editorial practices and its fit with your work.