Article Processing Charges in African Journals

African journals article processing charges vary widely: some diamond open access titles charge authors nothing, while hybrid titles can bill thousands. The fee usually falls due after acceptance, and waivers are discretionary.

Use this guide to budget before you submit. It builds on our overview of african academic journals and our list of open access african journals.

How African journals fund open access

An article processing charge (APC) is a publication fee paid to cover the cost of making an article free to read. The University of Pretoria library describes Article Processing Charges as also known as publication fees that support open access journals.

The logic is simple. Readers pay nothing, so someone else must. AOSIS, a publisher of African journals, states on its publication fees page that because no fees are charged for access, it offsets publication expenses by charging the author, the author’s institution or a funder for each article. Its articles are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence unless otherwise stated.

Not every open access journal works this way. The answer to “do all African open access journals charge?” is no. An EIFL call for proposals on strengthening no-fee open access publishing in Africa describes these titles as journals that charge no fees to either authors or readers, a model often called Diamond open access. Hybrid journals are a third model. Cambridge’s African Studies Review is a hybrid title that gives authors the option to make an article open access, so the charge applies only if you choose that route.

What published fees look like

There is no single typical price, because journals quote the charge in different units. One bills per page, another bills a flat amount per article, and a hybrid journal sets a price in foreign currency. Compare them on the same basis before you shortlist a title.

Figures are taken from the AOSIS journal fee page and the Cambridge fees and pricing page.

A third pattern is a flat fee that adjusts for the author’s location. The African Journal of Medicine and Case Reports (AJMCR) fee page sets a base APC of $500 per article, and says the fee may be higher or reduced depending on the income level of the author’s country. Per-page pricing rewards short papers. A flat fee suits long ones. A hybrid fee is usually worth paying only when the title’s readership or an institutional agreement justifies it.

When the fee falls due

In the journals reviewed here, payment is tied to acceptance, not to the first upload. The stages below show where money and paperwork enter the process. Peer review itself is covered in our guide to the peer review process african journals use.

1. Submission. The AOSIS journal states that article submission charges do not apply, so uploading a manuscript costs nothing there.
2. Review. AJMCR says its fee is only required once the manuscript has been reviewed and accepted, so a rejection means no charge.
3. Waiver request. At AOSIS, waiver letters must reach the editorial contact portal before the formal post-review acceptance. A request made after acceptance is too late.
4. Invoice. Amounts are due within 7 days from invoicing, so confirm funding before you accept the decision.
5. Publication. The AOSIS journal publishes the article only once full payment has been received.

The practical lesson is to settle who pays while review is still under way. Both fee pages are linked above: AOSIS and AJMCR.

Budgeting a fee inside a grant

A fee line in a grant budget needs the rate, the unit, the tax treatment and any bank costs. A per-page rate is not a fixed price until the manuscript is final.

A worked example using the AOSIS journal’s published terms runs as follows.

1. Take the rate and the unit. The journal quotes ZAR1620.00 per A4 output page in PDF format, excluding VAT.
2. Estimate the length. The journal gives an average article length of 10 pages. Use that only as a starting estimate and replace it with your own typeset page count.
3. Multiply, then add VAT. Because the quoted rate excludes VAT, the invoice will be higher than the multiplied figure.
4. Add bank costs. An author paying from a non-South African bank is responsible for any bank transfer charges at the time of the transaction.
5. Plan for cash flow. Payment is due within 7 days of invoicing, so the money must be available at acceptance.

If you are a University of Pretoria researcher, note how the UP library APC fund works. It refunds a percentage (50% or 60%) to the researcher afterwards, so you pay first and recover part of the cost later. Keep proof of payment in South African rands for that claim.

Waivers, discounts and funder support

A fee waiver is a reduction or removal of the APC granted by the publisher. Treat every waiver as a possibility to request, not a right.

Publisher waivers

The AOSIS journal’s publication fee page says authors may apply for an APC waiver, which may be granted at the publisher’s sole discretion or at the discretion of a funder, subject to limited funds. A full waiver is granted only under exceptional circumstances. Requests need a letter from the Research Director, Faculty Dean or Departmental Head confirming that the author’s institution cannot pay the APC. The same journal offers no waivers or discounts for special or themed collections, so a themed call is a poor place to rely on a reduction.

Income-based discounts

AJMCR takes a different approach. It does not offer full waivers, but it states that it routinely gives significant discounts to authors from developing nations, and that for low-income countries the fee may be reduced. If you are applying from a lower-income setting, a journal with this kind of income adjustment can be easier to budget for than one that grants waivers only in exceptional cases. See the AJMCR fee page for its exact wording.

Institutional and funder money

Cambridge notes that authors not covered by a publisher agreement may have funding from their funding body or institution. Check your funder’s open access policy first, because it may already allow publication costs. Institutional funds can also be selective. The UP library fund pays only for articles in accredited and peer-reviewed open access journals. Eligibility rules of this kind are another reason to understand the peer review that a target journal runs before you commit.

Telling a legitimate fee from a predatory charge

A legitimate fee is easy to read before you submit. The journals above each publish the amount, the unit it applies to, the point at which it is due, and the route to a waiver or discount. They also name the licence, as in the CC BY 4.0 statement at AOSIS.

Use those features as a checklist. Be cautious where a journal gives no amount, asks for money at submission with no review stage described, or offers no waiver contact. That is a judgement drawn from comparing how established publishers present their terms, not a rule any one source states.

Independent checks matter too. The UP library tells applicants to check whether the journal is in the Open Access Directory before they apply. The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is the usual place to look for a journal’s record, and a journal that cannot be found in a recognised directory deserves a second look. Funds that pay only for accredited, peer-reviewed titles apply the same test. Confirm the listing, read the fee page and confirm the review process before you pay anything.

Currency and payment methods

Journals quote fees in the currency of the publisher, not the author. The AOSIS journal prices in South African rand, Cambridge quotes pounds sterling and US dollars, and AJMCR quotes in dollars. Exchange rates and bank charges can therefore move the final cost for an author paid in another currency.

The AOSIS journal says payment can be made by credit card and electronic funds transfer (EFT). The journal fee pages do not describe other channels, so confirm any alternative directly with the editorial office before the invoice arrives. Because the due date is short, a payment method that clears slowly is a real risk. Details are on the AOSIS journal page and the Cambridge fees page.

Frequently asked questions