Astronomy & Astrophysics APC and Open Access: Sponsoring Countries, Page Charges, and How A&A Keeps Costs Low

A&A's low cost to many authors is the result of a sponsorship structure that the journal describes itself.

How it works: A&A is a community journal supported by a board of sponsoring countries. Subscription income covers publication costs, and editorial work is funded through contributions from sponsoring countries and page charges paid by authors based in non-sponsoring countries. The European Southern Observatory (ESO) sits on the A&A Board of Directors as a non-sponsoring partner, and the Board owns the journal's copyright through ESO. Authors from sponsoring countries publish open access at no cost and only pay page charges if their article exceeds the page cap.

Sponsoring countries on the Board of Directors page (May 2026 update):

Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine

Non-sponsoring partners and observers: ESO is a Board member as a non-sponsoring partner, and Georgia and Uruguay are observer partners.

The test is the country of the first author's first affiliation, so check the Board of Directors list rather than assuming that European location or ESO membership is enough. The United Kingdom, Australia and Brazil do not appear on the list of sponsoring countries.

Non-sponsoring countries: Authors from the US, Canada, China, Japan, India, and other countries not on the list pay page charges even within the page cap (EUR 100 or EUR 150 per page, depending on whether their institution subscribes to A&A). Page charges are waived if the first author is affiliated with a Research4Life Group A country, and A&A editors can waive page charges for up to 10% of all papers published each year.

In astronomy, the practical OA picture is different from almost any other field because of arXiv. Nearly every astronomy paper is posted to arXiv before or at the time of journal submission. This means:

1. Every A&A paper is effectively open access from day one because the preprint is on arXiv.

1. Astronomers read arXiv, not journal websites. The journal version is the official record, but daily reading happens on arXiv.

1. The APC/OA question matters less in astronomy than in fields like biomedicine, where preprint culture is newer and less universal.

A&A allows posting to preprint servers such as astro-ph, and its open access page encourages arXiv archiving or self-archiving of the final PDF exactly as published, without any period of embargo. Because A&A has remained open access under Subscribe to Open every year since 2022, the published version is also free to read.

This is why the OA debate in astronomy looks so different from the OA debate in medicine or biology. The infrastructure for free access already exists, and it doesn't depend on journal APCs.

Plan S compliance is straightforward for A&A authors. The rights retention strategy (posting the Author Accepted Manuscript on arXiv with a CC BY license) satisfies cOAlition S requirements. Since astronomers post to arXiv by default, most authors are already compliant without thinking about it.

NASA and NSF both accept arXiv as a valid public access repository for astronomy publications. This means US astronomers publishing in A&A don't need to worry about separate deposit requirements.

A&A publishes several article types with different cost implications:

• Research articles: Regular papers have a 12-page main-body cap and an 8-page appendix cap. The majority of the journal's content.

• Letters to the Editor: Short articles with a strict 4-page main body (from the title to the references) and a 5-page appendix cap. They follow the same per-page rates as regular papers, and a referee's report is expected about 10 days after submission.

• Special issues: Coordinated around specific missions or surveys (e.g., Gaia, Euclid). The page-charge rules above apply to them like any other paper, and the Editor in Chief can grant exceptions in special circumstances such as the reference paper of a space mission.

The Gaia and Euclid special issues deserve specific mention. These ESA missions have generated hundreds of A&A papers. If you're part of a major astronomical survey, check with your consortium whether it covers any A&A page charges.

1. A&A uses its own LaTeX class (aa.cls). The journal provides a custom LaTeX template that's different from the AAS journals' aastex class. You'll need to reformat if you're switching from ApJ to A&A. The template is available on the A&A website.

1. The journal was created by merging existing European astronomy journals in 1969. The journal's own history page describes the aim of merging the existing journals into a new one on the widest possible European basis, sponsored by several countries. This merger is why A&A has such strong institutional support across Europe.

1. Page charges can be waived. Charges are waived if the first author is affiliated with a Research4Life Group A country, and A&A editors can waive page charges for up to 10% of all papers published each year. Waiver requests must be submitted at the time of manuscript submission, and late requests will not be considered.

If the first author's first affiliation is not in a sponsoring country:

• Waivers exist but are limited. Page charges are waived for first authors in Research4Life Group A countries, and A&A editors can waive charges for up to 10% of all papers published each year. Requests must be made at submission.

• Know the amount before you submit. If you receive a fee form after submitting your article, you must complete it and send it back, because the form is necessary for the journal to start reviewing the article.

• Grant budgets: If you're funded by NSF, NASA, or equivalent agencies, publication costs are a standard budget line item, so include the page charges for your paper length.

• Collaborative papers: If your paper includes co-authors from sponsoring countries, the total cost is lowered based on the proportion of co-authors working in sponsoring countries. The charge tier is still set by the first author's affiliation.

For astronomers choosing where to submit:

1. Institution in a sponsoring country? A&A is the default choice for many European groups. Page charges are zero within the page cap, and the IF is competitive.

1. US institution? ApJ is the default, but A&A is a legitimate option. You would pay A&A's per-page charges for non-sponsoring countries (EUR 100 to 150 per page within the cap) and no APC while the journal is open access under Subscribe to Open.

1. Cost is the priority? Work out A&A's charges for your first author's country and paper length (zero within the cap for sponsoring countries), then compare with MNRAS ($0 in the table above). Both are top-tier.

1. OA compliance needed? ApJ is gold OA by default. A&A is open access under Subscribe to Open with a CC BY 4.0 licence, and Plan S funded authors can also use the green route. Either works for most funders.

1. Major survey or mission paper? Check whether your consortium covers A&A page charges. The standard rules apply unless the Editor in Chief grants an exception.

Astronomy papers live or die on the quality of the data analysis and the clarity of the scientific argument. Regardless of which journal you choose, make sure your manuscript is tight before submission. Astronomy & Astrophysics submission readiness check to check for structural and methodological issues before you submit.

Worth paying if:

• Your funder mandates open access (check Plan S / cOAlition S requirements)

• An institutional Read & Publish agreement covers the fee

• Open access visibility meaningfully benefits your research area

• The APC fits within your grant budget

Consider alternatives if:

• The APC is a personal out-of-pocket expense

• A subscription option or green OA (preprint + embargo) satisfies your funder

• Another OA journal with a lower APC would provide similar visibility

For a manuscript-specific signal before you submit, run an Astronomy Astrophysics submission readiness check.

Or see example reports before you finalize.