Astrophysical Journal APC and Open Access: AAS Pricing, Digital Quanta Charges, and the Gold OA Transition

In January 2022, all AAS journals transitioned to fully gold open access. This was a major shift:

Before 2022: AAS journals were subscription journals that also published some gold OA articles. The AAS holds the copyright for the non-gold-OA articles it published before 11 October 2021.

After 2022: All AAS journals are gold OA. Every article is immediately and permanently free to read, and subscription charges were eliminated. The article publication charges that authors pay now fund the journals. Articles accepted after 11 October 2021 are published under a CC-BY 4.0 license and authors keep copyright, and the new charges applied to articles submitted on or after 1 January 2022.

The AAS journals covered by this transition:

• Astrophysical Journal (ApJ)

• Astrophysical Journal Letters (ApJL)

• Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series (ApJS)

• Astronomical Journal (AJ)

• Planetary Science Journal (PSJ), which was already open access and has its own separate rate structure

• Research Notes of the AAS (RNAAS), which has no article publication charges

The AAS removed subscription charges and now funds the journals through article publication charges assessed to authors. Its open access FAQ says subscription revenue was 32% of total journals revenue under the old model, and that the new charges replace it.

The support that does exist:

The AAS recommends that grant applications include a publications budget that takes the estimated fees into account.

The AAS does not call these waivers. It runs the AAS Publication Support Fund:

• Requests are made at submission. Authors indicate during submission whether they want to request support from the fund for that article.

• Priority goes to authors with no funding sources. The AAS names astronomers in countries with extremely limited support for publication charges, retired researchers, and astronomers whose institutions provide little or no support for research.

• Support is partial or full, and not guaranteed. The AAS says it expects authors who can contribute to publication costs to do so, and that a request for support does not guarantee that it will be granted. The Editor in Chief allocates the funds.

• The fund covers four journals. Articles submitted to AJ, ApJ, ApJS and ApJL.

If you have no grant funding for the charges, request support from the fund when you submit.

Since all AAS journals are now gold OA under CC BY, the AAS says publication in them fully complies with funder open access mandates like Plan S, UKRI's open access policy, and others. Check your own funder's policy for any further requirement.

• Length matters financially. Unlike flat-APC journals, ApJ charges by quanta, so concise writing pays. A paper that goes from 31 quanta to 30 moves from the $3,162 tier to the $1,425 tier. This creates a genuine incentive for tight manuscripts.

• Online-only components count too. Machine-readable tables, data behind figures, animations, interactive figures and figure sets each count as quanta, in addition to the example component the article must carry.

• Figure sets are cheaper per figure. 100 figures in a figure set count as 1 quantum, and the example figure in the article is charged separately.

• RNAAS is free. If you have a short result (1,500 words or fewer, with a single figure or table), Research Notes of the AAS charges nothing.

• ApJL has its own rate table. The AAS 2026 rate is $2,978 for up to 40 quanta (including a $450 handling fee), with a $450 long-article surcharge above 40 quanta.

For astronomers:

1. Check your grant budget. The AAS says NASA, NSF and other major US funders generally treat publication costs as allowable grant expenses. If yours does, budget for the quanta-based charge.

1. No grant? Request support from the AAS Publication Support Fund when you submit. A request does not guarantee support.

1. Cost is the priority? Submit to MNRAS ($0) if you don't need immediate gold OA.

1. European and OA required? A&A may be cheaper than ApJ, especially with ESO coverage.

1. High-impact result? Nature Astronomy ($12,850 for OA) is the prestige option, but ApJ and MNRAS papers are equally valued by most astronomy departments.

Before submitting to any astronomy journal, make sure your data analysis and statistical methods are solid. Reviewers in astronomy check quantitative rigor carefully. Astrophysical Journal desk-rejection risk check to verify your manuscript's technical quality.

Worth paying if:

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

• The AAS Publication Support Fund 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