Blood APC and Open Access: Page Charges, OA Fees, and Why Every Author Pays Something

Blood's $85/page charge applies to every accepted manuscript. It doesn't matter whether you choose open access or the subscription track. It doesn't matter whether you're an ASH member. If your paper is accepted, you owe $85 per printed page.

Here's what a typical bill looks like:

The charge is calculated based on the final formatted/printed page count, not the manuscript page count. Your 25-page double-spaced manuscript might format down to 10 printed pages. Blood sends a page charge invoice after the paper enters production.

Some institutions cover page charges automatically through departmental funds. Others don't. If you're submitting to Blood for the first time, check with your department's grants office to see how they handle it. Getting a surprise $1,000 invoice after your paper is accepted is not a great experience.

Blood's OA license is CC BY-NC-ND by default. This is more restrictive than what most OA advocates prefer:

• CC BY-NC-ND: Others can share your work but can't modify it or use it commercially. This is the most restrictive Creative Commons license.

• CC BY: Others can share, modify, and use your work commercially with attribution. This is what Plan S requires.

The CC BY-NC-ND default matters because it doesn't satisfy Plan S requirements. If your funder is a cOAlition S member, you'll need to confirm whether Blood offers CC BY as an alternative. This is a real friction point for European-funded hematology researchers.

Blood makes OA articles freely available immediately upon publication. Subscription-track articles become free on the Blood website after 12 months.

ASH launched Blood Advances in 2017 as a fully gold open access companion to Blood. It's worth considering as an alternative:

Blood Advances has grown quickly. It publishes more articles per year than the flagship and covers the full scope of hematology. The impact factor gap is significant (~21 vs ~7.4), but Blood Advances is competitive with journals like Leukemia (IF ~11) and Haematologica (IF ~10).

If your funder requires CC BY licensing and you don't want to pay $5,850 plus page charges at Blood, Blood Advances gives you a Plan S-compliant alternative within the ASH family. The trade-off is impact factor and prestige.

ASH offers several forms of fee relief:

Automatic geographical waivers:

• Authors from World Bank low-income countries receive full waivers on page charges and OA fees.
• Authors from lower-middle-income countries receive partial reductions.

ASH member benefits:

• ASH membership itself doesn't automatically waive fees, but members in good standing can apply for fee assistance through ASH programs.
• ASH offers travel and research grants that may be used to cover publication costs for early-career hematologists.

Case-by-case hardship:

• Authors can request page charge waivers at the time of acceptance.
• ASH states that editorial decisions are independent of an author's ability to pay.
• In practice, waivers for page charges are granted more readily than waivers for OA fees.

No institutional Read & Publish deals:

• ASH doesn't operate a Read & Publish program comparable to Springer Nature or Wiley. There's no institutional agreement that automatically covers Blood's OA fees. Your institution may cover page charges from departmental funds, but that's a local arrangement, not a publisher deal.

The Plan S situation is the biggest compliance headache for Blood. If you're funded by a cOAlition S member, don't assume that paying $5,850 for OA automatically satisfies your mandate. The license type matters as much as the access. Check with your funder's open access policy office before committing.

For NIH-funded researchers, the simplest route is the subscription track plus PMC deposit. Blood deposits accepted manuscripts in PubMed Central, and they become freely available after 12 months. You'll still pay page charges, but you won't owe the $5,850 OA fee.

• Page charges are invoiced after acceptance. You can't decline them without withdrawing your paper. Budget for $500-$1,200 depending on article length.

• The OA license is restrictive. CC BY-NC-ND prevents others from creating derivatives of your work. This matters for meta-analyses and systematic reviews that want to reproduce your figures.

• Supplementary data can be extensive. Blood expects detailed supplementary methods and data. Preparing these takes significant time, even though there's no direct fee.

• Color figures are free but must meet Blood's strict formatting requirements. Expect at least one round of figure revision during production.

• Reprints cost extra. ASH charges for physical reprints. Most researchers don't need them, but check with your department.

Blood's fee structure creates a clear decision tree:

1. Every Blood author pays page charges. Budget $500-$1,200. There's no way around this unless you receive a waiver.
2. Need immediate OA? Add $5,850 (full article) or $2,925 (Brief Report). Confirm the license type satisfies your funder.
3. NIH-funded with no immediate OA mandate? Publish via subscription. Pay only page charges. Deposit in PMC after 12 months.
4. Plan S funder? Investigate whether Blood offers CC BY. If not, consider Blood Advances for easier compliance.
5. Cost-sensitive? Haematologica or JCI offer lower total costs with no page charges.

Blood remains the top destination for hematology research, and its impact factor reflects that. The page charge system is an annoyance, not a barrier. Most labs budget for it as a routine cost of doing business in the ASH ecosystem.

The harder challenge is getting accepted. Blood's desk-rejection rate exceeds 70%, and the editorial board expects clinical or translational significance, not just technical quality. If you're preparing a submission, Blood submission readiness check to identify the structural issues that trigger early rejection at Blood's level.

For current fee schedules and submission guidelines, check Blood's official author information page.

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