Circulation APC and Open Access: AHA Pricing, Hybrid Options, and How Cardiology Researchers Get Covered

Circulation is a hybrid journal. This matters more than many authors realize:

1. Subscription track (default, $0): Your article is published behind the AHA paywall. Institutional subscribers and AHA members have access. You pay nothing. After 12 months, most research articles become freely available on the Circulation website.
2. Gold open access track ($4,000-$5,000): Your article is immediately free to read under a Creative Commons license. You or your funder pays the APC.

The subscription track is how the vast majority of Circulation papers are published. The journal's subscriber base is enormous. Over 30,000 AHA professional members receive Circulation content, and virtually every cardiology department and academic medical library maintains access. Your paper will reach the people who need to read it, paywall or not.

The 12-month delayed free access is an underappreciated feature. Unlike some journals that keep content locked permanently, the AHA releases research articles for free reading after one year. If your funder allows a 12-month embargo, you can publish for free and still achieve eventual open access.

The AHA has a smaller institutional agreement footprint than Springer Nature or Wiley, but it's growing. Here's the current landscape:

The US situation is where the AHA has the most traction. Several major academic medical centers and university systems have negotiated APC coverage with the AHA. But there's no national consortium deal like the UK's Jisc arrangement with Springer Nature.

Here's the important point: an Elsevier, Springer Nature, or Wiley agreement at your institution tells you nothing about Circulation. The AHA is an independent society publisher. You need AHA-specific coverage. Ask your library explicitly: "Do we have an AHA open access agreement?"

AHA membership itself doesn't reduce the APC. Professional membership gives you journal access and conference discounts, but the article processing charge is separate.

The AHA's waiver policy is structured similarly to other society publishers:

Automatic geographical waivers:

• Corresponding authors from low-income countries (World Bank classification) receive a full APC waiver.
• Authors from lower-middle-income countries receive partial discounts, typically 50%.

Case-by-case hardship waivers:

• Available upon request at the time of acceptance.
• The AHA states that editorial decisions are independent of waiver requests.
• Editors don't see the waiver application.

AHA society discounts:

• The AHA occasionally offers promotional APC discounts or reduced rates for specific article types, but these aren't consistently available.

In practice, if you're at a well-funded US or European institution, the expectation is that your grant or department covers the APC. The waiver system is designed for genuine financial hardship.

Circulation's open access option satisfies all major public access mandates:

The NIH route is straightforward for Circulation authors. The AHA participates in the PubMed Central deposit system. If you publish via the subscription track, you can deposit the accepted manuscript in PMC after 12 months at no cost. This satisfies the NIH public access policy without spending any APC money.

For Plan S compliance, you need the gold OA option with CC BY licensing. Make sure you select CC BY, not CC BY-NC, during the production process. Plan S doesn't accept non-commercial restrictions.

Circulation supports both CC BY and CC BY-NC licenses. The choice matters. Get it right at the licensing stage because post-publication license changes are slow and not guaranteed.

Circulation doesn't charge submission fees, page fees, or color figure charges. The APC is the only direct publication cost. But be aware of these:

• Supplementary materials: Large datasets or extensive supplementary files may require hosting in external repositories. Most are free, but extremely large files can incur storage costs.
• Reprints: Physical reprints are charged separately. The AHA's reprint pricing is similar to other publishers.
• License selection: Choosing CC BY-NC instead of CC BY may not satisfy your funder's mandate. Fix this before publication, not after.
• Embargo timing for PMC deposits: The 12-month clock starts at the date of publication, not acceptance. Papers with long production timelines have a longer total wait before they can appear in PMC.
• Tax: Depending on your jurisdiction, sales tax or VAT may apply on top of the listed APC. This can add 5-20% to the effective cost.

The AHA publishes several related journals with their own APC structures:

The subspecialty Circulation titles are slightly cheaper and publish more focused work. If your paper fits one of these journals better than the flagship, the lower APC is a bonus, not the primary reason to choose it. But it's worth knowing the landscape.

Circulation's APC decision is simpler than at most commercial publishers:

1. Does your funder require immediate open access? If yes, pay the $4,000-$5,000 APC for gold OA with CC BY. Check if your institution has an AHA agreement first.
2. NIH-funded, no immediate OA mandate? Publish via the subscription track for free. Deposit in PMC after 12 months.
3. No funder mandate at all? Publish via subscription. Circulation's massive readership means your paper reaches cardiologists regardless.

The bigger challenge isn't the APC. It's getting past the editors. Circulation desk-rejects a large percentage of submissions, and the editorial team looks for clinical research that will change cardiology practice or basic science that redefines cardiovascular biology. For more on what it takes to get in, see our breakdown of the Circulation impact factor and editorial standards.

Before you submit, make sure your manuscript is ready for this level. Run a free readiness scan to catch the structural and formatting issues that trigger desk rejection at top cardiology journals. You can also read our guide on how to avoid desk rejection at Circulation for specific tactical advice.

For the latest APC amounts and author guidelines, check the AHA's official Circulation author instructions.