Frontiers in Immunology APC and Open Access: What the CHF 3,150 Fee Gets You

Like PLOS ONE and Scientific Reports, Frontiers in Immunology is fully gold open access. There is no subscription track. Every published article is immediately free under a Creative Commons license (CC BY is the default and only option).

This means:

• You can't publish for free by choosing a subscription route
• The APC is required for every accepted article
• All content is immediately and permanently open access

Frontiers has its own institutional program called Frontiers Institutional Memberships. These are different from the Read & Publish agreements common with Springer Nature or Elsevier:

Frontiers Institutional Memberships:

• Partner institutions receive 5-15% discounts on APCs
• The discount is applied automatically when the corresponding author's institutional email is recognized
• The institution pays an annual membership fee in exchange for the discount
• Over 100 institutions participate globally

Library consortium agreements:

• Some national consortia have negotiated additional discounts
• UK institutions (Jisc) have a Frontiers agreement for discounted APCs
• Scandinavian and Dutch consortia have similar arrangements

Important difference from Springer Nature: Frontiers institutional memberships provide discounts, not full APC coverage. Your institution reduces the cost by 5-15%, but you (or your grant) still pay the remaining 85-95%. This is less generous than Springer Nature's Read & Publish deals where the institution covers the full APC.

Automatic waivers: Frontiers provides fee support for corresponding authors in low-income countries, aligned with World Bank classifications. The waiver is applied during the submission process.

Lower-middle-income country discounts: Authors from lower-middle-income countries receive partial discounts, though the exact percentage varies.

Financial hardship: Frontiers accepts hardship waiver requests, but the approval rate is widely reported to be lower than at publishers like Springer Nature or AAAS. If you're at a well-funded Western institution, a hardship waiver is unlikely.

Funder-specific arrangements: Some funders have agreements with Frontiers. Check with your grants office.

Frontiers in Immunology satisfies all major OA mandates. The CC BY license is the default and only option, which is exactly what Plan S requires. There's no license selection step to worry about.

Frontiers has a distinctive editorial model that affects the author experience:

Collaborative review: Frontiers uses an interactive review process where reviewers and authors communicate directly. This can speed up revisions but also means the review isn't blind. Reviewers' names are published alongside accepted articles.

No desk rejection (for most submissions): Frontiers has a relatively low desk rejection rate compared to selective journals. Most submissions that meet basic formatting requirements proceed to review. This is by design: Frontiers evaluates technical soundness rather than perceived impact.

Section-based organization: Frontiers in Immunology has multiple specialty sections (Antigen Presenting Cell Biology, Autoimmune and Autoinflammatory Disorders, B Cell Biology, etc.). Your paper is handled by editors in the relevant section, which means reviewer expertise tends to be well-matched.

Volume concerns: Some researchers worry that Frontiers' high volume (8,000+ articles/year in immunology alone) dilutes quality. The counter-argument is that large journals cover more subfields, and individual articles should be evaluated on their own merit. Both views have validity.

• No page charges beyond the APC
• No color figure fees
• Currency risk: The APC is priced in Swiss Francs. USD and EUR equivalents fluctuate with exchange rates. If the Swiss Franc strengthens against your currency between submission and acceptance, the effective cost increases.
• VAT applies for some European authors
• Formatting is strict: Frontiers has specific formatting templates (Word and LaTeX). If your manuscript doesn't conform, it goes back to you before entering review. This isn't a financial cost, but it's a time cost that can delay publication.

Frontiers in Immunology makes sense when:

1. Your immunology research is technically sound and you want indexed, Q1 publication
2. You prefer an interactive, transparent review process
3. Your budget can handle ~$3,400 but not $9,000-$12,000
4. Speed matters: Frontiers typically has faster turnaround than selective journals

Think carefully if:

1. Budget is tight and you'd prefer PLOS ONE ($1,695) or Journal of Immunology (~$1,500)
2. You need the prestige signal of a selective journal for career advancement
3. You're uncomfortable with non-blind review (reviewer identities are published)
4. Your institution or senior colleagues have concerns about the Frontiers model

Whatever you decide, make sure your manuscript is polished before submission. Even at journals with broad acceptance, reviewers check methodology, statistics, and figure quality. Run a free readiness scan to catch the issues that slow down review and lead to unnecessary revision cycles.