JAMA APC and Open Access: Two Journals, One Fee, and How to Get Coverage

The JAMA flagship is not a hybrid journal. JAMA's own answer to "Does JAMA have an open access option?" is that it does not offer the option to publish an article under an open access license. Your routes are:

1. Subscription track (the only track, $0): Your article appears behind the JAMA paywall at first. After 6 months, JAMA makes research articles free to read on its website, and they are available in PubMed Central.

1. Accepted-manuscript deposit ($0): Authors of research articles can deposit the accepted version (the peer-reviewed manuscript) in a public repository of their choice on the date of acceptance, provided it is not made publicly available until the date of publication and links to the final published version. The published version of record cannot be deposited.

The 6-month delay matters. If immediate public access matters to you or your funder, the flagship has no open access route, but the accepted-manuscript deposit can become public on the date of publication.

That said, JAMA's reach is large. JAMA reports more than 80,000 recipients of the print journal and more than 3.1 million recipients of its electronic tables of contents and alerts. Your article will be read by clinicians who need it, paywall or not.

If you want guaranteed open access without the hybrid complexity, JAMA Network Open is worth considering. Launched in 2018, it's now one of the largest gold OA medical journals:

• APC: Authors are expected to coordinate payment of the APC for every research article accepted; see the JAMA Network access page for the current amount

• Model: Fully gold OA (every article is free from day one)

• License: Most authors receive CC-BY-NC-ND; CC-BY is available only for research funded by a not-for-profit foundation or agency that requires CC-BY

• JIF: 65.4

• Acceptance rate: 12%

• Scope: All areas of medicine, public health, and health policy

JAMA Network Open publishes over 2,000 articles per year and has built a strong reputation fast. For researchers who need immediate open access and whose funder requires it, it's a legitimate alternative to the flagship, which has no open access option. The trade-off is prestige and JIF, not rigor. If the APC question is settled but the journal-fit question is not, use the JAMA Network Open submission guide before choosing the open-access route.

JAMA Network says some institutions have special billing agreements (also called transformative agreements or open access agreements) that support open access publication. During submission you will get a message if your institution has already paid the APC.

These agreements apply to journals with an open access option, so they do not change anything for the flagship, which has none. Before choosing OA at a JAMA Network journal, contact your library's scholarly communications team and ask specifically about AMA journal coverage.

One detail that trips people up: an Elsevier or Springer Nature agreement at your institution tells you nothing about JAMA. The AMA is an independent publisher. You need an AMA-specific deal.

JAMA Network's waiver policy depends on the journal:

Geographic waivers and discounts:

• Waivers are offered based on the country of residence of the corresponding author.

• Waivers and discounts are available for authors from a core list of developing-world countries defined by the WHO as part of its Research4Life program; the list is updated yearly.

Hardship requests:

• JAMA Network Open and JAMA Health Forum may grant a very limited number of APC reductions and waivers to authors whose research is not funded and for whom funds are not available from institutions, departments, coauthors, or elsewhere.

• Requests go to the editorial office, not the decision-making editor, during the revision stage.

• JAMA Network specialty journals offer no discounts; if an author cannot pay the APC, the article may be published under the JAMA Network's standard Publishing Agreement, which requires transfer of copyright.

For researchers at well-funded institutions in high-income countries, the expectation is that your grant or institutional agreement covers the cost. The waiver system is designed for authors who genuinely lack funding, not for labs that prefer not to spend grant money on APCs.

JAMA does not state compliance with specific funder policies (Plan S, NIH, UKRI, ERC, Wellcome Trust, HHMI) on its author pages. What it does state:

The most cost-effective route for the JAMA flagship is to publish via subscription (free) and deposit the accepted manuscript in a public repository. Whether that satisfies your funder is the funder's call, so check its policy against the terms above.

If your funder requires immediate open access with a CC-BY license, the flagship cannot meet that requirement. A JAMA Network journal with an open access option, such as JAMA Network Open, may, subject to JAMA Network's rule on when CC-BY is available.

Select the right license during the production process, because changing it post-publication is difficult and not guaranteed.

JAMA's brand extends across the JAMA Network's 13 journals, including the specialty titles below. They offer open access for research articles for an APC; see the JAMA Network access page for the current amount:

The specialty journals are strong in their own right. JAMA Internal Medicine JIF 26.3 and JAMA Oncology JIF 23.9 are among the top journals in their fields. If your paper doesn't fit the flagship's generalist scope, one of these may be a better target.

JAMA states that it publishes research without any author fees. For the JAMA Network journals that offer open access, the APC (if you choose OA) is the cost to budget for. But watch for these:

• Public access timing vs. funder deadlines: The flagship's research articles are free to read 6 months after publication (12 months for the specialty journals if you decline open access). If your funder wants immediate access, check whether the accepted-manuscript deposit, which can be public on the publication date, meets its policy.

• License selection errors: CC-BY is available only for research funded by a not-for-profit foundation or agency that requires it. Otherwise only CC-BY-NC-ND is available, so confirm which license your funder requires before choosing OA.

• JAMA Network Open is always paid: There's no subscription track. If your paper is accepted at JAMA Network Open, you are expected to coordinate payment of the APC. Factor this into your submission strategy.

• Reprints: Reprints and e-prints may be ordered online when the edited manuscript is sent to the corresponding author for approval. Most researchers don't need them, but some departments still request them for tenure files.

JAMA's cost structure is actually simpler than it looks:

1. Funder requires immediate OA? The flagship has no open access option. Target JAMA Network Open if your work fits, where an APC applies.

1. NIH-funded, no immediate OA mandate? Publish via subscription (free). The journal deposits research articles in PubMed Central, public 6 months after publication, and you can deposit the accepted manuscript in a public repository.

1. Institution has a JAMA Network billing agreement? It applies to journals with an open access option; you will see a message during submission if your institution has already paid the APC.

1. No funder mandate, no institutional deal? Publish via subscription. The flagship charges no author fees.

The harder question is whether your manuscript fits JAMA's editorial scope. JAMA prioritizes clinical research that affects general medical practice, major public health studies, and health policy with broad implications. JAMA states that it accepts 10% of its submissions and 4% of its research manuscripts.

If you're targeting the JAMA flagship or any JAMA specialty journal, check your manuscript's fit before submitting. JAMA submission readiness check to catch the structural and framing issues that lead to desk rejection at this level. You can also learn more about how APC costs compare across publishers to make sure you're choosing the right journal for your budget and your science.

For the latest APC amounts and institutional agreements, check the JAMA Network access resources page.