Nature Communications APC and Open Access: $7,350 for Gold OA in the World's Largest Multidisciplinary Journal

This distinction is critical and gets confused constantly:

• Nature is hybrid. OA is optional ($12,850). Default publication is free.
• Nature Communications is gold OA. Every paper requires the $7,350 APC. No exceptions.
• Nature Reviews titles are subscription-only. No OA option at all.
• Nature portfolio specialty journals (Nature Immunology, Nature Genetics, etc.) are hybrid. OA is optional (~$11,390).

Nature Communications was launched in 2010 and converted to fully gold OA in 2016. Before the conversion, it was a hybrid journal. Since 2016, there's been no subscription track. Every paper is open access from publication, licensed under CC BY.

The journal publishes approximately 7,000 articles per year, making it one of the largest journals in the world by article volume. It covers all natural sciences, engineering, and clinical research. The acceptance rate is roughly 8-10%, which is selective by broad-scope standards but much less restrictive than Nature itself (which accepts less than 5%).

Nature Communications' 2024 impact factor is 15.7. That's strong, but it's a third of Nature's (57.3) and well below the specialty Nature titles (most are 20-50). The journal occupies a specific niche: papers that are scientifically sound and interesting to a specialist audience but don't have the broad, field-changing significance that Nature requires.

Here's where Nature Communications' cost structure differs from hybrid Nature titles. Read & Publish agreements, which cover APCs at over 1,000 institutions for hybrid Springer Nature journals, typically do not cover Nature Communications. Why? Because Read & Publish deals are designed for hybrid journals, bundling subscription access (read) with APC coverage (publish). Since Nature Communications is already fully OA, there's no subscription to bundle.

Some institutions have separate OA funds or block grants from funders (like Wellcome or UKRI) that cover gold OA APCs. These can apply to Nature Communications. Check with your library or grants office.

The practical result: Nature Communications authors are more likely to pay out of pocket (or from grant funds) than authors at hybrid Nature titles where Read & Publish agreements absorb the cost. This is one of the hidden trade-offs of the gold OA model.

Springer Nature's waiver system applies to Nature Communications:

Automatic waivers:

• Full APC waiver for corresponding authors from Research4Life Group A countries (low-income nations per World Bank classification).
• 50% discount for authors from Group B countries (lower-middle-income).

Case-by-case waivers:

• Available for authors who face genuine financial hardship.
• Requests are submitted during the production process.
• Springer Nature states that waiver requests do not influence editorial decisions. Editors don't see the application.
• Approval is not guaranteed.

No membership or volume discounts:

• There are no society membership discounts for Nature Communications APCs.
• Publishing multiple articles doesn't reduce the per-article cost.

Springer Nature's waiver system is among the most transparent in publishing. The Research4Life country lists are publicly available, and the automatic waiver/discount is applied without requiring a separate application. This is a clearer process than Elsevier's GPOA or Wiley's systems.

Compliance is automatic. Every Nature Communications article is published under CC BY and deposited in PMC. There's no embargo, no licensing choice to make, and no risk of selecting the wrong option. This is the simplest funder compliance story in academic publishing.

The trade-off for this simplicity: you can't avoid the $7,350 APC by choosing a subscription track. With a hybrid journal like Nature, you can publish for free via subscription and deposit in PMC after an embargo. With Nature Communications, you always pay.

The honest answer: the Nature brand and the audience it reaches. Nature Communications articles get significant download numbers (many papers exceed 10,000 downloads in their first year), strong media attention, and high citation rates. The journal's Altmetric scores tend to be higher than competitors, partly because the "Nature" name draws attention from science journalists and social media.

The editorial process is also a selling point. Nature Communications uses professional editors (not academic editors), which means faster and more consistent decision-making. First decisions typically come within 3-5 weeks. The review process is single-blind by default, with transparent peer review as an option (where referee reports are published alongside the article).

The journal has a transparent peer review option that roughly 30% of authors choose. Published referee reports increase trust in the findings and can drive additional citations.

Nature Communications also benefits from Springer Nature's production quality. Copyediting, typesetting, and figure formatting are handled professionally. The production timeline from acceptance to publication is typically 3-4 weeks, which is faster than many journals.

The APC is the only journal-imposed fee. No page charges, no color figure fees, no submission fee. But these costs exist:

• No escape from the APC: Unlike hybrid journals, there's no free subscription track. If your paper is accepted, you owe $7,350. Budget for this before submitting, not after acceptance.
• Currency fluctuation: If paying in EUR or GBP, exchange rates affect your cost relative to grant budgets denominated in other currencies.
• Institutional markup: Some university finance offices add administrative surcharges (1-5%) when processing APC payments through institutional accounts.
• Data sharing costs: Nature Communications has strong data availability requirements. Large datasets must be deposited in appropriate repositories. Most repositories are free, but very large datasets (genomics, imaging) may incur storage fees.
• Source data requirements: The journal increasingly requires source data files for all figures. Preparing these files takes time, especially for papers with extensive quantitative data.

Nature Communications' cost calculation is simpler than most journals because there's only one option: pay $7,350 or don't submit.

1. Grant budget includes publication costs? Nature Communications is a reasonable use of those funds. The brand recognition and citation impact justify the price for many fields.
2. Institutional OA fund available? Check with your library. Many institutions maintain central funds for gold OA APCs. Nature Communications is a common recipient.
3. Funder covers APCs? Wellcome, UKRI, ERC, and many other funders provide OA funding. Nature Communications' CC BY default satisfies all of them.
4. No funding for APCs? Consider PNAS ($2,890 hybrid, free via subscription), eLife (free), or Science Advances ($5,000). These are legitimate alternatives with lower costs.
5. Low-income country? Apply the automatic Research4Life waiver. Springer Nature's system is straightforward.

Don't submit to Nature Communications assuming you'll figure out the APC later. Budget $7,350 before you write the cover letter. The worst position is having an accepted paper you can't afford to publish.

Before submitting, make sure your manuscript meets Nature Communications' standards. The journal is looking for technically sound work that advances understanding in a specific field. It doesn't need to be Nature-level significance, but it does need to be more than incremental. Run a free readiness scan to evaluate your paper before it reaches the editors. For a comparison with the flagship, see our Nature APC breakdown.