Nature Medicine APC and Open Access: Current Nature Portfolio Pricing and When the Fee Makes Sense
Nature Medicine charges $12,850 for open access. Current pricing, institutional coverage, and waiver support.
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Nature Medicine publishing costs and open access options
APC is one cost. Funder mandates, institutional agreements, and access route timing all shape what you actually pay.
What shapes what you pay
- Gold OA at Nature Medicine costs ~$11,690 USD. Check whether your institution has a read-and-publish agreement that waives this.
- Funder mandates (NIH, Wellcome, UKRI) may require immediate OA — verify compliance before choosing a subscription route.
- Accepted authors typically have 48-72 hours to choose their access route before proofs begin.
When OA is worth the cost
- When your funder or institution requires it — non-compliance can affect future funding.
- When your topic benefits from broad immediate access beyond institutional subscribers.
- Nature Medicine's IF 50.0 means OA papers here have real citation upside.
Quick answer: Nature Medicine currently lists a gold open-access APC of $12,850, EUR 10,850, or GBP 9,390. It remains a hybrid journal, so standard publication still costs $0. The fee is substantial, but authors should read it alongside the journal's live operating profile: 50.0 impact factor, 3 days median first editorial decision, and 193 days median acceptance. For the hub, see the Nature Medicine journal page.
Nature Medicine APC at a glance
Item | Current position |
|---|---|
Journal model | Hybrid |
Current APC | $12,850 / EUR 10,850 / GBP 9,390 |
Subscription route | $0 |
OA eligibility | Primary research articles |
Institutional agreement coverage | Often available |
Low-income country support | Yes |
2024 impact factor | 50.0 |
5-year impact factor | 52.4 |
SJR | 18.333 |
CiteScore | 71.2 |
SNIP | 8.707 |
Median first editorial decision | 3 days |
Median acceptance | 193 days |
2025 downloads | 25,697,615 |
If you need to know whether the manuscript is truly competitive for Nature Medicine before you worry about the APC, run a Nature Medicine submission readiness check. If the real question is whether the journal is likely to stop the paper at editorial triage, use the Nature Medicine desk-rejection risk check.
What Nature Portfolio currently says
The current Nature Medicine publishing-options page sets the fee clearly:
- $12,850 / EUR 10,850 / GBP 9,390
- gold-OA route for primary research articles
- standard hybrid publication still available
The current metrics page adds the live journal profile:
- 50.0 impact factor
- 52.4 five-year impact factor
- 3 days median first editorial decision
- 193 days median acceptance
- 25,697,615 downloads in 2025
The funding and portfolio OA pages add the support layer:
- some institutions can cover the APC through Nature Portfolio agreements
- qualifying lower-income-country authors can receive support
- the currently stated portfolio-wide support framework is described through the end of 2026
Why this APC only matters for a narrow slice of papers
Nature Medicine is one of the most selective translational-medicine journals in the world.
That means the APC discussion is relevant only after three harder questions are answered:
- is the paper genuinely Nature Medicine caliber?
- is it an eligible primary research article?
- does immediate open access solve a real need?
Until those are true, the APC is not the central problem.
Metrics context behind the APC
Metric | Current figure | Why it matters with the APC |
|---|---|---|
Impact Factor | 50.0 | The journal remains in the top medical-journal tier |
5-year JIF | 52.4 | Long-run influence is also exceptionally strong |
SJR | 18.333 | Prestige-weighted authority is elite |
CiteScore | 71.2 | The broader citation signal is extremely strong |
SNIP | 8.707 | Field-normalized influence remains rarefied |
Median first editorial decision | 3 days | Early scope judgments happen very fast |
Median acceptance | 193 days | Authors need funding clarity before late-stage acceptance |
2025 downloads | 25.7M | Immediate OA can amplify already-massive visibility |
These are the metrics of a journal where the fee attaches to high selectivity and broad medical consequence, not just brand pricing.
Long-run impact factor trend
Year | Impact factor |
|---|---|
2017 | 32.6 |
2018 | 30.6 |
2019 | 36.1 |
2020 | 53.4 |
2021 | 87.2 |
2022 | 82.9 |
2023 | 58.7 |
2024 | 50.0 |
The year-over-year move is negative. Nature Medicine is down from 58.7 in 2023 to 50.0 in 2024. That is still extraordinary performance. It simply reinforces that authors should use the APC strategically, not reflexively.
Readiness check
Run the scan while the topic is in front of you.
See score, top issues, and journal-fit signals before you submit.
Agreement coverage, waivers, and what authors actually pay
The practical cost sequence is:
- start from the public sticker price of $12,850
- check institutional agreement coverage first
- then funder support
- then lower-income-country eligibility
Because the sticker price is so high, the difference between "listed APC" and "actual paid amount" is one of the most important parts of the decision.
For some authors the fee is effectively handled by institutional agreements. For others it is a real five-figure line item.
How Nature Medicine compares with nearby options
Journal | APC structure | Metric profile | Practical fit |
|---|---|---|---|
Nature Medicine | Hybrid, $12,850 listed APC | IF 50.0, SJR 18.333 | Flagship translational and clinical biomedicine |
Premium hybrid model | Higher general-medical prestige | Better for the most practice-changing clinical work | |
Premium hybrid model | Higher broad-medical prestige | Better for globally consequential medicine and policy stories | |
Premium hybrid APC band | Stronger basic-science framing | Better for deeper mechanism-led discovery with less direct clinical posture | |
Premium hybrid OA lane | Strong translational profile | Better for translational work that is less general-medical than Nature Medicine |
The comparison that matters most is strategic:
- Nature Medicine if the manuscript truly sits at the clinical-translation frontier
- another venue if the work is strong but not broad enough for Nature Medicine's editorial bar
What we see in pre-submission review work with Nature Medicine manuscripts
In our pre-submission review work, the APC almost never determines the right decision.
Most misses are scope misses. Good papers fail because the manuscript does not read as broadly consequential enough for Nature Medicine.
Fast editorial triage changes the sequence. A 3-day median first editorial decision means the journal often decides very early whether the story belongs.
The access case needs to be explicit. Because the journal still has a free hybrid route, authors should pay only when immediate availability matters in a concrete way.
That makes the best sequence:
- confirm journal-level competitiveness
- confirm article-type eligibility
- then choose the access model
Submit if / Think twice if
Submit and consider the APC worthwhile if:
- the manuscript is clearly Nature Medicine caliber
- the work has strong translational or clinical consequence
- immediate OA matters for funder, policy, or broad medical dissemination reasons
- institutional or funder support can cover most or all of the APC
Think twice if:
- the paper is strong but narrower than Nature Medicine's broad editorial lane
- the APC would be paid from thin discretionary funds
- there is no immediate OA requirement
- the manuscript is not yet positioned well enough to survive a fast editorial screen
Practical verdict
Nature Medicine's current listed APC is $12,850, but the right decision still starts with editorial fit.
If the paper is truly competitive, and immediate open access matters, the fee can make sense. If not, the problem to solve is targeting and positioning, not APC budgeting.
Frequently asked questions
Nature Medicine currently lists gold open-access pricing at $12,850, EUR 10,850, or GBP 9,390. Authors pay that only if they choose the gold open-access route for an eligible primary research article.
Yes. Nature Medicine is a hybrid journal, so the standard subscription route remains available at no APC. The listed fee applies only if authors choose immediate gold open access.
Often yes. Nature Medicine sits inside Nature Portfolio's institutional open-access agreement framework, so some authors can publish open access with the APC covered by their institution rather than paying directly.
Yes. Nature Portfolio says corresponding authors from qualifying low-income and lower-middle-income countries can receive full or partial support, and the current portfolio-wide support framework is described through the end of 2026.
It is easiest to justify when the manuscript is a true Nature Medicine-level translational or clinical paper, immediate open access has strategic value, and institutional or funder coverage can absorb most or all of the APC.
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