RSC Advances APC and Open Access: The Budget-Friendly Gold OA Chemistry Journal
RSC Advances charges ~$1,100-$1,400 for open access. One of the cheapest indexed chemistry journals. Gold OA, RSC waivers, and when it makes sense.
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Quick answer: RSC Advances charges roughly $1,100-$1,400 per article. It's fully gold open access, indexed in Web of Science and Scopus, and published by the Royal Society of Chemistry. At that price point, it's one of the cheapest ways to get an indexed, IF-bearing chemistry publication.
What RSC Advances charges
Component | Details |
|---|---|
Gold OA APC | ~$1,100-$1,400 |
License | CC BY (default) |
Submission fee | $0 |
Color figures | $0 |
Page charges | $0 |
RSC Advances is a fully gold open access journal. Every article is free to read from publication. There is no subscription track.
The APC is charged at acceptance. At ~$1,100-$1,400, it's significantly cheaper than Scientific Reports ($2,850), PLOS ONE ($1,695), and most Frontiers journals (~$3,000+). Among indexed chemistry journals with a JCR impact factor, RSC Advances is one of the most affordable options.
Where RSC Advances fits
RSC Advances occupies the accessible tier of chemistry publishing. It's not trying to compete with JACS (IF ~15) or Angewandte Chemie (IF ~16). It competes with:
Journal | APC (USD) | Model | IF (2024) | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|---|
RSC Advances | ~$1,100-$1,400 | Gold OA | ~3.9 | RSC |
ACS Omega | ~$2,000-$2,500 | Gold OA | ~4 | ACS |
ChemistrySelect | ~$1,500-$2,000 | Gold OA | ~2.1 | Wiley |
Scientific Reports | $2,850 | Gold OA | ~3.9 | Springer Nature |
$1,695 | Gold OA | ~2.6 | PLOS | |
Molecules (MDPI) | ~$2,900 | Gold OA | ~4.6 | MDPI |
RSC Advances is the cheapest option on this list with a comparable impact factor. It won't win prestige competitions, but it provides legitimate, indexed publication for work that is technically sound.
Who publishes in RSC Advances
RSC Advances publishes across all chemistry subdisciplines: organic, inorganic, physical, analytical, materials, and biochemistry. The journal's editorial philosophy prioritizes technical soundness over perceived novelty. If your experiments are well-designed, your data supports your conclusions, and your chemistry is correct, RSC Advances will likely accept it.
This makes it particularly useful for:
- Graduate students who need indexed publications for their thesis portfolio
- Labs in lower-funded countries where $1,100 is manageable but $5,000 is not
- Incremental but valid work that doesn't meet the novelty bar of JACS or Angewandte Chemie
- Interdisciplinary work that falls between traditional chemistry subfields
- Negative results or replication studies that struggle at more selective journals
The acceptance rate is relatively high (estimated 40-50%), reflecting the journal's mission to publish sound science broadly.
RSC institutional agreements
RSC Read & Publish agreements cover RSC Advances:
Region | Coverage |
|---|---|
UK (Jisc) | Full APC coverage |
Some European countries | Partial or full |
US | Limited (some individual institutions) |
If you're at a UK institution, RSC Advances APCs are likely covered. Outside the UK, check your library.
Waivers
RSC's waiver system applies to RSC Advances:
- Automatic waivers for Research4Life-eligible low-income countries
- Partial discounts for lower-middle-income countries
- RSC Fund for OA supports researchers without other funding
- Hardship requests accepted on a case-by-case basis
Given the already-low APC (~$1,100-$1,400), the waiver system makes RSC Advances accessible to researchers in virtually every economic context.
Funder mandate compliance
Funder/Policy | Compliant? |
|---|---|
Plan S (cOAlition S) | Yes (CC BY, gold OA) |
NIH | Yes (immediate OA) |
UKRI | Yes |
ERC | Yes |
NSF | Yes |
Fully compliant with every major mandate. Gold OA with CC BY is the default.
Hidden costs
- None worth mentioning. The APC is the only cost. No page charges, no color fees, no supplementary data fees.
- Currency note: RSC may quote in GBP. Exchange rate fluctuations can shift the USD equivalent by 5-10%.
The practical decision
RSC Advances is straightforward: if you have technically sound chemistry research, need an indexed publication, and want to minimize cost, this journal delivers. It won't impress a hiring committee looking for JACS publications, but it will give you a citable, searchable, DOI-bearing paper in the RSC ecosystem.
If you're deciding between RSC Advances and ACS Omega, the choice often comes down to which publisher your institution has a deal with. RSC coverage is best in the UK. ACS coverage is best in the US.
Before submitting, make sure your experimental characterization and data presentation meet chemistry standards. Even accessible journals reject papers with incomplete characterization. Run a free readiness scan to check your manuscript.
Reference library
Use the core publishing datasets alongside this guide
This article answers one part of the publishing decision. The reference library covers the recurring questions that usually come next: how selective journals are, how long review takes, and what the submission requirements look like across journals.
Dataset / reference guide
Peer Review Timelines by Journal
Reference-grade journal timeline data that authors, labs, and writing centers can cite when discussing realistic review timing.
Dataset / benchmark
Biomedical Journal Acceptance Rates
A field-organized acceptance-rate guide that works as a neutral benchmark when authors are deciding how selective to target.
Reference table
Journal Submission Specs
A high-utility submission table covering word limits, figure caps, reference limits, and formatting expectations.
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