Science of The Total Environment APC and Open Access: Full Cost Breakdown for 2026

STOTEN is hybrid. This is the single most important thing to understand about its cost structure:

1. Subscription track (default): Your article is published on ScienceDirect behind the paywall. Institutional subscribers can access it. You pay $0.
2. Open access track (optional): Your article is immediately free to everyone. You pay ~$4,200.

The subscription track is the default for STOTEN, and a large share of its 15,000 annual articles are published this way. Environmental science researchers, particularly those outside Europe, frequently choose subscription-based publication because their funders don't require immediate OA.

If you don't have an OA mandate and your institution doesn't have an Elsevier agreement, the subscription track is perfectly fine. Your paper gets the same DOI, the same Scopus and Web of Science indexing, and the same editorial treatment.

STOTEN is a core Elsevier journal. This is an important distinction because it means the journal is included in Elsevier's Read & Publish (R&P) agreements. Cell Press journals, Lancet titles, and some other premium Elsevier brands are excluded from many of these deals. STOTEN is not.

Active agreements in 2026:

Because STOTEN publishes so many articles, it consumes a significant share of the APC allocation in capped agreements. Australian institutions, for example, sometimes find their Elsevier allocation exhausted by Q4 because high-volume journals like STOTEN and Journal of Cleaner Production use up the budget. If your institution has a capped deal, submit earlier in the calendar year to ensure coverage.

The US lacks a national Elsevier agreement. Coverage depends entirely on whether your specific university has negotiated a deal. Ask your library.

Elsevier's standard waiver policy applies to STOTEN:

Automatic waivers: Full fee waiver for corresponding authors in Research4Life Group A countries (low-income nations). Approximately 50% discount for Group B countries (lower-middle-income).

Hardship waivers: Available on a case-by-case basis at the time of acceptance. Elsevier evaluates these individually and states that waiver requests don't influence editorial decisions.

No society discounts. STOTEN doesn't have a sponsoring learned society, so there are no membership-based APC reductions.

Editor-initiated waivers occasionally appear for invited contributions or special issues, but these are uncommon and shouldn't be factored into budgeting.

For Plan S, remember to select CC BY (not CC BY-NC-ND) during the licensing step. Elsevier offers both, but cOAlition S funders require CC BY.

Green OA is available with a 12-month embargo. After that period, you can deposit the accepted manuscript (not the published PDF) in an institutional or subject repository. This satisfies funders that allow delayed access, like certain NSF programs.

Enormous scope. STOTEN covers the "total environment" in a literal sense: air, water, soil, biota, human health, and the interactions between them. This breadth is both a strength and a criticism. You can publish atmospheric chemistry alongside marine ecotoxicology alongside environmental epidemiology. Some researchers value this interdisciplinary reach. Others see it as too broad to represent a coherent community.

Volume and speed. Publishing 15,000 articles per year requires efficient editorial processes. STOTEN's average time from submission to first decision is roughly 4-8 weeks. Total time to online publication is typically 2-4 months. That's fast for a journal with an IF above 8.

Special issues dominate. A significant fraction of STOTEN's output appears in special issues (also called virtual special issues or themed collections). These are organized by guest editors and tied to specific topics or conferences. The quality and selectivity of special issues varies depending on the guest editorial team. Regular issue submissions go through the journal's standard editorial board.

Citation patterns. STOTEN's high total citation count makes it influential in bibliometric analyses. It's among the top 10 most-cited journals in environmental science by absolute citations. Per-article citation rates vary widely given the volume, but the journal's IF of 8.2 represents a strong average.

• No page charges beyond the optional APC
• No color figure fees. Figures publish in full color online at no cost
• VAT may apply for European authors (15-25% on top of the APC)
• Green OA embargo is 12 months. You can post the accepted manuscript (not the final published version) on repositories or preprint servers after this period
• Data sharing is encouraged but not strictly mandated. Supplementary data can be hosted on ScienceDirect or deposited in Mendeley Data
• LaTeX submissions are accepted but the journal prefers Word. If you submit in LaTeX, expect a formatting request during production

STOTEN makes sense when:

1. Your environmental research spans multiple media or disciplines and fits the "total environment" scope
2. You need fast turnaround on a well-indexed, Q1 publication
3. Your institution has an Elsevier R&P agreement that covers the APC
4. Your funder requires OA, and you want a journal where institutional coverage is likely

Think carefully if:

1. Your work is specifically about water systems (Water Research may be a better fit with a higher IF)
2. You're targeting the most selective environmental journal possible (ES&T is more prestigious)
3. You're paying the APC out of pocket and budget is tight (Chemosphere is slightly cheaper for comparable scope)

Whatever direction you go, make sure the manuscript is ready before submission. Even high-volume journals reject papers for methodological gaps and unclear presentation. Run a free readiness scan to identify issues before reviewers do.

For a broader look at how impact factors shape journal selection, see our guide to understanding these metrics in context.