Small APC and Open Access: What Wiley Charges for Micro/Nanoscience Publication

Small is hybrid: the APC applies only if you order open access. Otherwise the article is published under the traditional closed access model, and readers access it through institutional Wiley subscriptions.

Wiley journal packages are standard at research universities worldwide. If you're at an institution with any materials science, physics, or chemistry presence, your library likely has Small access. The functional readability difference between subscription and OA is marginal for academic audiences.

The question, as always, is whether your funder requires OA. German researchers on DFG grants, UK researchers on UKRI grants, and anyone funded by a Plan S member will need the gold OA option. US researchers on NSF or DOE funding can often satisfy public access requirements through green OA (manuscript deposit) without paying the APC.

Wiley lists open access agreements with consortia and institutions in many countries. These can cover the APC for eligible corresponding authors in fully open access and hybrid journals such as Small:

Germany is the best-known example. Under the Wiley DEAL agreement, corresponding authors from eligible German institutions can publish primary research and review articles open access, and Wiley will not charge fees to authors covered by the agreement. The agreement does not apply on its own: you must be the responsible corresponding author, select your primary institution, and order open access at the point of acceptance through Wiley's workflow.

UK coverage is also broad. The Jisc agreement lets eligible corresponding authors at participating institutions publish open access in Wiley fully open access or hybrid journals at no charge, subject to available funds or article allocations at editorial acceptance. Jisc institutions have said eligible authors should choose the CC BY license where available.

US coverage is less uniform. Wiley has agreements with individual US consortia and institutions, but no single national agreement. Check your library specifically for Wiley agreement participation.

1. JIF around 11.8, placing it among the top nanoscience journals. Small ranks Q1 in nanoscience and nanotechnology, chemistry (multidisciplinary), materials science, and physics. Its JIF of ~11.8 puts it above Nanoscale (~5.2) and Nano Letters (~10), close to ACS Nano (~15), and well below Nature Nanotechnology (~37.5). For full-length nanoscience articles, Small is a legitimate top-tier venue.

2. Broad scope covering micro and nano. Small isn't limited to nanomaterials. Wiley describes the journal's scope as experimental and theoretical studies of fundamental and applied interdisciplinary research at the nano- and microscale, at the interface of materials science, chemistry, physics, engineering, medicine, and biology. This broader scope differentiates it from journals like Nano Letters (nano only) and makes it suitable for work that bridges the micro-nano divide.

3. Companion journals expand the portfolio. Small has spawned several companion titles: Small Methods (focused on experimental and computational methods, IF ~8.7), Small Structures (focused on structure-property relationships, IF ~8.9), and Small Science (more exploratory scope). If your paper doesn't quite fit Small's main journal, these companions offer adjacent venues at comparable quality levels but with lower submission competition.

Wiley's cost-reduction options are narrower for a hybrid journal such as Small:

Developing-country discounts and waivers: Wiley states that discounts and waivers apply only to fully open access journals, not to subscription journals offering hybrid open access, so they do not apply to a Small APC.

Wiley Open Access Account: If the corresponding author's institution, funder, or society has a Wiley Open Access Account (WOAA), all or part of the APC might be covered. Eligibility is based on the article's acceptance date and the organization having an active account or partnership arrangement when the order is placed. If a WOAA funding request is denied, you are required to sign a license for a subscription article before publication.

Green OA alternative: If your funder accepts it, you can self-archive your accepted manuscript after an embargo period. Wiley's standard embargo is 12 months for scientific, technical, medical, and psychology journals, and its Author Compliance Tool shows the period for an individual journal. This satisfies many public access mandates without paying the APC.

The Wiley DEAL and Jisc agreements can cover the APC for eligible European researchers, and the paper is then immediately OA. You still need to select your institution and order open access at the point of acceptance.

For US researchers, green OA through manuscript deposit is the cheapest compliance route for NIH and NSF mandates. If your institution doesn't have a Wiley agreement, the $6,380 APC is a significant budget line.

• Page, color and cover charges: Wiley's institutional agreements cannot be used to cover cover, color, or page charges, which individual journals administer separately. Small's author guidelines do not list a page or color charge; confirm with the editorial office.

• Supporting Information is hosted online with the article, and Wiley notes that it appears without editing or typesetting. Like most nanoscience journals, Small papers typically include extensive SI with characterization data.

• Wiley Authors is the submission system for new Small manuscripts; Editorial Manager is used only for submissions started before November 27, 2025. Budget time for formatting and metadata entry.

• Cover images: Small offers the option to submit a cover image for your article. Wiley asks authors to contribute to the publication costs of a cover and tells authors to contact the editorial office for details. This is optional and cosmetic.

• Companion journal cascade: If Small rejects your paper, editors may recommend a transfer to Small Methods, Small Structures, or another suitable Wiley journal. This saves time on resubmission, and the manuscript, its files, and any reviewer reports carry over.

Method note: this page was reviewed against Wiley author services pages, Small journal pages, JCR context, DEAL/Jisc coverage notes, and Manusights nano/materials submission-screening patterns. We checked the APC and open-access choice separately from journal fit because cost, access route, and citation metrics do not change the manuscript evidence an editor sees.

In our audit of the 16 metric reports our team reviewed, the specific risk pattern was treating a fee, JIF, or unofficial rate as the submission decision. The editorial triage pattern is stricter in practice: editors actually screen for scope, evidence strength, and audience fit before cost or citation metrics matter.

Use this year-over-year checklist before citing numbers from Small in a grant, CV, or submission memo. It is a verification aid, not a claim that every older value is stable.

Do not use one number as the whole Small decision. Check CiteScore, SJR, H-index, article type, publication volume, and the journal's real audience before treating the fee, acceptance rate, or JIF as decisive.

In our review work, the common mistake is using a metric to justify a weak fit. A stronger submission decision asks whether the manuscript would still look native to the journal if the headline number disappeared.

Worth paying if:

• Your funder mandates open access (check Plan S / cOAlition S requirements)

• An institutional Read & Publish agreement covers the fee

• Open access visibility meaningfully benefits your research area

• The APC fits within your grant budget

Consider alternatives if:

• The APC is a personal out-of-pocket expense

• A subscription option or green OA (preprint + embargo) satisfies your funder

• Another OA journal with a lower APC would provide similar visibility

For a manuscript-specific signal before you submit, run a Small submission readiness check.

Or see example reports before you finalize.

For eligible corresponding authors at German or UK institutions, the DEAL and Jisc agreements can cover the Small APC (subject to eligibility and, for Jisc, available funds), which can remove the open access cost.

For researchers without Wiley agreements, the $6,380 APC is at the high end of nanoscience journal pricing. It's justified by the JIF of ~11.8, but if cost is a primary concern, Nanoscale at less than half the price is worth considering.

The length flexibility is a genuine advantage. Small sets no hard length cap for Research Articles, so you don't need to choose between brevity and completeness.

For a broader view of nanoscience publishing costs, see our Nano Letters APC guide. For information about Wiley publishing across other journals, visit the Wiley Open Access page.

Before submitting to Small, make sure your manuscript clearly communicates the novelty and significance of your micro/nanoscience findings. Small's editors evaluate both technical quality and impact. Small submission readiness check to identify gaps in your argument, missing characterization data, or structural weaknesses that could trigger a desk rejection.