Open Access Fees and Funding
All articles published in Nature Communications are made freely and permanently available online immediately upon publication, without subscription charges or registration barriers. Further information about open access can be found here.
As authors of articles published in Nature Communications, you are the copyright holders of your article and grant to any third party, in advance and in perpetuity, the right to use, reproduce or disseminate your article.
Benefits of open access
Publishing OA offers a number of benefits, including greater reach and readership for your work:
Find out more about benefits of OA.
Article processing charges (APC)
Authors who publish in Nature Communications are required to pay an article processing charge (APC). The APC price will be determined from the date on which the article is accepted for publication.
The current APC, subject to VAT or local taxes where applicable, is: £5090.00/$6790.00/â¬5690.00
Visit our open access support portal and our Journal Pricing FAQs for further information.
Open access funding
Visit Springer Natureâs open access funding & support services for information about research funders and institutions that provide funding for APCs.
Springer Nature offers agreements that enable institutions to cover open access publishing costs. Learn more about our open access agreements to check your eligibility and discover whether this journal is included.
Springer Nature offers APC waivers and discounts for articles published in our fully open access journals whose corresponding authors are based in the worldâs lowest income countries (see our APC waivers and discounts policy for further information). Requests for APC waivers and discounts from other authors will be considered on a case-by-case basis, and may be granted in cases of financial need (see our open access policies for journals for more information). All applications for discretionary APC waivers and discounts should be made at the point of manuscript submission; requests made during the review process or after acceptance are unable to be considered.
Creative Commons licenses
OA articles in Springer Nature journals are published under Creative Commons licenses. These provide an industry-standard framework to support easy re-use of OA material. Under Creative Commons licenses, authors retain copyright of their articles.
Nature Communications articles are published open access under a CC BY-NC-ND (Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International licence) or CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence) licence.
- CC BY-NC-ND: The article can be shared for non-commercial purposes as long as the authors are credited. Permission is needed for commercial re-use or sharing adapted and derivative versions.
- CC BY: The article may be shared and adapted for any purpose, including commercially, so long as the authors are credited.
To learn more about OA licences visit our licensing and copyright guide.
In instances where authors are not allowed to retain copyright to their own article (where the author is a US Government employee for example), authors should contact the Open Research Support team before submitting their article so we can advise as to whether their non-standard copyright request can be accommodated.
Authors are advised to check their funder's requirements before selecting OA, to ensure compliance. Learn more about funder compliance.
