SCI and Scopus Indexed Journals Offering APC Waivers (2025)

An APC Waiver allows an author to publish in an open-access journal without paying the standard publication fee.

This blog post aims to list quality research journals that offers full APC waivers. Authors don’t have to pay any fee for open access publication.

We always recommend our readers to publish in peer-reviewed journals indexed in Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, or other reputable databases.

Open Access publishing in these journals can be expensive. However, several journals offer APC waivers either fully or partially. In this post, we list some high-quality journals that offer APC waivers and discuss their ranking with other details.

List of Top Open Access Journals with APC Waiver

S. No.	Journal Title	Publisher	Indexing	Broad Publication Area	APC Details
1	Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering	Chinese Academy of Sciences	Scopus, Web of Science (SCIE), DOAJ	Earth and Planetary Sciences	This journal is a peer reviewed, subsidized open access journal where Chinese Academy of Sciences pays the OA fee. Authors do not have to pay any open access publication fee.
2	Journal of Remote Sensing	American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)	Web of Science (ESCI), DOAJ	Geography. Anthropology. Recreation: Environmental sciences \| Geography. Anthropology. Recreation: Physical geography	APCs will be covered by Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
3	Energy Material Advances	American Association for the Advancement of Science	Web of Science (ESCI), DOAJ, Scopus	Energy; Materials Science	All APCs are paid by Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT).
4	Living Reviews in Solar Physics	Springer	Scopus, Web of Science (SCIE), DOAJ	Earth and Planetary Sciences; Physics and Astronomy
5	Big Data Mining and Analytics	Tsinghua University Press	Web of Science (ESCI), DOAJ, Scopus	Computer Science	Big Data Mining and Analytics is a subsidized open access journal where TUP pays forthe publishing costs incurred by the journal. Authors do not have to pay any ArticleProcessing Charge or Open Access Publication.
6	Journal of Cotton Research	BioMed Central Ltd	Web of Science (ESCI), DOAJ, Scopus	Agricultural and Biological Sciences; Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology	The publication costs for Journal of Cotton Research are covered by the Institute of Cotton Research (ICR, CAAS) so authors do not need to pay an article-processing charge.
7	CSEE Journal of Power and Energy Systems	China Electric Power Research Institute	Scopus, Web of Science (SCIE), DOAJ	Energy; Engineering; Materials Science
8	Phytopathology Research	BioMed Central Ltd	Scopus, Web of Science (SCIE), DOAJ	Agricultural and Biological Sciences; Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology	Springer Nature will consider requests from authors in financial need on a case-by-case basis
9	Journal of Social Studies Education Research	Association for Social Studies Educa	Scopus	Association for Social Studies Education
10	International Journal of Food Design	Intellect Ltd.	DOAJ, Scopus	Agricultural and Biological Sciences; Arts and Humanities	The journal does not charge APCs or submission fees.
11	Journal of Higher Education Policy And Leadership Studies	Ali Khorsandi Taskoh	DOAJ, Scopus, ESCI	Business, Management and Accounting; Social Sciences
12	Nano-Micro Letters	Open Access Science Online	Scopus, Web of Science (SCIE), DOAJ, PubMed	Engineering; Materials Science
13	Nuclear Physics B	Elsevier	Scopus, Web of Science (SCIE), DOAJ	Physics and Astronomy	Authors do not have to pay any APC fee.
14	Arabian Journal of Mathematics	Springer	Web of Science (ESCI), DOAJ	Mathematics	no submission or publication charges
15	Asian Review of Political Economy	Springer	DOAJ	Political science: Political institutions and public administration – Asia (Asian studies only) \| Social Sciences	APC fully sponsored by Shanghai Jiao Tong University and a special fund from IIA, CUHK, Shenzhen
16	Logistics Research	Bundesvereinigung Logistik (BVL)	DOAJ, Scopus	Business, Management and Accounting; Computer Science; Decision Sciences; Engineering	Authors in this journal are not required to pay an article processing charge (APC)
17	Egyptian Journal of Forensic Sciences	Springer	Web of Science (ESCI), DOAJ, Scopus	Medicine; Social Sciences	The Egyptian Journal of Forensic Sciences is supported through an agreement between Springer Nature and the Specialized Presidential Council for Education and Scientific Research (Government of Egypt), so author-payable article-processing charges do not apply.
18	Borsa İstanbul Review	Borsa Istanbul Anonim Sirketi & Elsevier	Web of Science (SSCI), DOAJ, Scopus	Economics, Econometrics and Finance	Borsa İstanbul Review is a peer reviewed, open access journal where Borsa İstanbul Anonim Sirketi pays the OA fee.
19	Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics	Springer	DOAJ, Scopus	Economics, Econometrics and Finance; Mathematics	The publication costs forSwiss Journal of Economics and Statistics are covered by Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES)
20	Chinese Journal of Mechanical Engineering	Springer	Scopus, Web of Science (SCIE), DOAJ	Technology: Mechanical engineering and machinery	The publication costs for Chinese Journal of Mechanical Engineering are covered by the Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society
21	International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education	Springer	Web of Science (SSCI), DOAJ, Scopus	Computer Science; Social Sciences	The publication costs for International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education are covered by the journal itself
22	Satellite Navigation	Springer	Scopus, Web of Science (SCIE), DOAJ	Computer Science; Engineering	The publication costs for Satellite Navigation are covered by Aerospace Information Research
23	Series-journal Of The Spanish Economic Association	SPRINGER	Web of Science (SSCI), DOAJ, Scopus	Economics	The Asociación Española de Economía sponsors the article processing charge (APC) of some articles to be published in Open Access.