Article Processing Charges (APCs)

Optica Publishing Group's open access journals are freely and widely available to all readers via our platform. In lieu of paid subscriptions, authors or their institutions pay an Article Processing Charge (APC) after their paper has been accepted for publication. There are no submission charges for Optica Publishing Group Journals. Articles are held for publication until payment of the APC is received. Please view the final PDF of the article in Prism prior to making payment, because corrections will not be made once the article is published.

Please refer to the FAQ if you have questions regarding the payment of the APCs.

Optica Publishing Group has agreements with various institutions to cover open access APCs for their authors. Find out if your institution will cover your APC here.

View 2023 Article Processing Charges (APCs)

In some cases, copyediting may be a requirement for manuscript acceptance. We provide copyediting service to Express Journal authors. Contact journal staff for details and fees.

Discounts, Waivers, and Grants

Optics Continuum offers APC waivers or a 30% discount to corresponding authors from qualifying low- and middle-income countries. The corresponding author must have an accurate mailing address in our database in order for the system to apply the waiver or discount.

Biomedical Optics Express, Optica, Optica Quantum, Optical Materials Express, Optics Express and Photonics Research waive APCs for corresponding authors from qualifying low-income countries and also in Ukraine (through the end of 2024). The corresponding author must have an accurate mailing address in our database in order for the system to apply the waiver.

Amplify Publishing Grant
Publication charges can be a barrier to the participation of underrepresented communities in STEM journals. Reducing such barriers may improve diversity and address inequalities in existing societal and academic systems. This grant is designed to reduce a paywall barrier by providing a one-time opportunity for authors who self-identify as Black to benefit from publication in an Optica Publishing Group Open Access journal.

Learn More >> Find out more about eligibility and apply for the grant when you submit a paper to one of Optica Publishing Group's Open Access journals (Biomedical Optics Express, Optica, Optica Quantum, Optical Materials Express, Optics Continuum, or Optics Express).

APC Refunds

We will offer a refund of an APC within 30 days of publication if a publisher error results in the article appearing under a different license from that selected by the authors. APCs will not be refunded due to the retraction or correction of an article owing to author error or misconduct.

Other Publication Charges

There are no charges for publication in Advances in Optics and Photonics.

Overlength Fees

Optics Letters articles are limited to four printed pages; thus authors do not incur an overlength charge.

To estimate the length of your AO, JOSA, or JOCN paper, use the appropriate manuscript template. Eligible JOSA authors may apply for an S. R. Seshadri JOSA Publications Grant to assist with mandatory publication charges.

Color Charges

Color art may be included at no charge in the online versions of Optica Publishing Group journals. In addition, color art may be printed in Applied Optics, JOSA A, JOSA B and Optics Letters; however, it is necessary that the author's institution or funding agency defray the cost of color printing. See the table above for the current charges.

Voluntary Page Charges (AO, JOSA A, JOSA B, OL)

Voluntary page-charge contributions help defray the cost of editorial preparation and composition. These charges assist us in maintaining comparatively low subscription rates for our members and libraries, thus maximizing the dissemination of research results. Payment is neither an obligation nor a prerequisite for publication. In general, publication charges are regarded as an essential part of research budgets, since publication is the final process in a research project. As such, we ask authors to consider making voluntary contributions ($125 per page) in partial support of their research and to offset fundamental costs attached to its publication.

Optional Open Access

We offer authors the option to pay for their articles to be Open Access in Applied Optics, JOSA A, JOSA B, Optics Letters, or JOCN. The fee for optional open access is $2,125 per article. Optional Open Access with a CC-BY license is $2,375 per article (eligible for certain papers). Open Access papers will be flagged as such in the journal issue table of contents and in the results of Optica Publishing Group searches.