50 No-APC Scopus Journals for 2026 by Field

Article processing charges (APCs) stand among the largest obstacles to getting published. Numerous prominent open access journals ask thousands of US dollars for each article, which is beyond the means of most PhD scholars, early-career researchers and authors with no grant. Even so, many genuine, peer-reviewed, Scopus-indexed journals ask authors for nothing whatsoever. Budget limits should shape where you submit, but they should never push you toward unverified journals.

Treat the list as a place to begin your own checking and not as a recommendation. JMVRA has no connection to these journals, and their names are shown as plain text only. Because fees, indexing and policies change, always verify with the official source.

Defining Free-to-Publish (Diamond) Journals

A free-to-publish journal, frequently termed diamond or platinum open access, bills neither authors nor readers. Whoever runs the journal pays for editing, handling of reviews, production and hosting. Many are society or university journals with a long history, and a few are national flagship titles in their subject and language.

To compare open access routes in more depth, see gold vs green vs diamond open access.

Publishing Models Compared

Who Funds Them

• Universities — presses and faculties finance journals as part of their academic mission.
• National research councils and agencies — among them, in this list, are bodies from Spain, India, Turkey, Argentina and the Philippines.
• Learned and professional societies — societies in medicine, mathematics, chemistry and other fields publish journals to serve their disciplines.
• Academies of science — such as the multidisciplinary journals of national academies.
• Foundations and consortia — grants and shared arrangements like subscribe-to-open.

The Way This List Was Compiled

The 50 journals that follow were taken from a list reported as zero-APC and Scopus-indexed as of March 2026. We rearranged them into broad fields and put each group in alphabetical order. For every journal we give the field, the publisher or funder, the ISSN as listed and the indexing as reported. Quartiles are left out because a journal’s quartile varies with subject category and year, so consult SCImago for your own category.

The List: 50 Scopus Journals Free to Publish In, Arranged by Field

Choose a section below, starting with Multidisciplinary or Arts and Humanities, then Social Sciences, Life, Earth and Agricultural Sciences, Mathematics and Chemistry, Engineering and Computer Science and Medicine and Health Sciences.

Medicine and Health Sciences (11)

Engineering and Computer Science (10)

Mathematics and Chemistry (4)

Life, Earth and Agricultural Sciences (9)

Social Sciences (2)

Arts and Humanities (10)

Multidisciplinary (4)

Status as reported in March 2026. The journals are named in plain text for reference only; JMVRA neither links to nor endorses outside journals. Always verify fees in each journal’s latest author guidelines, and indexing in the official database.

Highlights by Field

Health and medical sciences

The largest group includes a number of Indian medical society journals brought out by Wolters Kluwer Medknow (covering anaesthesiology, dermatology, psychiatry and general medicine) plus one big general medical journal. Authors in medicine should also look up MEDLINE status in the NLM Catalog when their rules require it — see our database checking guide. Remember that an entry reflects the day it was last updated.

Computer science and engineering

Fewer free choices exist in this area, yet they cover a widely cited machine learning journal run by its community and several engineering journals from universities and national agencies in Croatia, Spain, Serbia, Turkey, Germany, Poland and India.

Mathematics and chemistry

Societies and agencies are the main publishers here, among them a Swiss mathematical journal of long standing that follows an open model, and national chemistry journals from Croatia and Colombia.

Life sciences, earth sciences and agriculture

Agriculture, animal science, food science, geography, geology and botany all have free journals, issued by national research councils, geological surveys, universities and dairy and farming organisations.

Arts, humanities and social sciences

A number of humanities journals are free to publish, coming from Spain’s national research council, institutions in Slovenia, Italy and Poland, and international societies; an area-studies journal supported by a German research institute is also included.

Multidisciplinary

Broad-scope journals that suit interdisciplinary work are published by the national science academies of Brazil, Malaysia and South Africa and by the Philippines’ department of science.

How to Check Before You Submit

1. Fees: look in the journal’s latest author guidelines for “no APC” or “no publication charges”, as well as any optional or additional charges.
2. Scopus: enter the ISSN on the Scopus Sources page; the journal’s coverage should be active and run through the current year.
3. DOAJ: for an open access journal, look up its entry on DOAJ to see whether fees are charged and whether the listed website is the same.
4. Identity: match the ISSN, title and publisher against the ISSN Portal — well-known free journals often get cloned websites.
5. Fit: go through recent issues to be sure your subject, method and language of writing are right for the journal.

Read how to recognise a fake cloned journal.

Ways to Discover More Free Journals

• DOAJ: browse by subject, apply the “without fees” filter, and then verify Scopus coverage for every result.
• SCImago: narrow your subject category to open access journals, then review each journal’s fee policy.
• Scopus Source List: get the list from Elsevier, keep the open access titles in your area and check the fee policy of each.
• Your library: librarians are often aware of free options and of agreements that pay APCs at paid journals.
• Your field’s societies: numerous society journals charge nothing to members, or to any author.

To build a shortlist, use the JMVRA Journal Finder along with our journal selection guide.

No APC, APC Waiver and Low APC Compared

Extra Costs Worth Asking About

Even a journal with no APC may have other costs, for example page charges on long papers, colour charges for figures in print, or optional language editing. None of these may ever be presented as mandatory for acceptance. Read the whole set of author guidelines, and write to the editorial office if anything is unclear. Keep any reply you receive, since it settles misunderstandings later.

Advice for Publishing in Free Journals

1. Keep your standards high. Free journals run real peer review, and many are selective.
2. Expect review times to differ. Certain free journals depend on volunteer editors; look at any timelines the journal gives and set your deadlines to match.
3. Be exact about scope. Numerous free journals are specialised or regional; study the aims and scope along with recent issues.
4. Look at the language. Alongside English, some accept Spanish, Portuguese, Croatian or other languages.
5. Check indexing when you submit and once more at publication. Coverage may change.
6. Save proof of the fee policy and indexing in your paper’s file.

Points for Indian Researchers

• The medicine group includes journals issued for Indian medical societies, and CSIR-NIScPR publishes one of the engineering journals.
• Where your institution asks for Scopus or Web of Science, check the present record in the database itself, not an old UGC-CARE label; see our UGC CARE 2026 guide.
• Staff at eligible government institutions may be able to read many subscription journals via ONOS as well; see our ONOS guide.

How JMVRA Fits In

JMVRA does not publish free of charge and is not indexed in Scopus, so it does not belong on this list. It is an open access, low-cost option for papers where a genuine peer-reviewed journal satisfies your requirement and Scopus indexing is not needed.

Checklist for Free Journals

1. No APC verifiedStated in the latest author guidelines
2. Scopus activeCoverage on the Sources page extends to this year
3. DOAJ recordFees and website agree, for open access journals
4. IdentityISSN, title and publisher confirmed
5. Scope fitLatest issues read
6. Extras knownPage, colour and other charges verified

Practical Tips for Using Lists of No-Charge Journals

Published lists are useful starting points but can become outdated quickly. Treat them as leads to investigate, and use these steps before sending a manuscript to any journal you find.

• Confirm status on the journal's own site. Policies change, and a journal that waived charges earlier may have altered its model. Read the current fee page directly rather than relying on a third-party summary.
• Match scope before anything else. A no-charge journal is of little use if your topic falls outside its aims. Read the scope statement and sample abstracts to be sure your paper truly belongs.
• Note the sponsor and sustainability. Find out which society, university or fund supports the journal. Stable backing suggests the journal will remain available and keep its promises to authors.
• Verify indexing yourself. Search the relevant database directly for the journal title and ISSN, and compare what you see with the list. Do not rely only on a claim printed on a website.
• Keep your own comparison table. Record scope, review type, licence and contact for each candidate. A simple table makes it easier to choose calmly and to move to a second option if needed.

Use any list as a starting point, then confirm scope, funding and indexing yourself on primary sources.

Questions Researchers Often Ask

In Summary

Getting into a Scopus-indexed journal need not cost thousands of dollars. Diamond open access journals, run by universities, societies, academies and research councils, are found in almost every discipline, and the 50 listed here give a practical place to start.

Treat the list as the start of your search, not the finish: confirm fee policy, indexing and identity from official sources, read recent issues to judge fit, and keep a record of your checks.

References and Sources

• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
• Scopus Sources page
• SCImago Journal & Country Rank
• ISSN Portal