PLOS is a non-profit organization on a mission to drive open science forward with measurable, meaningful change in research publishing, policy, and practice.

Building on a strong legacy of pioneering innovation, PLOS continues to be a catalyst, reimagining models to meet open science principles, removing barriers and promoting inclusion in knowledge creation and sharing, and publishing research outputs that enable everyone to learn from, reuse and build upon scientific knowledge.

We believe in a better future where science is open to all, for all.

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APCs for institutions

If a Flat Fee, Community Action Publishing or Global Equity agreement doesn’t suit your institution or author need and you prefer to pay APCs, two additional options are available to streamline and manage these payments.

Deposit account

Greater flexibility and reduced per-article administration costs.

Deposit accounts allow institutions to budget APC expenditures for a fiscal year. The institution deposits funds into an account with us to facilitate APC payment throughout the year. Corresponding authors affiliated with the institution are eligible; contributing authors are not.

How it works

Initial deposit

The institution determines the amount to be deposited into their APC account (subject to a minimum threshold), we can prorate estimates to correspond to an institution’s fiscal year/budget cycle.

Account debited for accepted manuscripts

The deposit account is not debited until the manuscript of a corresponding author who is a member of the institution is accepted by a PLOS journal.

Monthly statements

Regular reports are provided for institutions to track and manage APC expenditures. A monthly statement details each corresponding author’s manuscript that has been accepted for publication.

Low balance alert

When the deposit account balance falls to 25% of the initial total, institutions are prompted to replenish the account as a part of the monthly billing process. At the end of the year, any residual balances of prepaid deposits within the fiscal year will be applied toward the balance of the next fiscal year.

Exiting the deposit account

Deposit account have the option to:

  • Convert to direct billing, or
  • Exit the deposit account program entirely. Participating institutions can exit the deposit account arrangement with a 90 days advance notice, per contract agreements. Any unused deposits will be refunded promptly to institutions following final settlement.

Direct billing (Pay as you go)

Favored by institutions with budget flexibility to cover variable publishing volume.

Institutions selecting the direct billing option are billed monthly by us for accepted manuscripts authored by corresponding authors of their institutions. Contributing authors are not eligible.

Your benefits:

  • Consolidation of all APCs into a single monthly bill
  • No advance payments or purchase orders required
  • Regular reports for institutions to track and manage APC expenses

Choose the right institutional agreement for you

We recognise that all institutions are different. We offer different options for institutions that reflect the diverse research needs of our communities.

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Community Action Publishing

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Flat Fee Agreements

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Global Equity agreement

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Frequently asked questions

If you have any questions about our institutional agreements and how they can benefit your institution, we recommend exploring our FAQ section.

Read our FAQs

All PLOS partnership agreements are subject to PLOS’ Master Publishing Terms of Service. Institutions or consortia that wish to partner with us should contact us for further information.

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