Publication fees

Authors of accepted articles are asked to support publication through author fees. Fees vary by journal and are designed to keep institutional subscriptions affordable. Fees based on length or publication units (PU) encourage manuscripts that are thorough but concisely presented. 

The formula for publication units (PU) = number of words/500 + number of figures + number of tables. Word count includes abstract, text (and in-text citations), figure captions, and appendices. Word count excludes title, author list and affiliations, plain language summary, table text, references, and supporting information.

Excess page fees

Longer papers are permitted in all journals except Geophysical Research Letters (GRL). Overlength papers incur excess page fees in addition to the standard journal fee due to increased editorial and production costs. Excess fees are charged by all journals, including those for which authors pay an open-access fee.

Excess fees apply for more than 25 PUs, except GRL, for which excess fees apply for more than 12 PUs. Papers submitted to GRL that are above 12 PUs will be returned to the author. Invited GRL Frontier articles incur excess fees above 19 PUs.

See table below for publication fees, excess page fees, and Open Access rates.

Waivers

Requests for waivers are considered by AGU and the editors. Send your request in an email to the journal or in your cover letter. Many institutions cover completely or offer discounts on open-access author publishing charges (APC) in AGU journals.