
OPEN ACCESS
What is Open Access?
Open Access (OA) refers to journal articles and other published materials that are distributed online and are completely free to access by the reader. The costs of publication are borne by the author(s) or their funder(s) through a publication fee rather than readers or institutions through either a subscription or pay-to-view charges. This business model was the spark for a larger movement towards greater access and transparency of scientific research.
We created a guide on how to publish open access with AGU.

Open Access options in AGU publications
AGU is a proud supporter of open science, which seeks to make scientific research more accessible to all. As part of this commitment we are increasing access to our published content via Open Access and other means.
Gold Open Access journals
AGU has 12 fully Open Access journals: AGU Advances, Community Science, Earth’s Future, Earth and Space Science, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, Geohealth, Geophysical Research Letters, JGR: Machine Learning and Computation, Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Perspectives of Earth and Space Scientists, Space Weather, and Water Resources Research (starting January 2024).
- Authors must pay an Article Processing Charge (APC) for their article to be published.
- Authors can select one of several Creative Commons (CC) licenses.
- Articles published in these journals are freely available online immediately upon publication.
Hybrid Open Access journals
AGU has 12 hybrid journals where readers will find some articles available via Open Access while others will be behind a paywall unless their institution has a subscription.
- If an author wants their article to be available free of charge to all readers (i.e. Open Access) they will need to pay an Article Processing Charge. Authors can select this option after their article is accepted. Authors select one of several Creative Commons (CC) licenses. The article is freely available online immediately upon publication.
- Alternatively authors do not pay an Article Processing Charge to be published in the journal but their article is only accessible via subscription or purchase.
Open Access books
Funder and institutional discounts for Open Access
AGU discounts and waivers for Open Access
To ensure availability of funding is not a barrier to publication, AGU provides various funding options for our authors, including waivers and discounts on publishing fees. These options vary depending on the type of journal you choose. For more information, visit our Funding Options page.