Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A publisher applies its 100% waiver automatically based on corresponding-author affiliation and publishes annual statistics.
- Is an instance
An institution underwrites a publishing fund covering APCs for its postgraduate researchers.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A waiver programme that requires the author to formally apply each time with no public granted-rate data.
- Not an instance
Restricting waivers to certain disciplines or career stages without clear rationale.
Editorial commentary
Institutional waiver programmes formalise APC reductions for defined categories of authors: corresponding authors based at Research4Life-eligible institutions, authors from specific low- and middle-income countries, authors funded by partner organisations, or authors otherwise unable to pay. Best practice includes automatic application (no application form required), published eligibility criteria, transparent reporting of waivers granted and refused, and integration with consortium-level transformative or pure publish agreements.
The common tiered-discount pattern
Most publisher waiver schedules follow the same shape: a full (100%) waiver tier for corresponding authors at institutions in the Research4Life-defined lowest-income group, a partial (commonly around 50%) discount tier for the next income band, and no automatic discount above that, with discretionary case-by-case waivers available on request for authors who fall outside the formal bands but demonstrably cannot pay. The equity literature treats “automatic” as doing real work in that description: a scheme that instead requires the author to apply, justify hardship, or negotiate before publication is documented to have substantially lower uptake than one applied automatically at submission.
Institution-level versus publisher-level programmes
A publisher-run waiver schedule applies uniformly across every author submitting to that publisher’s journals; an institution-run programme instead operates as a central fund at the researcher’s own university or library, underwriting APCs or waiver gaps for its own authors regardless of which publisher they choose, often prioritised toward early-career researchers or those without grant funding to cover a fee. The two are complementary rather than competing: a consortium-level pure publish agreement can remove the need for either by making publication free at the point of submission for every eligible author.
What good reporting looks like
A programme that publishes its granted-versus-requested waiver rate, broken down by country or region, lets funders and researchers actually verify the policy is functioning rather than existing on paper — a stated waiver policy with no published grant-rate data is a documented red flag distinguishing a real equity programme from a nominal one.
References
- Plan S Price Transparency Framework. Research4Life eligibility lists. COPE guidance on waivers.
Also known as
APC waiver programme · Publication-fee waiver scheme
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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