Waivers and discounts

At BMJ we are committed to advancing equity in open access publishing.

All BMJ journals offer waivers for the full Article Processing Charge (100% discount of the APC) for authors based in low-income countries. See BMJ full waiver list *. We will also consider on a case-by-case basis discount requests from countries not on our list.

Who qualifies?

The criteria that need to be fulfilled in order to be eligible for a full waiver are:

• All authors on the paper must be located in a country, area or territory included in our waiver list
• The research must have been carried out in a country, area or territory included in our waiver list
• The research is unfunded and/or there is not funding available to support publication of the research

Please apply before or during initial submission using this form**.

Applications for waivers or ad hoc discounts made while an article is being peer reviewed or after it has been accepted will not be considered. If an article reports funding from a funder with an open access mandate or policy that covers paying APCs, BMJ expects that the APC will be paid.

* These lists are based on the HINARI Core Offer Groups A and B, and the World Bank Country and Lending Groups released in July.

** Requests for waivers or discounts are assessed by BMJ staff and not by journal editors. Please do not contact editors regarding waivers or discounts as they will not be able to assist. A decision by BMJ staff to grant a discount will not influence any editorial decision and should not be considered an indication that your article will be accepted.

In this section:

• Open access options
  • BMJ fully open access journals
  • BMJ Transformative Journals
  • BMJ hybrid journals
  • Waivers and discounts
  • Other discounts
  • Retrospective open access
  • Types of open access agreements
  • What is Ringgold and why it’s important
  • Plan S at BMJ for authors