Article processing charges (APCs)

Mechanical Sciences is committed to the open-access model of publishing. This ensures free web access to the results of research and maximum visibility for published papers. The costs of the administration and infrastructure of the review process, production of final papers, journal article publication, distribution, and long-term archiving are paid by the authors or a supporting institution in form of so-called article processing charges (APCs). APCs are levied for the publication of the final revised paper in the journal. Preprints as part of the peer-review process are free of charge.

2025 APCs (submissions before 1 September 2026)

Any manuscript submitted before 1 September 2026, if accepted and published, will be charged with APCs per published page included in the produced article's *.pdf file, including appendices, the reference list, acknowledgements, disclaimers, review statements, code and data availability statements, and other such information sections, but excluding supplementary materials published alongside the full-text article. The per-page APCs levied are €77 net.

APCs for research articles

The following per-paper APCs are valid for any research article submitted from 1 September 2026:

APCs for review articles

The following per-paper APCs are valid for any review article submitted from 1 September 2026:

APCs for short communications

The following per-paper APCs are valid for any short communication article submitted from 1 September 2026:

Country group discounts

Mechanical Sciences provides standard discounts based on the affiliation of the corresponding author (CA) of a manuscript.

• Research4Life (R4L): Research4Life (R4L) classifies countries, areas, and territories in groups A and B according to the World Bank's total GNI and GNI per capita, the United Nations Least Developed Countries (LDCs) list, the Human Development Index (HDI), and WHO's healthy life expectancy (HALE). If the corresponding author (CA) of a manuscript is affiliated with an institution in an R4L country, independent whether this belongs to groups A or B, the manuscript receives a standard waiver of the APC. If a manuscript has more than 1 CA, the R4L waiver is only applied if all CAs are R4L-affiliated.
• Any country: if the corresponding author (CA) or at least 1 of the CAs is affiliated with an institution in a country that is not classified as R4L country, no standard discounts on APCs are provided, but authors can apply for individual support subject to editorial decision. Please see the web page on financial support.

Please note that Copernicus Publications validates any definitions of CAs. Thereby, the information given upon manuscript registration might be adjusted in the course of the peer-review and production process. The final assignment of a manuscript to a country group for the APC settlement is done by Copernicus Publications at the end of the proofreading process, just before the final journal article is published, and any possible adjustments of CAs until that moment are taken into account.

Institutional agreements (IAs)

Copernicus Publications fosters collaboration with institutions, universities, funders, and libraries to sign so-called institutional agreements (IAs) for the centralized settlement of APCs. The vast majority of IAs are based on the affiliation of the corresponding author. Upon manuscript registration, the submitting author defines all co-authors as well as any corresponding authors (CAs). Then a relation between a CA and an IA can be established defining the further APC settlement. This could include 100% coverage, but if an IA covers less than 100%, the remaining APC to be paid by the authors is defined through the IA price, independent of other possible origins of CAs with other regulations. If a manuscript has more than 1 CA and more than 1 IA could be related, the submitting author needs to select 1 IA for the APC settlement. Please note that Copernicus Publications validates any definitions of CAs and IA selections. Thereby, the information given upon manuscript registration might be adjusted in the course of the peer-review and production process. The final assignment of a manuscript to an IA is done by Copernicus Publications at the end of the proofreading process, just before the final journal article is published, and any possible adjustments of CAs until that moment are taken into account. An overview of institutional agreements can be found on the financial support web page.

Financial support

In addition to the APC coverage by institutional agreements or APC discounts based on the affiliation of the corresponding authors, further forms of financial support are available at Mechanical Sciences that require an application by the authors and an editorial decision. Additionally, a number of external organizations provide funds for APC payments. Please study our full overview of financial support:

Financial support