In short
Publishing a paper costs anywhere from zero to more than $3,000, and the index is not what decides it; the journal is. SciELO is free for authors in the great majority of its journals, with Brazilian exceptions that range from a 100-real submission contribution to a $1,200 publication fee. Scopus charges nothing: the journals it indexes do (or do not), from zero in subscription and diamond journals to $2,477 at PLOS ONE or CHF 3,150 at Frontiers in Psychology. And a journal that asks for money before review, by email, with acceptance in days, is not expensive: it is predatory.
The question arrives at the worst moment: the manuscript is ready, you open the journal's page and see a figure in dollars you were not expecting. Or worse, you see nothing, and the invoice turns up later in an email. This guide answers with concrete prices, checked on each journal's or publisher's own page on 19 September 2026, and the date is there on purpose: article processing charges change every year, and a figure without a date is a figure that is useless.
What you will not find here is a general lecture on open-access business models. This is the practical version: figures by index, with sources, and the criteria that separate a legitimate charge from a scam.
First, a clarification that saves money: indexes do not charge
Neither SciELO nor Scopus nor Web of Science charges authors. They are databases that index journals; you publish in a journal and, if the journal is indexed, your article enters the database. Scopus's official content-selection FAQ says it in so many words: Scopus does not charge any fee for title suggestion, evaluation or indexing. Anyone asking you for money "to index your article in Scopus" or "to upload it to SciELO" is scamming you, without exception.
What can cost money is the journal, and that depends on its model: subscription journals do not charge authors (the subscribing library pays); diamond journals charge neither authors nor readers (universities, learned societies or public agencies pay); commercial open-access journals charge the author an APC once the article is accepted. All three models coexist inside Scopus and, to a lesser extent, inside SciELO.
What it costs to publish in SciELO
In most of the network's journals, nothing. SciELO runs largely on diamond open access, funded by universities and national institutes, and the Peruvian, Colombian, Mexican, Chilean, Argentine and Ecuadorian collections are almost entirely free for authors. The exception is Brazil, the largest collection, where some journals charge and others do not, with very different amounts. Three real examples, all journals indexed in both SciELO and Scopus:
| Journal (Brazil) | What it charges | Published amount (19 Sep 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Cadernos de Saúde Pública (Fiocruz) | No submission or publication fee for regular issues; may charge for figures beyond the maximum and for an erratum caused by the author | 0 |
| Ciência & Saúde Coletiva (Abrasco) | No publication fee; asks for a contribution at submission | R$ 100 (Brazilian authors) · US$ 25 (international) |
| Revista de Saúde Pública (USP) | No submission fee; publication fee after acceptance. In 2026 it started a plan to reduce the fee progressively | R$ 3,800 (Brazil) · US$ 1,200 (international) |
Sources: each journal's "About the journal" page on scielo.br (csp, csc and rsp), consulted on 19 September 2026. The practical lesson: within one collection and one field (Brazilian public health) the price runs from 0 to $1,200, so the only way to know is to read the fees section of the author guidelines of the specific journal. If that section does not exist and the charge shows up in an email, stop.
What it costs to publish in a Scopus-indexed journal
Here the range is the widest of all, because Scopus indexes everything from free Latin American university journals to the open-access megajournals of the big publishers. Figures published by the publishers themselves on 19 September 2026:
| Type of Scopus-indexed journal | Example | Published APC (19 Sep 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription (no open-access option) | Many society journals and academic publishers | 0 for the author |
| Diamond (open access, no APC) | Revista Peruana de Medicina Experimental y Salud Pública, Salud Pública de México and most Latin American journals indexed in both SciELO and Scopus | 0 |
| Commercial open access, megajournal | PLOS ONE (standard research article) | US$ 2,477 |
| Commercial open access, field journal | Frontiers in Psychology (A-type article: original research, systematic review, protocol) | CHF 3,150 |
Sources: plos.org/publication-fees and the Frontiers in Psychology publishing-fees page. Two details matter. First, the APC is charged only if the article is accepted; a legitimate journal never charges for review. Second, many publishers offer reduced rates or a full waiver based on the corresponding author's country of residence, using lists such as Research4Life's, and the waiver has to be requested before or at submission, not after acceptance. If your country is on the publisher's list, a $2,000 APC can become zero; if you ask too late, you pay in full.
And the question any researcher in Lima, Bogotá or Mexico City asks: is $2,500 worth it? That depends on what your evaluation system scores. In Peru, Renacyt scores an article by the journal's quartile (5 points for Q1, 2 for Q4), not by what it cost; a diamond Q1 is worth exactly as much as a $3,000 Q1. If you are choosing a journal with a national evaluation system in mind, our Spanish guide on publishing in Scopus from Latin America walks through Renacyt, Minciencias, the SNII, ANID, CONICET and CAPES.
What a predatory journal charges (and why the price is not the problem)
Predatory journals charge anywhere from a few hundred to a couple of thousand dollars, sometimes less than a legitimate journal. The problem is not the price: the article gets no real peer review, counts for nothing in any serious evaluation system, may end up in Scopus's list of discontinued titles, and stays attached to your name forever. And the money is not refundable.
To recognize them, the price combines with signals that are decisive:
- They invite you to publish by email, with flattery about a paper of yours that they cite wrongly or not at all.
- They promise a decision in days. Peer review at a legitimate journal takes weeks or months.
- They ask for payment before review, or the amount is missing from the author guidelines and present in the email.
- They advertise "indexed in Scopus" or "in SciELO" and do not appear on scopus.com/sources or scielo.org, or appear with coverage discontinued.
- The ISSN on their website does not match the one in the index, or the name mimics a well-known journal with one word changed.
- They collect payment into a personal account or in cryptocurrency, with no publisher invoice.
Two verification tools that work. Think. Check. Submit. (thinkchecksubmit.org) is an international checklist backed by publisher and library associations that asks you the right questions in five minutes. Beall's List was for years the reference for identifying predatory publishers; its author closed it in January 2017, and the archived copies circulating since then are no longer officially updated, so it is useful for the past and not for journals created afterwards. For the present, verification at the source (the index, the DOAJ for open-access journals, the ISSN) is worth more than any list.
How to decide how much to pay
With the figures in front of you, the decision takes three steps, done before submission rather than after acceptance:
- Check the index at the source (scopus.com/sources by ISSN, scielo.org by collection) and the quartile in SCImago for the current year. If your evaluation system scores by quartile, you now know what that article is worth to you.
- Read the fee policy in the author guidelines: whether it charges, how much, when (only after acceptance) and whether there is a waiver by country or institution. Ask your university library about publisher agreements before assuming you pay yourself.
- Compare with the free alternative in the same quartile. In public health, medicine and psychology in Latin America there are diamond journals indexed in both Scopus and SciELO; for a system that scores by quartile, paying $2,500 for the same quartile buys nothing.
And one calculation almost nobody does: the cost that is certain is not the APC, it is a rejection after six months of waiting. In the manuscripts I review for journals, most objections land on methods and analysis, and reviewers flag them the same way in Q1, in Q4 and in SciELO. Before deciding where to send it and how much to pay, it helps to know what a reviewer is going to object to: upload your manuscript to Previum and read it before the journal does.
Frequently asked questions
Is publishing in SciELO free?
In the great majority of its journals, yes: diamond open access is the dominant model. The exceptions are concentrated in Brazil and range from a 100-real submission contribution (Ciência & Saúde Coletiva) to a publication fee of R$ 3,800 or US$ 1,200 (Revista de Saúde Pública), with top journals such as Cadernos de Saúde Pública charging nothing. Figures published on 19 September 2026; check them at the journal before submitting.
Does Scopus charge to publish?
No. Scopus is a database, and its official FAQ says it does not charge any fee for title suggestion, evaluation or indexing. The journals it indexes charge, or do not: zero in subscription and diamond journals, and an APC of thousands of dollars in commercial open-access journals (PLOS ONE US$ 2,477, Frontiers in Psychology CHF 3,150, rates of 19 September 2026).
How much does a predatory journal charge?
From a few hundred to a couple of thousand dollars, sometimes less than a legitimate journal, and that low price is part of the bait. What gives it away is not the amount but the timing and the form: payment before review, the amount only in an email, a decision in days, indexing that cannot be verified at the source.
Can I ask for an APC waiver?
At many publishers, yes. The large open-access publishers publish a waiver and discount policy based on the corresponding author's country of residence, and several universities have agreements that cover their researchers' APCs. You request it at submission, not after acceptance, and you ask your university library first.
Is an APC worth paying if my system scores by quartile?
Only if there is no free journal in the same quartile that fits your manuscript. Renacyt in Peru, for instance, scores the journal's quartile, not what it cost to publish: a diamond Q1 and a $3,000 Q1 are worth the same. In health and psychology in Latin America there are diamond journals in both Scopus and SciELO; look for them before paying.
Is Beall's List still current?
Not as an official list: Jeffrey Beall closed it in January 2017. Archived copies exist and are useful for older publishers, not for journals created afterwards. For the present, use the Think. Check. Submit. checklist and verify the index at the source (Scopus Sources by ISSN, scielo.org, the DOAJ).