Article processing charges (APCs)

Hydrology and Earth System 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.

2024 APCs (submissions before 2025)

Any manuscript submitted before 1 January 2025, 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 for LaTeX papers and €93 net for MS Word papers.

2025 APCs for full-length articles

The following per-paper APCs are valid for any full-length article submitted from 1 January 2025:

2025 APCs for short-article manuscript types

The HESS manuscript types brief communication and comment require significantly fewer pages than regular, full-length articles. The following per-paper APCs are valid for any such short article submitted from 1 January 2025:

Country group discounts

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences provides standard discounts based on the origin of the corresponding author (CA) of a manuscript according to the following country groups.

1. Any country: any country not belonging to EED (country group 2) or R4L (country group 3) is considered country group 1, for which no standard discounts on APCs are provided. If the corresponding author of a manuscript is affiliated with a country not listed as EED or R4L, this country group is selected. If a manuscript has more than 1 CA, it is still categorized as country group 1 if at least 1 CA is affiliated to country group 1. Please see the web page on financial support for other opportunities provided to authors of country group 1.
2. European economically disadvantaged countries (EED): based on the list of 46 member states of the Council of Europe as well as Kosovo, the most recent gross national income (GNI) per capita as published by the World Bank is determined. Any European country with a GNI less than 25% of the maximum value of all European GNIs is considered an EED country. Thereby, the determination of the maximum European GNI value includes only GNIs not older than 3 years. If the corresponding author of a manuscript is affiliated with an institution in an EED country, the manuscript receives a standard discount of 50% on the APC. Additional discounts might be available according to the financial support policy. If a manuscript has more than 1 CA, the EED discount is applied if either all CAs are EED-affiliated or there is a mixture of EED-affiliated and R4L-affiliated CAs. As soon as 1 CA belongs to country group 1 (any country), the manuscript is settled according to the APCs for any country. The update of the list of EED countries is quarterly and currently includes Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Türkiye, and Ukraine.
3. 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 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. As soon as 1 CA belongs to country group 1 (any country) or 2 (EED), the manuscript is settled according to these country groups. If an EED country is also part of R4L's groups A or B, the country is considered an R4L country.

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.

EGU member discounts

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences is owned by the European Geosciences Union (EGU). The EGU provides an APC discount of 10% to its members. Relevant are corresponding authors and whether they have been EGU members in the year of the manuscript submission. Thereby, the possible EGU member discount is determined after determining the country group of the submission. If a manuscript has more than 1 corresponding author (CA), the CAs belonging to the determined country group are considered, and it is checked whether one of them has been an EGU member in the year of submission. If eligible, the EGU member discount of 10% is automatically applied to the APC settlement.

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 origin of the corresponding authors, further forms of financial support are available at Hydrology and Earth System 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