Scope
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A publishes themed issues on the mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences, bringing together review and primary research articles around focused topics. The journal focuses on cross-disciplinary syntheses spanning astrophysics, plasma and atmospheric physics, materials, applied mathematics, and engineering, with each issue curated by guest editors to consolidate advances in a defined area.
What it costs to publish
See publication fee policy
Charges differ by publication route. Subscription is not open access; the APC does not include every possible extra charge.
No charge reported for this route
Source-linked report, not independently confirmed. Research notes (English): 2026 Subscribe to Open target was reached. Philosophical Transactions A is one of eight journals published open access by default under CC-BY with no APC. The journal does not have page or colour charges. Print ISSN 1364-503X; online ISSN 1471-2962. Royal Society Publishing. The listed all-other-journals APC of GBP 1995 / USD 2795 / EUR 2395 is removed for these eight journals for articles published in 2026.
Basis / unit: article published in 2026. Tax terms (source language): The OA page says VAT may apply to APC services. The 2026 S2O route has no APC.
No charge reported for this route
Source-linked report, not independently confirmed. Research notes (English): Philosophical Transactions A does not have page charges.
Basis / unit: page. Tax terms (source language): None stated.
No charge reported for this route
Source-linked report, not independently confirmed. Research notes (English): Philosophical Transactions A does not have colour charges.
Basis / unit: colour. Tax terms (source language): None stated.
CAPES · Royal Society Publishing (Brazil)
An agreement exists. It is not automatic coverage.
Check before submitting: eligibility depends on your institution, the corresponding author and the article type.
APC, page charges, over-length, S2O: what each one means
- APC
- Article processing charge: a fee per article to publish it open access. It is not the whole cost.
- Page charges
- A fee per printed or typeset page. It can apply with or without an APC.
- Over-length
- Pages beyond a length limit, billed at a different rate. Each page pays one rate, never both.
- S2O
- Subscribe to Open: subscribers keep the journal free to read, decided year by year. Page charges can still apply.
- Agreement
- A deal between an institution or country and a publisher that may cover the APC. Never automatic.
No funds to pay?
Research checked: 2026-10-13Waivers and funding: eligibility is not guaranteed.
- Source-linked policyResearch notes (English), not independently confirmed: In 2026 every author in this journal publishes OA without an APC, so a hardship waiver is not required for that charge. Royal Society Open Access Equity is described as an automatic APC waiver for eligible researchers in more than 100 low- and middle-income countries in all Royal Society journals. If S2O is not supported in 2027, the journal can revert to hybrid: OA with an APC and discretionary waivers, or non-OA at no charge. The 2027 APC amount is not fixed on the page. 2026: no APC step. Equity waivers are automatic. A 2027 hybrid choice would be made for articles in progress if the model reverts. 2026 workflow requires nothing further after acceptance. 2027 discretionary request method is not specified on the S2O author page. 2026 publication charge, which is zero. Equity scheme covers APCs where an APC exists. Born-gold journals Open Biology and Royal Society Open Science keep their own APCs. 2027 pricing is undecided.Publisher policy ↗
Read the publisher terms before submitting. Source-linked research is not a personal quotation or confirmed eligibility.