Journal cost transparency
We strive to publish high-quality journals as efficiently and responsibly as we can. Our journal portfolio spans a wide range of disciplines, communities, and business models, with more than half of the journals we publish being owned and editorially led by our society partners.
The cost of our journal publishing programme
This treemap shows how our journal revenues are spent across our full journals publishing programme., helping authors, funders and institutions understand how publishing income supports the services, infrastructure and partnerships behind our journals.
The cost of our journal publishing programme
This treemap shows how our journal revenues are spent across our full journals publishing programme., helping authors, funders and institutions understand how publishing income supports the services, infrastructure and partnerships behind our journals.
The cost breakdown
- Editorial and peer review (23%): Investment into the journal editorial and peer review process, including research integrity tools and processes, honoraria to editors, maintenance of submission platforms and peer review administration, and publishing programme management.
- Society and publishing partnerships (22%): The share of revenues returned to our publishing partners, supporting reinvestment in their journals and wider scholarly activities.
- Technology and systems (15%): Investment in the maintenance and development of our content platforms, including design, user experience, and accessibility.
- Customer support and operations (13%): Overall operating costs, including customer service, finance, facilities, business systems, HR, legal, tax and insurance
- Discovery and dissemination (11%): Investment into distribution, dissemination, and marketing published content and services to libraries, authors, and researchers globally.
- Production (10%): Investment into the production of journal articles and issues, including the copyediting and typesetting of manuscripts, metadata creation, content accessibility, printing and distribution, and content production management.
- Publishing Equity (7%): In 2025, 74% of our research articles were published under an open access (OA) license; of these, 6% were unfunded. Those unfunded open access research articles represent authors publishing in journals that are newly launching or newly flipping to open access; and those who simply do not have access to an open access publishing agreement or funds for paying APCs. Also included is OA funding for authors from low- and middle-income countries covered by the Research4Life programme and the Cambridge Open Equity Initiative.
- University reinvestment of surplus (0% - target 10%): We are a department of the University of Cambridge and, when achieved, we return a surplus to the University for reinvestment.