Open Access
Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A) and EDP Sciences are engaged in facilitating broad and easy access to all published scientific information and have taken numerous steps in this direction, with the different services listed below. Articles published in open access in A&A are published under a CC-BY 4.0 license which allows authors to retain the copyright and others to share and adapt the content.
Subscribe to Open
From 2022, A&A is published under a Subscribe to Open model (S2O). S2O is an alternative subscription model which enables libraries to use their collections budgets to support open access publishing. Every year, existing library customers are asked to continue to subscribe, and when subscribers commit, A&A publishes that year’s content in open access. See the FAQs for more information.
An announcement is made in the first quarter of every year, following the subscription renewals cycle, regarding the status of the journal. The announcement indicates whether the content is published in open access or accessible to subscribers only in that year.
EDP Sciences and the Board of A&A are committed to financial transparency relating to the S2O programme. In support of this objective, Astronomy & Astrophysics will publish a Transparency Report every year that the journal is published under the S2O model.
Subscribe to Open – open access
Every year, existing library customers are asked to continue to subscribe, and when subscribers commit in enough numbers, A&A publishes that year’s content in open access.
Subscribe to Open – subscriber-only access
If support is insufficient, e.g. because institutions decide to cancel their subscription or delay their subscription payments significantly, the content from that year will be accessible to subscribers only. Authors wishing or required to publish in open access can then opt for the Open Access Option to have their article published in open access, as per below.
2023 – open access
The A&A Board of Directors and EDP Sciences are pleased to announce (03/05/2023) that A&A will continue to be published open access in 2023, for a second year, under the terms of this transformative model. See the press release for more information.
2022 – open access
The A&A board of directors and EDP Sciences are pleased to announce (04/04/2022) that A&A has now received the required level of support and will be published open access in 2022 under the terms of this transformative model. From 4th of April 2022, newly accepted A&A articles will publish under a CC-BY 4.0 license allowing authors to retain the copyright and others to share and adapt the content. Content already published or accepted before the 4th of April will be released in free access (freely accessible to all, but not under a CC-BY license). See the FAQs for more information.
Read the 2022 Transparency Report.
Subscribe to Open – subscriber-only access – information and arrangements
If the journal is not publishing in open access under Subscribe to Open due to insufficient subscriptions, then the following options and arrangements will apply.
Open access option
In the event that the journal is not publishing in open access under Subscribe to Open, then an Open Access Option is available. Authors can pay a fee of 1650 euros (2025 prices) to make their online article perpetually, universally, and freely accessible.
EDP Sciences has signed with the Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB) a German National article processing charges (APC) agreement. If you are a corresponding author affiliated with German academic institutions including universities and research institutions, not affiliated with a Max Planck Institute (whose authors benefit from an even more favorable agreement -see below), you can publish in Astronomy & Astrophysics at a 20 percent discounted APC (article processing charges) price.
Transformative open access agreements
Corresponding authors of French Institutions (see list of institutions) and Max Planck Institute in Germany benefit from free gold open access.
National Open Access Agreement in France
Max Planck Open Access Agreement
Information for Max Planck Authors
The Max Planck Society established a new agreement with EDP Sciences which includes access to Astronomy & Astrophysics journal content as well as allowing authors to publish open access in the journal. The Open Access agreement with Max Planck Society centrally covers the open access charge for affiliated corresponding authors in this subscription-based journal that is offering the hybrid open access option and that also has a Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY).
In order to make use of the agreement, please make sure to meet the following conditions when publishing with EDP Sciences:
- The article has been accepted by the journal that offers a CC-BY license.
- A Max Planck author must be the corresponding author of the article.
- The author is affiliated with a Max Planck Institute and publishes under this affiliation.
- The acceptance date of the article is between January 1, 2024 and December 31, 2026.
When submitting, a Max Planck email address should be used (if possible) and the Max Planck affiliation should be stated. During the production process, EDP Sciences and Max Planck Digital Library will verify author eligibility.
Contact lic.contact[at]mpdl.mpg.de
Further information
Green open access
The Publisher and A&A encourage arXiv archiving under a non-exclusive license or self-archiving of the final PDF file of the article exactly as published in the journal and without any period of embargo.
In addition, authors supported in whole or in part by cOAlition S organisations are entitled to self-archive their author accepted manuscripts, without embargo, under a CC BY license in an Open Access repository of their choice.
Free access
Free sections
All Letters to the Editor and all articles published in the following sections:
- Atomic, molecular, and nuclear data
- Astronomical instrumentation
- Catalogs and data
- Numerical methods and codes
are in free access at no cost to the authors.
Archives in free access
All articles published in the other sections of the Journal become freely accessible 12 months after publication.
Latest articles FREE
This service allows non-subscribers to the journal to gain free access to the full edition of the most recent articles of A&A on the EDP Sciences website. The Latest articles FREE service requires registration and is meant to be used by individuals for their private studies or scholarly research, and not for commercial benefit. See https://www.aanda.org/component/services/?label=laf