A&A Subscribe to Open FAQs

Since its launch in 1969, A&A has been publishing pioneering, peer reviewed scientific content. The transition to open access will expand access to its high-quality research to a worldwide audience – furthering the field of astronomy and astrophysics in the interests of advancing open science and serving our community.

• Subscribe to Open (S2O) is a subscription open access model that relies on library contributions to make content open access for the benefit of the research community.
• If subscriptions are not renewed, content remains behind the paywall and only subscribers have access.

• The only way to guarantee access for your researchers to A&A is to subscribe.
• If support is insufficient because institutions decide to cancel their subscription or delay their subscription payments significantly, the content from that year will be published behind a paywall, and only the subscribers will still have access.
• Your current subscription payment will show your commitment to the long-term sustainability of open access.
• Renewal is annual, using current subscription workflows and channels.
• Publishing a high-quality journal like A&A has a cost. EDP Sciences relies on subscription income to publish the journal. Only if publications expenses are covered can the content be made open access.

Following consultation with A&A subscribers, we are pleased to offer the following benefits for S2O subscribers:

• “Early-Bird” discount on subscriptions. If you renew your subscription or place a new order before mid-December, you will continue to benefit from the current year’s rate. After that point, the following year’s rate will apply, including the annual increase.
• Reserved access to accepted articles ahead of publication. A&A gives online access to the unedited preprint version of accepted papers several weeks ahead of publication. Online access to accepted papers is reserved for subscribers only.
• Discount on page charges. Authors who are not located in an A&A sponsoring country, but whose institutions subscribe to A&A, benefit from a 10% discount on page charges.
• Please note: page charges are different from Article Processing Charges (APCs). Page charges help cover editorial costs, including publishing long papers, whereas APCs are fees paid to make articles open access.

Detailed information on page charges is available here.

Under the S2O model, if A&A receives sufficient subscriptions to enable open access in a given year, all articles accepted in that year will be published open access.

A&A is a community journal supported by a board of sponsoring countries. Subscription income covers the publication costs and enables the journal to publish in open access under the S2O model. Editorial work is funded through contributions from sponsoring countries and modest page charges paid by authors based in non-sponsoring countries. Page charges for articles that exceed the journal’s page cap apply to all authors, regardless of country.

This structure keeps subscription prices low while ensuring that core editorial processes are properly funded. Authors from sponsoring countries publish open access at no cost and only pay page charges if their article exceeds the page cap. Authors from non-sponsoring countries pay modest page charges. All page charges are paid directly to A&&A rather than to the publisher.

If the S2O model is successful, this funding model will continue: subscription income will support open access publication, and sponsoring country contributions and page charges will sustain the editorial work.

Full information on page charges is available at: https://www.aanda.org/for-authors/author-information/page-charges

Preprint servers such as arXiv play a vital role in bringing research into the astronomy and astrophysics communities as quickly as possible. However, content uploaded to this service has not undergone rigorous peer review and the editorial oversight offered by a professional publisher such as EDP Sciences. In addition, preprints don’t offer the content selection and curation processes that make a scholarly journal a reliable and trusted addition to library collections.

In summary, publishing your article in A&A increases the value and impact of your work by making your article more trustworthy, easier to find, read, and cite, whilst ensuring that the version of record is preserved in perpetuity.

The Subscribe to Open model is supported by cOAlition S, see https://www.coalition-s.org/coalition-s-endorses-the-s2o-model-of-funding-oa/

If A&A receives sufficient subscription renewals and is published in full open access, articles appear under a CC BY licence and authors meet all major funder requirements, including Plan S.

If subscription income is not sufficient and A&A cannot be published in open access, authors who must meet open access mandates can still do so by choosing the APC-based open access option. See the A&A open access page for details.

In all cases, authors funded by Plan S organisations remain compliant through the green route. They may deposit their author accepted manuscript in a repository of their choice under a CC BY licence, without embargo.

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 published behind a paywall, and only the subscribers will still have access. Authors will be able to pay a fee for an Open Access Option to make their online article perpetually, universally, and freely accessible.

Because S2O depends on collective support, it is essential that researchers check whether their institution maintains a current subscription. If A&A is valuable to your work, encouraging your library to renew helps keep the journal open for the entire community.

If all subscription renewals have been received, A&A will publish its newly accepted content open access, from that time and for a duration of one year.

The opening of each year’s content is contingent on sufficient participation from library customers.

An article published open access with a CC-BY license remains open access forever.

Open Access Update (2025)
A&A remained open access in 2025 following continued support from subscribing institutions.

Open Access Update (2024)
A&A remained open access in 2024 following continued support from subscribing institutions.
Read the announcement.

Open Access Update (2023)
A&A continued to publish open access in 2023 for a second year under the S2O model.
Read the announcement.

Open Access Update (2022)
A&A confirmed sufficient support in 2022 to open the journal under S2O. Articles accepted from 4 April 2022 publish under a CC-BY 4.0 licence; earlier content was released in free access.
Read the announcement.

For S2O journals like A&A, cancellation is not possible after the decision has been announced regarding publication of the year’s content in open access (regardless of order date). Before the announcement, cancellation is only possible within 6 weeks of receipt of an order.

The decision to open the content is taken once a year in the first quarter, based on continued subscriptions.

A&A authors whose articles are accepted, will be asked to sign a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 licence on acceptance of their article. Authors retain the copyright of articles published in open access in A&A even though they release the work under the CC-BY 4.0 license.

A&A welcomes new subscribers to our S2O programme. Your participation will enable A&A’s sustainable transition to open access. Please get in touch with us at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .