Publication Guide
Cambridge University Press is the world's oldest university press - it received letters patent from Henry VIII in 1534 and has published continuously ever since. Today it is a non-profit publishing department of the University of Cambridge and publishes 400+ peer-reviewed journals on its Cambridge Core platform, alongside monographs, textbooks, and the Cambridge Elements series. In August 2021 the Press merged with Cambridge Assessment to form Cambridge University Press & Assessment, but the academic publishing operation - and the imprint on your paper - remains Cambridge University Press.
Cambridge's portfolio is distinctive: it is a leading home for humanities and social sciences scholarship (many of the top political science, law, history, and linguistics journals are Cambridge titles, often published on behalf of learned societies such as the American Political Science Association), while also running highly selective STEM flagships like the Journal of Fluid Mechanics. This guide covers how to pick the right Cambridge journal, the open-access routes and real APC numbers, peer review, and submission logistics.
Which Cambridge journal fits your paper?
| You're most likely to... | Choose this route |
|---|---|
| Have a political science or IR paper aiming for the field's top venues | APSR, British Journal of Political Science, or International Organization - all field-leading, all highly selective, published with or alongside major learned societies. |
| Have a fluid dynamics or applied mathematics paper | Journal of Fluid Mechanics - the field's flagship since 1956, or its Gold OA sibling JFM Rapids routes. |
| Have a psychiatry, psychology, or cognitive science paper | Psychological Medicine or Behavioral and Brain Sciences - BBS uses its distinctive target-article-plus-open-commentary format. |
| Have public health, nutrition, or epidemiology research | Epidemiology and Infection or British Journal of Nutrition - both established biomedical titles with OA options. |
| Need Gold OA at low or no cost | A Cambridge fully-OA title with a lower or zero APC, or any journal under a Read & Publish agreement if your institution has one - always check both before paying. |
| Want to share early-stage work before journal submission | Cambridge Open Engage - Cambridge's free early-research platform, which also hosts APSA Preprints. |
What Cambridge University Press publishes
- 400+ peer-reviewed journals spanning every major discipline, with particular depth in humanities and social sciences - politics, law, history, linguistics, area studies, economics - plus strong mathematics, physics, and biomedical lists.
- Society journals - a large share of the portfolio is published on behalf of learned societies (for example, APSR for the American Political Science Association).
- Books and Elements - monographs, Cambridge Companions and Histories, textbooks, and the short-form Cambridge Elements series (note: books and Elements sit outside the Read & Publish journal agreements).
- Cambridge Open Engage - the Press's early-research and preprint platform for working papers, conference material, and preprint partnerships.
Everything is hosted on Cambridge Core, the Press's unified online platform.
Open access at Cambridge
Cambridge offers four OA routes:
- Gold OA (fully-OA journals) - a growing set of fully open-access titles; default licences are CC BY, with CC BY-NC available on many journals.
- Hybrid OA - most subscription journals offer a Gold OA option per article.
- Green OA (self-archiving) - permitted across the portfolio; check each journal's sharing policy on Cambridge Core for the applicable version and embargo.
- Read & Publish (transformative) agreements - institutional deals covering 2,500+ institutions across Europe, the Americas, Asia, the UK and Ireland, and Oceania. If your institution participates, you can usually publish Gold OA at no cost to you. (cOAlition S ended the Transformative Journal framework at the end of 2024; Cambridge's institutional R&P agreements continue.)
For authors without funding, the Cambridge Open Equity Initiative and other waivers and discounts can cover APCs - Cambridge states that journals should publish based on the quality of the work rather than the authors' ability to pay.
APCs - actual numbers
The standard Cambridge APC on the 2026 price list is £2,610 / approximately US $3,655 per article (plus applicable taxes). Actual charges vary by journal, and some titles charge lower APCs or none at all - always check the specific journal's fees page before submission.
| Route | Typical cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Read & Publish via your institution | $0 to you | 2,500+ institutions covered - check your library first |
| Standard Gold/hybrid APC | £2,610 / ~$3,655 (2026) | The standard list rate; per-journal prices vary |
| Lower-APC and no-APC Gold titles | $0 - below standard rate | Several fully-OA journals charge reduced or zero APCs |
| Waivers and discounts | $0 or reduced | Cambridge Open Equity Initiative + discretionary waivers |
| Green self-archiving | $0 | Per-journal version and embargo rules apply |
Peer review process
- Default model: single-anonymized peer review across most of the portfolio.
- Double-anonymized: common on humanities and social sciences titles - check the journal's author guidelines.
- Open commentary: Behavioral and Brain Sciences runs its signature target-article-with-open-peer-commentary model.
- Turnaround: varies widely by title; selective society flagships can take several months to first decision. Consult the journal's own metrics page where published.
How to submit
- Pick the journal. Browse Cambridge Core by subject, or match your abstract against the journals above.
- Read the instructions for contributors. Every Cambridge journal has title-specific author instructions on its Cambridge Core page.
- Prepare your manuscript. Citation style varies by title - Cambridge author-date is common, with Vancouver and Chicago variants on many journals. SciSpace templates handle the per-journal formatting.
- Submit via the journal's system. Most Cambridge journals use ScholarOne Manuscripts or Editorial Manager - the journal's page tells you which.
- Check OA funding before you pay. Confirm Read & Publish eligibility with your library, or apply for a waiver, before paying an APC.
Ethics and integrity
Cambridge University Press is a member of COPE, OASPA, and STM. Retractions and corrections follow COPE guidance, and journals apply the Press's research transparency and data policies, with the strictest requirements on biomedical titles. As a department of the University of Cambridge, the Press operates on a non-profit basis: surpluses are returned to the University's academic mission.
