Physical Review Special Topics - Physics Education Research is a peer reviewed electronic-only journal that is distributed without charge, and financed by publication charges to the authors or to the authors' institutions. These charges will be made up of two components - a per article charge of $700 to defray the editorial expenses plus a length dependent charge of $80 per 125 lines to defray production and composition expenses. The length of the manuscript is estimated using the APS's standard guidelines (see Length Estimate Guidelines).

Payment of these charges is necessary to maintain free access to the journal. Accepted manuscripts will not be forwarded to production until the publication charges are paid in full. If an author or the author's institution is unable to pay the charges in full, the author may request a reduction of the publication charge by sending a formal request to stper-waiver@aps.org. We ask that all requests include a justification for the reduction and the amount of aid needed. The aid will come from limited funds donated by the sponsoring organizations, American Association of Physics Teachers and the APS Forum on Education.