■
Why do Science Park Journals have
article-processing charges?
Open access publishing is not without costs.
Science Park Journals defrays these costs
through article-processing charges because
it does not have subscription charges for
its research content. The company instead
believes that immediate, worldwide,
barrier-free, open access to the full text
of research articles is in the best
interests of the scientific community.
■
What do the article-processing charges pay
for?
Immediate, worldwide open access to the full
article text
Developing and maintaining electronic tools
for peer review and publication
Preparation in various formats for online
publication
Securing inclusion in CrossRef, enabling
electronic citation in other journals that
are available.
■
Does Science Park Journals offer discounts
on article-processing charges?
Science Park Journals offers various
discounts on APCs. The discounts are
exclusive of each other and cannot be
accumulated.
■ How much is Scientific Research and Impact
(SRI) article-processing charges? Science Park Journals Charges APC
of $430
Publication is not contingent upon the author's ability to pay the charges. Neither is acceptance to pay the handling fee a guarantee that the paper will be accepted for publication. If you do not have funds to pay the above fees, you may still request (in advance) that the editorial office waive some of the handling fee under special circumstances. SRI do not want payment of fees to prevent the publication of worthy work.
■
How do Science Park Journals charges compare
with other publishers?
Science Park Journals article-processing
charges are extremely competitive. In
general, Science Park Journals charges are
amongst the lowest of any publisher offering
open access publication
■
Why a flat charge rather than one based on
page numbers?
The size of an article is a poor indicator
of the actual amount of work involved in
obtaining peer reviews and in preparing the
article for publication. A more useful
discriminator might be the state an article
is in when submitted, and its complexity,
but the lack of objective tools to measure
these has led us to conclude that a flat fee
is the fairest approach at this stage.
■
Who is responsible for making the payment?
Whoever submits the manuscript is
responsible for making or arranging the
payment (for instance, via his or her
institution).
The submitting author needs to arrange
payment of the article-processing charge
unless a waiver has been granted, or your
institution has covered the cost through a
membership scheme.
The submitting author must confirm, at the
time of submission, that they will organize
payment should the article be accepted for
publication.
Following peer review, once a manuscript has
received editorial acceptance in principle,
the article-processing charge becomes
payable and formatting checks on the
manuscript will commence. Once formatting
checks are completed, and payment of the
article-processing charge has been received,
the article will be published.
■
Payment can be made by the following method:
Invoice payment (Bank Transfer) is due after
receiving editorial acceptance in principle.
Prompt payment is advised as the article
will not be published until payment is
received.
■
Can charges be waived if the author cannot
pay?
Individual waiver requests will be
considered on a case-by-case basis and may
be granted in cases of lack of funds. To
apply for a waiver please request one during
the submission process. A decision on the
waiver will normally be made within two
working days. Submission of the article to
the journal can then be completed.
■
Will the APC rate I am given at submission
change?
The APC payable for an article is determined
at the time payment has to be agreed as part
of the submission process. This means if the
APC goes up between submission and
publication, you still pay the lower APC.
■
Change rate
If the exchange rates change between
submission and publication, an author still
pays the amount in their applicable currency
that they agreed to pay on submission.
■
Membership
If an institution ceases to be a Member
between submission and publication of an
author’s article, they still receive
Membership benefits. Conversely, if an
institution becomes a member after the
author submits an article, that article will
not in general be covered by the Membership.
For more details on membership visit