Membership

Membership is an administrative and financial arrangement between an author or an institution and Open Access Pub, the publisher. It is handled by the publisher’s office, not by the journal’s editors, and it sits entirely outside the process that decides whether a manuscript is published.

Where a membership arrangement reduces what an author or institution pays for publication, that is a commercial matter between the payer and the publisher. It changes the invoice. It changes nothing else.

Current membership arrangements, and what any of them cost, are confirmed by the editorial office on request — see below. This page does not publish a schedule, because a figure stated here has to match the charges page exactly, and any arrangement offered has to be one the publisher currently operates.

A journal that lets payment influence publication stops being a journal. The separation is not a courtesy to authors; it is the condition on which anything the journal publishes can be believed.

In practice that means the order of events is fixed. A manuscript is screened, reviewed and decided on the science. Only after a decision to accept is any charge raised, and only then does anyone in the journal have reason to know how it will be paid. Editors are not told an author’s payment status or whether any membership arrangement applies.

The same separation appears in Editorial Policies, on the charges page and in the guidance given to editors and reviewers. It is stated the same way in each place on purpose.

The journal applies the same editorial screening, peer-review model, and decision criteria to every submission, independently of membership or payment.

Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request. All submissions undergo initial editorial screening. Manuscripts that meet the journal's scope and minimum requirements proceed to independent peer review. Manuscripts that proceed to external peer review are normally evaluated by at least two independent subject-matter experts. Editorial decisions are based on scope, scientific quality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, reporting quality, and relevance to the journal. Decisions remain independent of fees, services, memberships or editorial roles.

Authors, institutions and research offices who want to know what arrangements are currently available should write to the editorial office at [email protected]. Say who would be the payer — an individual author, a department, a library or a research office — and the office will confirm in writing what applies.

Questions about an invoice already issued go to the accounts department at [email protected].

An enquiry about cost is not visible to the editor handling a manuscript, and making one has no bearing on any editorial decision.

Membership is not the journal’s answer to an author who cannot meet the article processing charge. An author in that position should write to the editorial office directly, before submitting or at submission at the latest, describing the position.

Requests are considered individually and are handled by the editorial office rather than by the editor deciding the manuscript. The full position is on the Article Processing Charges page.

Many institutions hold open-access publication funds and many funders allow publication costs against a grant. A library or research office is usually the fastest route to finding out.

Obtain written terms from the publisher before making a membership payment. The offer should identify the membership fee and currency, start and end dates, the people or institution covered, any applicable APC arrangement, included services, and renewal or cancellation provisions.

• A membership fee is distinct from an APC for an accepted article.
• Any APC arrangement should state its amount, eligibility, duration, and applicable article or collection conditions.
• Editorial assessment remains independent of membership, payment, and services.

For membership terms or an application, contact [email protected]. Manuscript inquiries and submissions follow the routes on Submit Paper.