Membership
What a membership arrangement with the publisher is, how to ask about current terms, and why it has no bearing on the assessment of a manuscript.
- ISSN 2326-0793
- Crossref DOI prefix 10.14302
- Open access · CC BY 4.0
What it is
An arrangement with the publisher
Membership is an arrangement between an institution, a department or an individual researcher and Open Access Pub, the publisher of this journal. It is a billing and administrative relationship: it covers how publication charges are handled, not how manuscripts are assessed.
Current categories, terms and costs are agreed with the editorial office. Authors and institutions considering an arrangement are welcome to write to the editorial office for the terms that apply now.
Independence
The same editorial standards apply
Members and nonmembers follow the same independent editorial assessment process.
Editorial decisions are based on scope, scientific quality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, reporting quality, and relevance to the journal. Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request. Reviewers advise; the decision stays with the editor, and it is taken independently of any fee, membership, service or role.
The governance safeguards behind that separation are set out in the Editorial Policies.
The charge
How this relates to the article processing charge
The journal’s article processing charge is USD 2,100 per accepted article, for all article types, charged after acceptance only. That figure, and what it covers, are set out on the Article Processing Charges page.
Where an arrangement changes how that charge is administered for a particular institution or author, the terms are confirmed in writing by the editorial office before they apply. This page carries no schedule of its own, so that the charge on the Article Processing Charges page remains the single statement of what publishing costs.
Billing and fee-relief inquiries are handled by the editorial office and take no part in the editorial decision.
Next
Asking about an arrangement
Institutions, departments and authors can reach the editorial office for the current terms, for an invoice or quote, or for the documentation an institution needs for its own processing. Authors preparing a manuscript should start with the Aims and Scope and the Instructions for Authors.