Article Processing Charges (APC)
Research Pillars Publishing adheres to the COPE/DOAJ/OASPA/WAME Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, COPE's Guidelines on Author Fees and Waivers, and Scopus journal-evaluation criteria on author fee disclosure.
Our Commitment to Open Access
Research Pillars Publishing operates a fully open access model. To sustain editorial management, peer review, production, and permanent digital hosting, an Article Processing Charge (APC) is levied on manuscripts after they have been accepted through independent peer review.
No submission fees are charged. No fee of any kind is requested, implied, or discussed prior to a final editorial decision.
What the APC Covers
· Editorial handling and peer review coordination
· Copyediting, typesetting, and production
· DOI registration and metadata deposit (Crossref)
· Permanent open access hosting, digital preservation, and archiving
· Indexing and discoverability support
APC Amount
Research Pillars Publishing charges a flat Article Processing Charge of USD 300 per article. This fee applies uniformly to every journal in our portfolio and does not vary by article type, subject area, or journal.
The APC covers peer-review management, editorial handling, copyediting, typesetting, DOI registration, online hosting, and long-term digital preservation. It is payable only after a manuscript has been accepted for publication.
Authors are encouraged to review the Author Guidelines on the website of their chosen journal before preparing a manuscript. For any questions about fees or payment procedures, please contact the editorial office at editor@researchpillars.org
Any change to a journal's fee schedule is announced on that journal's page in advance of taking effect.
Editorial Independence from Fee Decisions
In line with COPE's Guidelines on Author Fees and Waivers, Research Pillars Publishing separates editorial decision-making from fee administration across all its journals:
Peer reviewers and handling editors are not informed of an author's ability, intention, or willingness to pay, and have no role in invoicing or fee collection.
Acceptance or rejection is determined solely on scientific merit, originality, and fit with journal scope — before any fee is discussed.
Editorial staff involved in acceptance decisions do not receive compensation tied to the volume of fees collected, to avoid any financial incentive to accept borderline submissions.
Waivers and Discounts
Waivers are available to ensure ability to pay is never a barrier to publishing sound research. As required under COPE and DOAJ transparency principles, our policy states clearly:
Who is eligible: authors from World Bank-classified low- and lower-middle-income countries, and cases of documented financial hardship, considered individually.
Which authors must qualify: the corresponding author's eligibility determines the waiver for the submission.
When and how to apply: waiver requests are submitted to the editorial office at the point of submission, before peer review begins, and are recorded separately from the manuscript file seen by reviewers and handling editors.
Waiver decisions are made by an editorial officer with no role in peer review, and never influence the review outcome.
Payment Process
Invoice issued only after formal acceptance, for the amount stated on the journal's own page.
Payment due within 07 days via [bank transfer / card / other].
Article proceeds to production on payment confirmation or waiver approval.
Transparency Statement
This policy, along with each journal's published fee schedule and our waiver and conflict-of-interest safeguards, is maintained in accordance with COPE, DOAJ, OASPA, and WAME's Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (Section 13, Author Fees) and is available for review as part of our indexing applications, including to Scopus's Content Selection and Advisory Board.