APC

Article Processing Charge (APC) Policy

The Journal of Business Insight and Innovation is a fully Open Access journal. To provide free, immediate, and permanent global access to all published research articles, the journal operates under a gold open-access publishing model.

To fund the editorial, peer-review, production, and archiving processes, the journal charges an Article Processing Charge (APC) upon the acceptance of a manuscript. There are no submission fees; authors are only billed if their paper successfully passes peer review and is accepted for publication.

1. Fee Structure

The APC is determined by the primary institutional affiliation of the corresponding author:

Author Category Article Processing Charge (APC)
Local Authors (Pakistan) PKR 40,000/- (Net payable)
International Authors USD 150 (Net payable)

Note: Any applicable bank transfer fees, currency conversion charges, or local taxes are the sole responsibility of the author and must be paid in addition to the base APC.

2. What the APC Covers

The APC covers the entire publishing workflow and infrastructure, including:

  • Editorial Management: Administration of the peer-review process and editorial tracking systems.

  • Production & Typsetting: Professional copyediting, formatting, translation of metadata, and preparation of final PDF/XML versions.

  • Online Hosting & Archiving: Permanent hosting on the journal website and secure long-term digital preservation (e.g., CLOCKSS/LOCKSS).

  • Indexing & Metadata: Distribution of article metadata to abstracting and indexing databases (such as Crossref, Google Scholar, etc.,) and assignment of a unique Digital Object Identifier (DOI).

3. Payment Timeline & Transparency

  • No Submission Fees: Submitting a manuscript to the journal is entirely free.

  • Billing Post-Acceptance: The APC is only invoiced after a manuscript has undergone rigorous peer review and has received a formal editorial decision of "Acceptance."

  • Independence of Editorial Decisions: Editorial decisions to accept or reject a paper are made solely by the Editorial Board based on scientific merit, originality, and validity. Staff involved in the financial management of APCs have no influence over editorial outcomes.

4. Waiver and Discount Policy

To ensure that financial constraints do not prevent the publication of high-quality research, the Journal of Business Insight and Innovation offers a robust waiver program:

  • Low-Income Economies: Authors primary-affiliated with institutions in countries classified by the World Bank as Low-Income Economies are eligible for a partial or full of the APC.

  • Lower-Middle-Income Economies: Authors from Lower-Middle-Income countries may apply for a partial waiver or discount.

  • Financial Hardship: Local or international authors experiencing genuine financial distress or lack of institutional funding may apply for a discretionary waiver.

  • How to Apply: Waiver requests must be submitted during the initial manuscript submission process via a formal request letter to the Editorial Office. Requests made after the peer-review process has begun will not be considered.

5. Refund Policy

Once an article is published online, the APC is non-refundable, as the publishing services have been fully rendered.