Charges
Article Processing Charges
International Marine Science Journal is open access and carries no subscription. Publication is funded by an article processing charge, payable only if a manuscript is accepted.
There is no submission fee or fee for peer review. The APC is payable only after acceptance. Withdrawal charges may apply as described below.
First
Charges and editorial decisions
The most important thing on this page, stated before any figure or process.
Editorial decisions are independent of an author's ability to pay. Payment of an article processing charge plays no part in the assessment of a manuscript. The charge is raised only after a decision has been made, by staff who take no part in making it.
Editorial decisions remain independent of payment, membership, or roles. Rejected manuscripts have no APC. Withdrawal charges are separate. Authors with billing questions should contact the editorial office before acceptance.
Timing
When the charge applies
- At submission
- Nothing. There is no submission fee.
- During review
- Nothing. There is no review or handling fee, and none is raised for a manuscript under consideration.
- If declined
- Nothing, at screening or after review.
- On acceptance
- The article processing charge is invoiced to the corresponding author or to the institution or funder they nominate.
- Amount
- The APC is USD 1,800 for every accepted article type. The editorial office confirms the charge in writing before payment.
- Taxes
- Any tax that applies in the payer's jurisdiction is shown separately on the invoice.
Inclusions
What the charge covers
- Editorial handling and peer review
- Screening, editor assignment, reviewer identification and management of the review process. Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request.
- Production
- Copyediting, typesetting, figure preparation, XML generation and proofing.
- Identifiers and metadata
- Registration of a Crossref DOI and distribution of the article metadata.
- Open access hosting
- Publication under CC BY 4.0, free to read from the day of publication, with no embargo.
- Preservation
- Commitment of the content to Portico for long-term preservation.
- Color and supplementary material
- Color figures, supplementary files and datasets are included; they are not charged separately.
Process
Invoicing and payment
Acceptance
The editorial decision is made and communicated. Only then does the charge arise.
Invoice
A formal invoice is issued to the corresponding author, or to the institution or funder they nominate, in a form suitable for institutional processing. Give the billing details at acceptance so that the invoice is raised correctly the first time.
Payment
Payment is made by the route set out on the invoice. Where an institution's finance process needs longer, tell the billing office and the timetable is arranged around it.
Publication
Production proceeds and the article is published open access with its registered DOI.
Institutional and funder billing is routine. If your institution or funder pays open-access charges centrally, nominate them at acceptance and the invoice is raised to them directly.
Withdrawal
Withdrawing a manuscript
Authors should contact the editorial office promptly and wait for written confirmation before submitting the work elsewhere.
Manuscripts withdrawn within 3 days of submission are not subject to a withdrawal charge.
Manuscripts withdrawn more than 3 days after submission incur a withdrawal charge equal to 30% of the journal's APC.
Authors must receive official withdrawal confirmation before submitting the manuscript to another journal.
Concurrent submission of the same manuscript to more than one journal is a breach of publication ethics. Authors must use only one submission route for the same manuscript. See the Editorial Policies page.
Enquiries
Billing and fee-relief enquiries
Questions about the amount that would apply to a planned submission, about invoicing, institutional billing, tax, or about difficulty meeting a charge, go to the editorial office. Raise them before acceptance: options are easier to arrange at that stage than after an invoice has been issued.