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Article-processing charges FAQ
- Why does PhysMath Central have article-processing charges?
- What do the article-processing charges pay for?
- How much is PhysMath Central charging?
- Does PhysMath Central offer discounts on article-processing charges?
- How do PhysMath Central's charges compare with other publishers?
- Are any taxes included in this charge?
- To which articles will this charge apply?
- Why a flat charge rather than one based on page numbers?
- Who is responsible for making the payment?
- Which funding agencies explicitly allow direct use of their grants to cover article-processing charges?
- How do I pay?
- Can charges be waived if the author cannot pay?
- Will I have to pay if my institution is a BioMed Central member?
- Do changes to APC rates, exchange rates and/or institutional membership status affect the amount payable for a submitted article, if it goes on to be published?
- Do authors from low-income countries have to pay APCs?
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Why does PhysMath Central have article-processing charges?
Publishing with open access is not without costs. PhysMath Central defrays those costs from article-processing charges, because it does not have subscription charges for its research content, believing instead that immediate, world-wide, barrier-free, open access to the full text of research articles is in the best interests of the scientific community.
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What do the article-processing charges pay for?
- immediate world-wide barrier-free open access to the full text
- developing and maintaining electronic tools for peer review and publication
- preparation in various formats for online publication
- securing inclusion in PubMed as soon as possible after publication
- securing full text inclusion in a number of permanent archives such as INIST (France), Koninklijke Bibliotheek (The Netherlands), arXiv.org (USA)
- securing inclusion in CrossRef (enabling electronic citation in other journals that are available electronically)
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How much is PhysMath Central charging?
PhysMath Central's standard article-processing charge is £950.
There is a surcharge of £50 for any payments for individual articles that are not made by credit card.
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Does PhysMath Central offer discounts on article-processing charges?
PhysMath Central offers various discounts on APCs, which are outlined below. The discounts are exclusive of each other and cannot be accumulated.
| Discount reference |
Discount amount |
Notes |
Qualifying journals |
| Supporter Member discount |
15% on full APC |
Submitting author must be from Supporter Member institution. |
All journals published by PhysMath Central |
| Reviewer discount |
20% off full APC |
Submitting author must have been the reviewer to be awarded the discount. The review must have been returned on time and within the last 12 months.
Reviewer discount only applies to the journal in which the review was undertaken. For the purposes of this discount the PMC series (those journal with names beginning PMC) count as one.
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All journals published by PhysMath Central
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Please note that if the submitting author's organization is a BioMed Central member, the cost of the article processing charge is covered by the membership, and no further charge is payable. Please check if your institution is a BioMed Central member.
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How do PhysMath Central charges compare with other publishers?
PhysMath Central's article processing charges are extremely competitive. In general, PhysMath Central's charges are amongst the lowest of any publisher offering open access publication - see our APC comparison table.
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Are any taxes included in this charge?
No. Authors resident in any of the countries of the European Union have to add Value-Added Tax (VAT, currently 17.5%). Institutions paying the fee on behalf of the author can in most cases have the VAT refunded, or, by providing PhysMath Central with their VAT registration number*, avoid paying VAT altogether.
*except UK
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To which articles will this charge apply?
To all articles that have been accepted for open access publication in one of PhysMath Central's online journals.
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Why a flat charge rather than one based on page numbers?
The size of an article is a poor indicator of the actual amount of work involved in obtaining peer reviews and in preparing the article for publication. A more useful discriminator might be the state an article is in when submitted, and its complexity, but the lack of objective tools to measure these has lead us to conclude that a flat fee is the fairest approach at this stage.
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Who is responsible for making the payment?
Whoever submits the manuscript is responsible for making or arranging the payment (for instance, via his or her institution).
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Which funding agencies explicitly allow direct use of their grants to cover article-processing charges?
Many funding agencies allow the use of grants for this purpose, and an increasing number such as the Wellcome Trust, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the US National Institutes for Health strongly encourage Open Access publication.The following is a list of funding agencies we know of that have confirmed that they allow the payment of article processing charges:
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How do I pay?
Unless a waiver has been granted, the submitting author must confirm, on submission, that they will pay should the article be accepted for publication. If a manuscript is ready to be accepted, following peer review, the author will be notified and should provide payment by one of the following methods:
- Payment by credit card: the credit card details can be provided using a secure form, at the time the manuscript is ready for acceptance. No charges will be processed until the article is accepted for publication, and the author will be notified of any charges that have been made.
- Payment upon invoice: to be paid within 30 days of receipt of an invoice.
Payment other than by credit card carries an administrative surcharge of £50. In all cases a receipt will be sent after the payment has been received.
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Can charges be waived if the author cannot pay?
Individual waiver requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis and may be granted in cases of lack of funds. To apply for a waiver please request one during the submission process. A decision on the waiver will normally be made within two working days. Submission of the article to the journal can then be completed.
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Will I have to pay if my institution is a BioMed Central member?
Generally, if the submitting author's organization is a BioMed Central member, the cost of the article processing charge is covered by the membership, and no further charge is payable. In the case of authors whose institutions are supporter members of BioMed Central, however, a discounted article processing charge is payable by the author. Please click here to check if you institution is a BioMed Central member.
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Do changes to APC rates, exchange rates and/or institutional membership status affect the amount payable for a submitted article, if it goes on to be published?
No. The APC payable for your article is detemined at the time you agree to pay, as part of the submission process. This means:
- If the APC goes up between submission and publication, you still pay the lower APC.
- If the exchange rates change between submission and publication, you still pay the amount in your applicable currency that you agreed to pay when you submitted.
- If your institution ceases to be a member between submission and publication of your article, you still get the benefit of the membership. Conversely, if your institution becomes a member after you submit an article, that article will not in general be covered by the membership.
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Do authors from low-income countries have to pay APCs?
Authors from more than 90 low-income countries receive automatic waivers on submission and so do not have to pay article processing charges. This policy is supported by BioMed Central's Open Access Waiver Fund.
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