Charges Policy

Article Processing Charges (APC)

Academia International Journal of Natural and Environmental Sciences (AIJNES) is a fully open access journal. All articles are free to read, download and share immediately upon publication. To cover the costs of publication, a one-time Article Processing Charge (APC) is payable by the author(s), their institution or funder only after a manuscript has been accepted for publication.

No Hidden or Additional Charges

  • Submission fee: None
  • Peer review / processing fee: None
  • Page, colour or figure charges: None
  • Charges for readers: None – no subscription, registration or pay-per-view fee

The APC listed below is the only fee charged by the journal. Authors are never asked to pay before acceptance.

APC Structure

Corresponding Author AffiliationAPC
Top 100 Universities (QS/THE ranking)No APC
Top 500 UniversitiesUSD 150
High-Income Countries (World Bank classification)USD 200
Middle-Income CountriesUSD 150
Low-Income CountriesUSD 150
Institutions in PakistanPKR 30,000

What Does the APC Cover?

  • Management of the double-blind peer review process
  • Copy-editing, typesetting and professional layout
  • DOI registration through Crossref
  • Online hosting and long-term digital preservation
  • Submission of metadata to indexing services and databases
  • Editorial and administrative support

Waiver and Discount Policy

AIJNES does not want the APC to be a barrier to publication. Full or partial waivers are available for:

  • Authors from low-income countries listed by the World Bank
  • Students and early-career researchers without funding
  • Authors facing documented financial hardship

Waiver requests must be sent to the editorial office (jawad@academia.edu.pk) at the time of submission, with a brief justification. Each request is assessed individually and confidentially by the publisher.

Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions are based solely on the quality and scholarly merit of the manuscript. Editors and reviewers are not informed about whether an author has paid, will pay, or has requested a waiver, and a waiver request has no influence on the outcome of peer review.

Payment and Refunds

An invoice is issued to the corresponding author after formal acceptance. The article is scheduled for publication once payment is received. If an accepted article is later withdrawn by the journal for reasons not attributable to the author, the APC is refunded in full. APCs are not refundable once an article has been published.