Processing Charges

Processing Charges

eCurater is into open access publication in which all the published articles are made freely and permanently accessible online to the end user. The authors retain the copyright to their work. The users are allowed to reuse and adapt their work by providing appropriate attribution to the original author. The published articles at eCurater are made available to the end user without any restrictions but the Authors are charged with certain Article Processing Fee once the manuscript is accepted for publication. This section gives an understanding of the Article Processing Charges, why are they imposed and how they vary according to the journal.

Processing Fee

Every submitted manuscript at eCurater undergoes a streamlined review and editorial process. Right from submission, eCurater shoulders the responsibility of peer reviewing the article, international editing, publication, submitting the article to global indexing and tracking organisations, archiving of both main manuscript and supplementary documents of accepted articles to facilitate end user accessibility. Thus APCs cover this entire process of manuscript handling. The Processing charges cover the editorial and production costs, costs for hosting the website, publishing articles online, graphics images, tables, costs for preparing HTML, PDF and XML versions of the articles and then submitting the articles in an electronic citation database. The complete procedure starting from screening to the final publication of the article involves Editorial Screening team who look into the technical and ethical aspects of the content, The Editorial team who manage the review process, The Production team who convert the manuscript into a well-structured piece, The Proofing team who take care of the proofing process-an important step before final publication, The Quality team or The Research Integrity team who perform a final quality check of the manuscript, The Marketing team who ensure wide dissemination and the Technology team who coordinate the whole online processing by maintaining reliable and standard system design. Thus, APCs are employed to accommodate and build these teams thereby ensuring a sustainable publishing process.

Waiver Policy

eCurater is a mission oriented rather than a profit oriented publication platform. Our aim is to make scientific knowledge accessible to everyone. For those researchers who cannot endure the processing charges, eCurater brings forth its explicit waiver policy. The following conditions are to be met in order for an author to be qualified for half or a full waiver of the processing charges. In order to support his inability to fund the article processing charges, the author has to submit one of the following documents at the time of manuscript submission. The request will not be considered if it is made once the publication process has started. So, authors are recommended to submit a request for waiver with the essential proofs supporting the same at the time of manuscript submission. The documents are:  

• An attested letter from the author’s institutional representative, such as Head of Department, with verifiable institutional email address confirming that payment will be made from author’s personal funds. (All the authors must confirm to this) 
• Signed letter from retired or independent author indicating lack of institutional association and confirming that payment will be made from personal funds (all authors on paper must be retired or independent and confirm to this)
• Signed letter from the author’s institution confirming budget limitations signed by the Institutional Head of Department with verifiable institutional email address clearly stating the budget constraints. (All authors must provide a letter supporting the same)

 The final decision regarding the waiver solely relies on the committee instituted by eCurater.