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Can you waive or discount the fees for me?

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Editorial Director
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Important: Because of a system change, the Karma credit program will be put on hold - accruals end on Jul 31, 2022, and redemptions must be made before Oct 31, 2022. Please read the KB article on Karma Credit Sunset.

 

JMIR Publications Article Processing Fee (APF) Support Policy

The following policy applies for all APF support requests received after January 31, 2023.

JMIR Publications APF Support Policy

JMIR Publications adheres to Plan S guidance on publisher policies regarding article processing fee (APF) discount or waiver requests from authors. JMIR Publications endorses the coverage of open access publication fees via transformative agreements and coverage by funders or research institutions, not by individual researchers. All researchers should be able to publish their work in an open access format. 

Authors can apply for APF support (a discount or waiver) using this application form. This form also assists authors in identifying potential sources of funding or APF support for Open Access publishing. This includes information about institutional open access agreements, institutional partnerships with JMIR Publications, and additional possible sources of APF support. 

Authors should consider the following when applying for APF support:

  • Complete this application as early as possible when preparing to submit the manuscript, or immediately upon submission of the manuscript.
  • Submit one application per manuscript per APF support request.
  • Requests for APF support can only be made by completing and submitting the application form. Requests received via email or through other communications will not be considered.

A discount can be an amount (in USD) or percentage of the APF that would be provided as APF support by JMIR Publications. A waiver is equivalent to a discount of 100%. Note that full waivers are granted in exceptional cases. Discounts are more commonly provided. 

Information provided in this application form will be reviewed by JMIR Publications staff to determine if a manuscript may be eligible for an APF discount or waiver. JMIR Publications staff may request authors to provide additional supporting information regarding the APF support requested.

Requests for discounts or waivers are assessed by JMIR Publications staff and not by academic editors. Please do not contact editors regarding waivers or discounts as they will not be able to assist. The outcome of an APF discount or waiver request would not influence an editorial decision and should not be considered an indication that a manuscript will be accepted. APF discounts or waivers are not transferable.

To submit an application for APF support, please complete this form.

If APF support is provided, then an Acknowledgement will be appended to the manuscript during production (only if and after the manuscript is accepted) that states that JMIR Publications has provided APF support for publication of the work. 

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General Considerations

JMIR Publications is not a funding agency. We ask authors to exhaust all possible avenues to obtain external funding to cover the publication costs. External funding options can include, but may not be limited only to: grant agency funding, institutional or university open access (OA) funding, industry or commercial funding, among many other options that may be accessible to authors. 

JMIR Publications aims to publish widely indexed, carefully copyedited, high-quality manuscripts, that are also deposited in repositories such as PubMed Central. Publication of an accepted paper requires expensive production steps such as copyediting, reference checking and XML tagging. In the editing and production stage, JMIR Publications employs professional full-time staff and freelancers, including copyeditors (most journals do not include copyediting). To defray these costs (and because we do not sell subscriptions like toll-access journals) we require certain fees to be paid as APFs. An APF applies only in case of acceptance, and (optionally) a fast-track fee for expedited review.

Authors are encouraged to review the resources listed here to see what may apply to their situation before submitting an APF support application:

Acknowledgement of such OA funding sources on published manuscripts would be appropriate, similar to how researchers would provide an acknowledgement to a funding agency for supporting travel to conferences or supporting the research project conducted. The same applies to all co-authors. For example, if unfunded PhD students publish with a senior author on a manuscript, we may request that the senior author provide a justification regarding the absence of external funding or university open access funds are available to support publishing the manuscript.

Institutional Partnerships Offering APF Support

I am a Student or Faculty of the University of California

Great news: $1000 APF support is automatically applied and deducted from the APF, if a manuscript is accepted after peer review. Authors can also apply for a full APF waiver by filling in the form at: APF Support for Corresponding Authors from the University of California

This form is different from the general APF Support Application Form. University of California authors do not need to complete both application forms. They only need to fill out the form that is specific to University of California authors. See the link provided above for further instructions.

I am affiliated with a university covered by the Jisc Consortium

JMIR Publications and Jisc have agreed to a deal to help secure funding for authors who want to publish with JMIR Publications. To check if your university is Jisc-affiliated and see how to obtain APF support through the Jisc deal, read Frequently Asked Questions About Jisc Funding.

I have some grant funds, but my funding agency has set an APF limit which JMIR Publications exceeds

Authors funded by DFG have noted that DFG caps the APF at EUR 2000. On a case-by-case basis, JMIR Publications would evaluate additional discount requests after funding agencies have reached a cap for how much APF support they can provide. Please read: Gibt es einen speziellen Preisnachlass fuer DFG-gefoerderte JMIR Autoren? (are there any discounts available for JMIR authors funded by the German Research Foundation?)

APF Support for JMIR Research Protocols or JMIR Formative Research

We do not provide full waivers for research protocols/proposals in JMIR Research Protocols or manuscripts in JMIR Formative Research.

JMIR Research Protocols offers a 50% discount on protocols/proposals if they are grant-funded and an external grant agency peer review report from the funding body is available and attached to the submission.

Authors do not need to submit an application form for this discount, as this is applied upon editorial approval of the the external grant agency peer review reports for use. See When is a grant proposal or protocol eligible for the 50% discount on the APF?

If these requirements are not fulfilled (no external grant agency peer review reports are available), then the manuscript will go through standard editorial processing (sent to external peer review) and the JMIR Research Protocols full APF would apply, if the manuscript is accepted.

No APF full waivers are available for JMIR Research Protocols. Only a maximum of a 50% discount may be applied in exceptional cases (e.g. student/patient-led projects). Please use the waiver/discount application form to apply for this discount.

Also, protocols from authors from the University of California can be published free of charge for the author, see APF Support for Corresponding Authors from the University of California.


Thanks again for your interest in JMIR Publications journals.

 

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