Article Processing Charge Policy

Journal of Education and Development Lab (JEDL)
ISSN: Pending
Publisher: Journal of Education and Development Lab (JEDL)
Website: https://jedl.us/

1. Purpose

The Journal of Education and Development Lab (JEDL) is committed to providing equitable access to scholarly publishing and ensuring that financial considerations do not create barriers to authors or influence editorial decisions.

JEDL operates as a no-fee, voluntary academic publishing initiative. The journal does not charge authors any Article Processing Charge (APC), submission fee, publication fee, manuscript processing fee, page charge, or other mandatory fee for publishing scholarly work.

2. No Article Processing Charges

JEDL does not charge any Article Processing Charge (APC).

Authors are not required to pay any fee for:

  • Manuscript submission;

  • Initial editorial screening;

  • Peer review;

  • Revision;

  • Acceptance;

  • Copyediting;

  • Typesetting;

  • Online publication;

  • DOI registration;

  • Article hosting;

  • Article access;

  • Publication in an issue.

There is no APC at any stage of the publication process.

3. No Submission Fee

JEDL does not charge authors a submission fee.

Authors may submit manuscripts to the journal without making any payment.

The absence of a submission fee applies equally to all authors regardless of:

  • Country;

  • Institution;

  • Academic position;

  • Career stage;

  • Research area;

  • Funding status;

  • Economic circumstances.

4. No Publication Fee

JEDL does not charge a publication fee when a manuscript is accepted.

Acceptance of a manuscript is not conditional upon payment of any fee.

Authors will never be asked to pay a publication fee in order to have an accepted article published in the journal.

5. No Hidden or Mandatory Charges

JEDL does not impose hidden publication charges.

Authors will not be required to pay additional mandatory charges for:

  • Extra pages;

  • Figures;

  • Tables;

  • Colour illustrations;

  • Supplementary files;

  • References;

  • Article length;

  • Formatting;

  • Copyediting;

  • Typesetting;

  • DOI assignment;

  • Online hosting;

  • Open-access availability.

Where exceptional administrative or technical circumstances require an author to arrange a service independently, such arrangements will not constitute an APC or mandatory JEDL publication fee.

6. Voluntary Academic and Editorial Work

JEDL is supported substantially through voluntary academic, editorial, peer-review, technical, and administrative contributions.

Editors, reviewers, editorial board members, academic contributors, and other participants may contribute their time and expertise on a voluntary or otherwise non-remunerated basis.

The journal's no-fee model reflects its commitment to supporting scholarly communication rather than generating income from authors.

7. Editorial Independence

JEDL's no-fee model reinforces the principle that editorial decisions are based on scholarly and editorial considerations rather than financial considerations.

Decisions concerning:

  • Desk evaluation;

  • Peer review;

  • Revision;

  • Acceptance;

  • Rejection;

  • Publication priority;

are made independently of any author's ability or willingness to make a payment.

No author can obtain acceptance, expedited review, preferential treatment, or publication by offering or providing financial support.

8. Peer Review Is Not Affected by Fees

Because JEDL does not charge APCs or publication fees, the peer-review process is not connected to author payments.

All manuscripts that proceed beyond editorial screening are evaluated according to the journal's Peer Review Policy and applicable editorial standards.

Reviewers are not paid by authors for reviewing manuscripts.

9. No Payment for Acceptance

Authors should be aware that JEDL will never request payment as a condition of acceptance.

Any communication claiming that an author must pay an APC, acceptance fee, processing fee, or similar charge in order to publish an article in JEDL should be treated with caution and verified directly with the journal's official editorial office.

10. Open Access Without Author Fees

JEDL provides open access to its published articles without charging readers subscription or access fees.

Accordingly, JEDL operates a no-APC open-access publishing model in which:

  • Authors are not charged APCs;

  • Readers are not charged access fees;

  • Published articles are freely accessible online.

This approach is intended to reduce financial barriers on both sides of the scholarly communication process.

11. Funding and Financial Support

JEDL's operations may be supported through voluntary academic contributions, institutional support, infrastructure provided by contributors, or other legitimate non-commercial sources.

Any financial or material support received by the journal must not compromise:

  • Editorial independence;

  • Peer-review integrity;

  • Publication ethics;

  • Author rights;

  • Research integrity;

  • Open-access availability.

JEDL does not make editorial decisions based on financial relationships.

12. Voluntary Contributions

JEDL may receive voluntary, unsolicited contributions or institutional support for the general sustainability of the journal, where permitted and appropriate.

Such contributions:

  • Are entirely voluntary;

  • Are not required for submission or publication;

  • Do not influence editorial decisions;

  • Do not guarantee acceptance or publication;

  • Do not provide preferential treatment;

  • Do not create special publication rights.

A voluntary contribution must never be represented as an APC, publication fee, acceptance fee, or payment for editorial preference.

13. Waivers

Because JEDL does not charge APCs or mandatory publication fees, an APC waiver system is not applicable.

All eligible authors automatically benefit from the journal's no-fee publishing model.

No application or request for an APC waiver is necessary.

14. Equality of Authors

JEDL's no-fee model applies equally to all authors.

The journal does not differentiate publication charges based on:

  • Geographic location;

  • Country income level;

  • Institutional affiliation;

  • Funding availability;

  • Academic rank;

  • Research discipline;

  • Number of authors;

  • Corresponding author's status.

Every author is treated equally with respect to publication fees.

15. No Commercialization of Editorial Decisions

JEDL does not sell editorial decisions or publication priority.

The following are not available for purchase:

  • Acceptance;

  • Guaranteed publication;

  • Faster peer review in exchange for payment;

  • Preferential editorial treatment;

  • Guaranteed indexing;

  • Guaranteed citation;

  • Guaranteed DOI assignment;

  • Editorial board membership through payment.

The journal's academic decisions remain independent of financial considerations.

16. No Fees for Readers

JEDL also does not charge readers for accessing published content.

There are no mandatory charges for:

  • Reading articles;

  • Downloading articles;

  • Accessing article metadata;

  • Viewing abstracts;

  • Accessing published issues.

Published articles are made freely available under JEDL's Open Access Policy and applicable Creative Commons licensing terms.

17. Relationship with Copyright and Licensing

JEDL's no-fee publishing model is independent of copyright ownership.

Unless otherwise agreed in writing, copyright remains with the author(s).

JEDL publishes articles under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), subject to the journal's Copyright & Licensing Policy.

No payment is required from authors to retain copyright or to publish under the applicable Creative Commons license.

18. DOI and Metadata Services

Where JEDL assigns DOIs and provides associated scholarly metadata services, authors are not charged separately for:

  • DOI assignment;

  • DOI registration;

  • Article metadata creation;

  • Metadata dissemination;

  • Basic article hosting.

These services are part of JEDL's publication infrastructure and are not separately billed to authors.

19. No Refund Policy

Because JEDL does not charge APCs, submission fees, or publication fees, there is normally no author-fee refund process.

If an author receives a request for payment claiming to originate from JEDL, the author should verify the request through the journal's official contact channels before making any payment.

20. Fraudulent Payment Requests

Authors should be alert to fraudulent communications requesting payment in the name of JEDL.

JEDL will not request payment for:

  • Acceptance of an article;

  • Publication of an article;

  • Peer review;

  • Editorial processing;

  • DOI assignment;

  • Open-access publication.

Authors should not make payments in response to unofficial or suspicious communications.

Any suspected fraudulent request should be reported to the JEDL editorial office.

21. Transparency

JEDL will publicly maintain a clear statement that:

JEDL does not charge Article Processing Charges (APCs), submission fees, publication fees, or any other mandatory author fees. The journal operates as a voluntary academic publishing initiative.

This statement will be accessible to prospective authors and readers through the journal website.

22. Policy Changes

If JEDL ever considers introducing an APC or other publication-related charge in the future, the change will not be applied retrospectively to manuscripts without appropriate notice.

Any future fee structure would be:

  • Clearly published on the journal website;

  • Communicated transparently to authors;

  • Applied consistently;

  • Separate from editorial decision-making;

  • Accompanied by appropriate information about waivers or exemptions where applicable.

Any change to the fee model would be reflected in this policy before implementation.

23. Relationship with Other JEDL Policies

This policy should be read together with:

  • Open Access Policy;

  • Copyright & Licensing Policy;

  • Peer Review Policy;

  • Publication Ethics & Malpractice Policy;

  • Editorial Policy;

  • Conflict of Interest Policy;

  • Plagiarism & Research Misconduct Policy;

  • Authorship & Contributorship Policy;

  • AI & Generative AI Policy.

24. Policy Review

JEDL will periodically review this policy to ensure that its fee practices remain transparent, equitable, and consistent with responsible scholarly publishing principles.

Any substantive changes will be publicly communicated through the official JEDL website.

25. Contact

Questions concerning JEDL's publication fees, no-APC model, voluntary support, or suspected fraudulent payment requests may be directed to the journal's official editorial office.

Journal of Education and Development Lab (JEDL)
Website: https://jedl.us/

Short Fee Statement for the JEDL Website

No APC / No Publication Fee

The Journal of Education and Development Lab (JEDL) does not charge any Article Processing Charge (APC), submission fee, publication fee, processing fee, page charge, or other mandatory author fee. Submission, peer review, acceptance, publication, DOI assignment, and online access are provided without charge. JEDL operates as a voluntary academic publishing initiative supported substantially by voluntary academic, editorial, peer-review, technical, and administrative contributions. Editorial decisions are completely independent of financial considerations.