How open-access publishing at Directive Publications is funded — what an APC covers, what we never charge, and when anything becomes payable.
Directive Publications is a fully open-access scholarly publisher. Every article we publish is free to read, download, and reuse anywhere in the world, from the moment it appears online. Because we do not sell subscriptions and impose no paywalls, the costs of professional publishing are met by a single Article Processing Charge (APC). We believe fee information should be clear and easy to find, so this page explains exactly what the APC is, what it funds, what we never charge for, and when — if ever — anything becomes payable.
An Article Processing Charge is a one-time charge that covers the work of turning an accepted manuscript into a lasting, citable, professionally produced scholarly record — the version of record. It funds the management of peer review, editorial handling, copy-editing, typesetting and production, metadata creation, DOI registration, open-access hosting, and ongoing safeguarding of the published work. In traditional publishing these costs are recovered from readers and libraries through subscriptions and per-article purchases. The APC simply moves that cost to the author side so the finished article can be free for everyone to read.
Open access reverses the economics of the paywall. Instead of charging thousands of readers to see a single paper, the publication cost is met once, and the article is then made freely available to the entire research community — students, clinicians, and scholars regardless of institutional budget. There is no subscription, no reading fee, and no per-article purchase. On publication, the work is immediately available to read, download, and reuse under an open licence, which increases its reach, its readership, and its potential to be cited and built upon. You can read more about our approach on the Open Access page.
The charge funds the full editorial and production lifecycle of an accepted article, including:
Transparency about fees means being just as clear about the charges that do not exist. At Directive Publications there are:
The APC is the only charge, and it is the same regardless of how long the article is or how many figures or tables it contains.
You are free to submit, and free throughout the entire review process. The APC becomes payable only if and when your manuscript is formally accepted for publication after peer review. If your manuscript is rejected, nothing is owed. There is no financial commitment at submission, and no obligation of any kind while your work is under editorial consideration. Full author-facing guidance is available in our Author Guidelines.
Editorial decisions at Directive Publications are based solely on scholarly merit, originality, methodological soundness, and relevance — never on a willingness or ability to pay. The APC, its payment, and any waiver or discount have no bearing whatsoever on whether a manuscript is sent for review, how it is reviewed, or whether it is accepted. Editors and reviewers reach their decisions independently and are not informed of an author's payment or waiver status during the assessment of scholarly quality. This separation of editorial judgement from financial considerations is fundamental to our editorial policies and reflects our alignment with the COPE Core Practices and the ICMJE Recommendations.
The applicable charge is displayed to you during the online submission process, and it is also available on request from our editorial office. The APC may vary by journal and by article type, so we present the exact, current charge in the context of your specific submission rather than as a single figure here. This ensures the information you see is always accurate for your journal.
Our fees are reviewed periodically. Should a charge change, the amount shown to you at submission always governs your article, and any change will be communicated in advance. We do not, however, promise that fees will remain fixed indefinitely.
We do not want a lack of funding to prevent good research from being published openly. Waivers and discounts may be available, particularly for authors without access to research or institutional funding. Where an article has multiple authors, eligibility is generally assessed on the circumstances of the corresponding author and the funding available to the author group. Requests should be made at or before submission, so that any decision is settled before editorial assessment concludes.
All waiver requests are handled confidentially and, as noted above, have no effect on the review or the editorial outcome. For full eligibility criteria and the application process, please see our Waiver Policy.
In limited circumstances an APC that has been paid may be refundable — for example, in the case of a duplicate payment, or where an article is withdrawn by the editorial office before publication. Refunds are assessed against clearly defined conditions. For the full terms, including how and when to request a refund, please see our Refund Policy.
The APC delivers concrete, lasting value. Every article is published open access under the irrevocable Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) licence, which permits reuse and redistribution with appropriate attribution. Crucially, authors retain copyright in their own work — you grant readers reuse rights under CC BY, but the copyright remains yours. Each accepted article also receives a Crossref-registered DOI (prefix 10.52338) and standards-based JATS and OAI-PMH metadata, so your work is citable, persistent, and discoverable across scholarly infrastructure. Further detail is on our Copyright page.
Once your manuscript is accepted, an invoice is issued. The charge may be paid by the author, by the author's institution, or by a research funder. If your institution or funder handles publication costs on your behalf, our editorial office can arrange institutional or funder billing — simply contact us with the relevant details as early as possible, and we will provide the documentation needed for payment or reimbursement.
For any question about fees, waivers, discounts, invoicing, or institutional billing, please contact our editorial office at [email protected], or write to us at Directive Publications, 30 N Gould St, Sheridan, WY 82801, USA. You may also wish to browse our journals or consider joining our reviewer community via Become a Reviewer.