Article Processing and Publication Fee
ARTICLE PROCESSING AND PUBLICATION FEE POLICY
1. Fee Transparency
The Ghurki Journal of Medical and Health Sciences (GJMHS) follows a transparent and equitable publication-fee policy. All publication charges are publicly displayed on the journal website so that authors are fully informed before submitting a manuscript.
GJMHS does not charge any fee for:
- Manuscript submission
- Initial editorial screening
- Plagiarism assessment
- Peer review
- Editorial evaluation
- Manuscript revision
- Rejected or withdrawn manuscripts before acceptance
A publication fee becomes payable only after the manuscript has successfully completed peer review and a formal acceptance letter has been issued.
Payment of a publication fee does not guarantee manuscript acceptance.
2 Publication Fee Structure
The following publication charges apply to each accepted manuscript:
| Author category | Publication fee |
|---|---|
| Authors based in Pakistan | PKR 10,000 |
| International authors | USD 50 |
These are the only standard publication charges applied by GJMHS. Authors will not be asked to pay any undisclosed or additional editorial or peer-review fee.
The applicable fee will be communicated to the corresponding author through an official acceptance or payment communication after acceptance of the manuscript.
3 Services Covered by the Publication Fee
The publication fee supports the costs associated with:
- Editorial and administrative processing
- Manuscript copyediting
- Language and technical formatting
- Layout and typesetting
- DOI registration and maintenance
- Online publication and hosting
- Digital archiving and preservation
- Website maintenance and journal management
- Dissemination and long-term accessibility of published articles
The publication charge is not a payment to editors or reviewers and does not influence the editorial decision.
4 Payment Procedure
After formal acceptance, the corresponding author will receive:
- The final acceptance letter
- Details of the applicable publication fee
- Official payment instructions
- The payment deadline
- Contact details for payment-related queries
Authors should not make any payment before receiving an official acceptance and payment communication from GJMHS.
Proof of payment must be submitted through the journal’s designated communication channel. A payment acknowledgement or receipt will be issued after verification.
5 Waiver and Discount Policy
GJMHS recognizes that some authors may have limited access to research funding. Full or partial publication-fee waivers may therefore be considered for:
- Authors from resource-limited settings
- Early-career researchers
- Students without institutional or research funding
- Authors facing genuine financial hardship
- Research considered important for public health or community benefit
Waiver or discount requests must be submitted to the editorial office before payment, preferably at the time of submission or immediately after acceptance.
The request should include:
- Manuscript title and identification number
- Name and affiliation of the corresponding author
- A brief justification for the waiver or discount
- Information regarding the availability of institutional or research funding
Each request will be assessed individually. Approval of a waiver is not automatic and depends on the circumstances presented and the journal’s available resources.
6 Editorial Independence and Ethical Safeguards
The following safeguards apply:
- The ability or inability of an author to pay does not influence manuscript assessment or acceptance.
- Editors and peer reviewers evaluate manuscripts solely on scientific quality, originality, relevance and ethical compliance.
- Peer reviewers are not provided with authors’ payment or waiver information.
- Fee-related matters are handled separately from the peer-review and editorial decision-making process.
- Requests for waivers or discounts do not affect the final editorial decision.
- No manuscript will receive preferential, expedited or guaranteed acceptance because of payment.
7 Refund and Withdrawal Policy
No publication fee is charged when a manuscript is rejected.
If an author withdraws the manuscript before payment and before production processing begins, no publication fee will be payable.
Once payment has been received and copyediting, formatting, DOI registration or publication processing has commenced, the publication fee will normally be non-refundable.
Refunds may be considered in cases of:
- Duplicate payment
- Incorrect payment amount
- Payment made because of an administrative or technical error
- Cancellation of publication by the journal for reasons not attributable to the authors
Refund requests must be submitted in writing with proof of payment and complete manuscript details.
8 Fee Disclosure
The publication-fee structure will remain available on the GJMHS website under a clearly identifiable heading such as “Article Processing and Publication Charges.”
Any future revision in publication charges will:
- Be approved by the journal management
- Be updated on the journal website
- Clearly state the effective date
- Apply prospectively to manuscripts submitted after the revised fee becomes effective
Authors will always be charged according to the fee displayed on the journal website at the relevant stage of submission or acceptance.
