Publication Charges & APC Transparency

International Journal of Research, Exploration & Knowledge (IJREK) publishes all articles under a Gold Open Access model (CC BY 4.0). Under this model, all published papers are made freely and permanently available online immediately upon publication, without subscription barriers or reader paywalls.

To sustain our digital infrastructure, electronic archiving, Crossref DOI registration, similarity screening software, and professional PDF/XML typesetting, the journal relies on an Article Processing Charge (APC).

IJREK enforces a strict separation between financial administration and editorial decision-making:

• No Submission Fee: Authors can submit manuscripts and receive technical validation completely free of charge.
• No Evaluation Fee: Double-anonymized peer review is provided at zero cost to the author.
• Payment Timing: An APC invoice is generated only after a manuscript has completed rigorous peer review and received formal, unconditional editorial acceptance from the handling Editor.
• Rejected Manuscripts: Manuscripts rejected during initial screening or peer review incur absolutely no fee.

IJREK maintains absolute fee transparency. We do not charge any of the following auxiliary fees:

• No Page Charges: Manuscripts are not charged per page. Word counts are advisory.
• No Color Figure Charges: Color graphs, schematics, and high-resolution figures are published without extra fees.
• No Supplementary Data Fees: Datasets, code listings, and supplementary files are hosted free of charge.

We believe that financial hardship must never impede the publication of high-quality scientific discoveries. IJREK offers automatic and discretionary waiver programs:

• Low-Income Economies (Research4Life Group A): Corresponding authors based in World Bank-classified low-income nations are eligible for up to a 100% full waiver upon request.
• Lower-Middle-Income Economies (Research4Life Group B): Authors based in lower-middle-income nations are eligible for a 50% partial waiver.
• Unfunded & Student Researchers: Early-career scholars, postgraduate students, and researchers with no institutional grant backing may apply for discretionary fee reductions during manuscript submission.

Waiver requests are handled confidentially by the financial secretariat and have no influence on peer-review evaluation or editorial acceptance.

Upon acceptance, an official invoice detailing the APC, applicable institutional discounts, and payment instructions is dispatched to the corresponding author:

• Invoices can be settled via institutional wire transfer (SWIFT/IBAN), international credit/debit card, or secure digital payment gateways.
• Invoices are issued in USD and major convertible currencies. Official VAT or tax receipts are provided upon settlement.

The APC covers the costs of editorial management, peer-review coordination, layout typesetting, DOI registration, and electronic publication. Once an article has been formally published online, the APC is non-refundable.

In the rare event that an article must be retracted post-publication due to confirmed author misconduct or data fabrication, no refund will be issued.