APC/Fee Policy

1. Purpose

This policy ensures transparency regarding article processing charges, submission fees, publication fees, printing fees, waiver mechanisms and any other charges related to Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of Science (HCMCOUJS) publishing services.

2. Fee Transparency

HCMCOUJS currently operates under a Diamond Open Access model, meaning that the entire publication process is completely free of charge for authors. Specifically:

  • Submission Fee: No submission fee is charged. Authors are not required to pay any cost when submitting a manuscript.
  • Article Processing Charge (APC): No article processing charge is applied for peer review or editorial processes.
  • Publication Fee: No article publishing charge or open access fee is collected.
  • Printing / Hard-copy Fee: Online publication is entirely free of charge. However, if an author requests a printed hard copy, a printing fee will be calculated based on the actual cost of the printer (applicable for small quantities) at the time of printing.
  • Payment Schedule: As all services are free of charge, authors are not required to make any payment at any stage.
  • Waiver Policy: As the journal is already 100% free for all authors worldwide, a fee waiver policy is not applicable.

3. No Influence on Editorial Decisions

Editorial Independence: As the journal does not collect any fees, there are no financial transactions that could influence or affect editorial decisions. Manuscripts are evaluated solely on the basis of their scholarly merit and adherence to ethical standards.

Editorial decisions must be independent and based exclusively on scholarly quality and ethical compliance.

4. Current Fee Statement

At present, HCMCOUJS does not charge authors any submission fee, peer review fee, article processing charge or publication fee, unless otherwise clearly announced on the official journal website. Any future fee policy shall be publicly disclosed before implementation and shall not affect editorial independence or peer review integrity.

5. Printing or Optional Services

All optional services such as printing, hard copies, translation, language editing, or formatting are clearly separated from editorial decisions.

Authors are not required to use any paid third-party services as a condition for manuscript acceptance.

6. Changes to Fee Policy

Any changes to the fee policy at HCMCOUJS shall be implemented as follows:

  1. approved by the competent authority;
  2. published clearly on the website;
  3. dated and versioned;
  4. applied prospectively;
  5. not applied retroactively to manuscripts already under consideration unless authors agree.

7. Related Policies

This policy shall be interpreted together with:

Policy Information

Item

Content

Policy Owner

HCMCOUJS Editorial Council

Approved by

Editor-in-Chief and HCMCOUJS Editorial Council

Version

3.0

Effective Date

May 2026

Review Cycle

Annual