Readers pay nothing — the journal is open access. Publication is funded on the author side by an Article Processing Charge (APC), payable only on acceptance. There is no submission fee, and fee waivers are need-blind: good, reproducible science must never fail here because someone cannot pay.
The APC amount is being finalised and will be published on this page before the journal charges any fee. We do not print placeholder numbers. Submitting today costs nothing.
What the APC pays for
The APC covers a service, not a verdict: the reproducibility-verifying review with detailed, constructive feedback, production of the article (HTML and archival formats), DOI registration, hosting, and long-term preservation of the article together with its reproducibility package. It is not a payment for acceptance.
Payment never touches the decision
- The editorial decision is made without regard to payment or ability to pay; the deciding editor does not see payment or waiver status and is not rewarded per acceptance.
- The founding editors do not publish their own research in the journal.
- We publish our process openly — decision counts appear on the journal page with their as-of date, and acceptance rates and decision times will be published as real numbers once enough decisions exist. Radical transparency is our anti-predatory lever.
Waivers — need-blind by design
- Automatic full waiver for corresponding authors based in low-income and lower-middle-income economies. The big publishers' waiver schemes typically leave middle-income countries with a discount that still prices researchers out; our structural low cost lets us close that gap as normal pricing, not selective charity.
- Hardship waivers (full or partial) for any unfunded author or student, on request, need-blind and non-bureaucratic — a short note, not a means test.
- Waivers are requested at submission and decided independently of the scientific decision; waiver status is never visible to the deciding editor. Granted waivers are reported in aggregate.
Optional feedback report on rejected submissions
Every rejection letter develops one decisive issue in depth, free. Authors of rejected submissions can additionally purchase the complete assessment report as optional feedback (see the peer-review policy). Three hard rules, stated here for fee transparency: the report is strictly optional, it never changes the decision, and it is not offered where the rejection is for integrity reasons. Appeals are always free. The report's price is being finalised and will be published here alongside the APC.
Refunds and billing
Institutional invoicing is supported. If an article is withdrawn or retracted due to a journal error, the APC is refunded. The optional privacy-preserving data service (see data & code availability) is priced separately and billed only when an author opts in; its pricing will likewise be published before the service accepts engagements.