Non-Commercial Academic Sustainability and Cost-Recovery Policy

Post-Acceptance Publication Information

Academic Sustainability Contribution for Scientific Advancement (ASCSA)

IJCOPI operates under a non-commercial open-access publishing model. The journal does not charge submission, peer-review or editorial evaluation fees. To support the financial sustainability of its scholarly publishing infrastructure, manuscripts that have received a final editorial acceptance decision are subject to an Academic Sustainability Contribution for Scientific Advancement (ASCSA), with a full or partial waiver mechanism for authors lacking financial support.

The base sustainability contribution is USD 50 per accepted manuscript and is intended exclusively as partial cost recovery for the journal's scholarly publishing infrastructure and editorial operation. It is not intended to generate profit from publication and does not represent payment for manuscript acceptance.

No payment is requested at submission, during peer review or before the final editorial decision.

The existence, payment, non-payment or waiver of the contribution has no influence on peer review, editorial evaluation, acceptance criteria or the scientific decision concerning a manuscript. The final editorial acceptance decision is made before any payment request is issued.

Purpose and allocation of the contribution

The contribution is a partial cost-recovery mechanism used exclusively to support the journal's non-commercial scholarly publishing activities and technological infrastructure. It does not represent the full cost of publishing an article. The USD 50 base sustainability contribution is allocated approximately as follows:

Editorial or technological service

Approximate allocation

Journal hosting, platform maintenance and technical support

USD 15

DOI registration, metadata management and indexing infrastructure

USD 10

Digital preservation, backups and long-term accessibility

USD 10

Editorial workflow and manuscript-processing tools

USD 8

Similarity-detection and quality-control services

USD 4

Open-access production and administrative support

USD 3

Total base contribution

USD 50

These allocations are indicative and may vary slightly according to operational requirements. No additional editorial or publication charges are applied other than the payment-processing fees expressly stated below.

 

Additional scholarly publishing activities supported by the journal
The Academic Sustainability Contribution represents only a partial recovery of the journal’s actual editorial and technological operating costs. In addition to the services listed above, the journal maintains and develops activities related to:
- Metadata quality, interoperability and discoverability, including the review, normalisation and structuring of bibliographic and article-level metadata.
- Indexing and information-retrieval optimisation, including technical improvements intended to enhance the visibility and discoverability of published content.
- Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), where appropriate, to improve the structured discoverability of journal content in emerging AI-assisted information environments.
- Scientific information monitoring and indicator tracking, including the maintenance of structured records and tools for monitoring available visibility, dissemination and editorial indicators.
- Digital scholarly communication, including the preparation of selected visual, multimedia or dissemination materials linked to published articles.
- International scholarly dissemination, including actions intended to increase the circulation of selected journal content within relevant academic communities.
- Continuous editorial and technological improvement, including the evaluation and incorporation of new procedures into the journal’s publication workflow.

These activities are not fully financed by the USD 50 contribution. The ASCSA therefore represents only a partial sustainability mechanism and does not reflect the total cost of maintaining, improving, preserving and disseminating the journal’s scholarly publishing infrastructure.

 

Payment options

Authors may select one of the following secure PayPal payment options:

  • Payment in Mexican pesos: MXN 1,000.
  • Payment in United States dollars: USD 53.

The USD payment consists of the USD 50 base publication contribution plus USD 3 in payment-processing costs.

The MXN 1,000 payment represents the journal’s fixed peso-denominated payment option and includes the applicable payment-processing costs. Authors are not required to make both payments.

Payments are processed through secure PayPal payment links. Credit and debit cards are accepted, and a PayPal account is not required.

Authors must include the following information in the payment note:

  • Manuscript ID.
  • Corresponding author’s full name.
  • Manuscript title.

Payment instructions are sent only after final editorial acceptance.

Waiver policy

Authors who lack institutional, project-based or personal financial support may request a partial or full waiver.

Waiver requests must be submitted to editor@ijcopi.org within 15 calendar days after receipt of the final acceptance notification and before making any payment.

The request should include:

  • the manuscript ID;
  • the corresponding author’s name and institutional affiliation;
  • a brief explanation of the absence of financial support;
  • the type of waiver requested: partial or full.

Waiver requests are assessed by Editor, independently of the peer-review and editorial decision-making processes.

A decision will be communicated within 15 working days. Requesting a waiver will not affect the acceptance status, scientific evaluation or publication priority of the manuscript.

 

Sustainability contribution and waiver procedure after acceptance

Following final editorial acceptance, the corresponding author is asked either to complete the Academic Sustainability Contribution or, where financial support is unavailable, to request a partial or full waiver under the policy described above. This administrative process takes place only after the scientific and editorial decision has been completed and does not alter the acceptance status or scientific evaluation of the manuscript. Final production is initiated after completion of the applicable sustainability-contribution or waiver procedure. An inability to provide the contribution may be addressed through the waiver mechanism and does not, by itself, reverse the scientific acceptance decision.

An accepted manuscript will not be withdrawn solely because the authors submit a waiver request. However, publication may be suspended until the payment or waiver process has been completed.

Payment receipts and fiscal documentation

Authors will receive the automatic electronic receipt or transaction confirmation issued by PayPal when the payment is completed.

The journal does not issue:

  • Mexican CFDI tax invoices;
  • VAT invoices;
  • commercial invoices;
  • purchase-order invoices;
  • supplier-registration documentation;
  • institutional procurement documentation;
  • any other fiscal or tax document.

Authors whose universities, research centres, funding agencies or employers require specific fiscal or procurement documentation must verify those requirements before making the payment.

No additional or retrospective fiscal documentation can be issued after payment.

Refund policy

Payments may be refunded only in the following circumstances:

  • duplicate payment;
  • payment made for an incorrect manuscript;
  • payment made after approval of a full waiver;
  • payment requested or received as a result of an administrative error by the journal.

Refund requests must be submitted to editor@ijcopi.org within 15 calendar days after payment.

Payments are not refundable after the manuscript has entered copy-editing, layout, metadata registration or final production, except where the journal is responsible for a documented administrative error.

Any non-refundable PayPal, banking or currency-conversion fees will be deducted from the reimbursed amount where applicable.

Non-commercial character and financial transparency
The ASCSA is a sustainability and partial cost-recovery mechanism and is not intended to commercialize access to scientific knowledge or the editorial decision-making process. IJCOPI does not sell manuscript acceptance, peer review, publication priority, accelerated editorial decisions or access to published content.
The journal is committed to transparency regarding the purpose and allocation of sustainability contributions and to developing complementary financial and editorial strategies that progressively reduce dependence on contributions associated with authors while preserving the continuity, quality, integrity, accessibility and dissemination of the journal.

 

Open-access status

Payment of the Academic Sustainability Contribution does not purchase access to the published article and does not create any commercial rights over the journal’s content.

All published articles remain immediately available under the journal’s declared open-access licence.

All readers have immediate and unrestricted access to published articles without subscription or access charges. The sustainability contribution finances editorial and technological operations rather than access to scientific content.

 

Policy applicability

This policy applies to manuscripts accepted for publication in issues corresponding to the year 2026 and subsequent years.

Policy version: 1.0
Effective date: 1 January 2026
Last updated: 1 January 2026
Contact: editor@ijcopi.org