AMERICAN JOURNAL OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Article Processing Charges (APC) Policy

The American Journal of Qualitative Research (AJQR) is a Gold Open Access journal. All articles published in AJQR are made freely and permanently available online immediately upon publication, without subscription or access charges to readers. Beginning in August 2025, AJQR introduced an Article Processing Charge (APC) to support the costs associated with the professional production, publication, preservation, and dissemination of accepted manuscripts. The APC is charged only after a manuscript has successfully completed the peer-review process and received final editorial acceptance. No payment is required at the time of submission or during peer review.

Article Processing Charge

The standard Article Processing Charge (APC) for AJQR is: USD 300, excluding any applicable taxes. There are no manuscript submission, peer-review, or editorial evaluation fees. The APC is charged only once, following the final acceptance of a manuscript. AJQR is published by the Center for Ethnic and Cultural Studies (CECS), an independent scholarly publisher based in Fort Myers, Florida, United States. The APC contributes to the costs associated with scholarly publishing services, including:

  • Copyediting and typesetting;
  • Online journal hosting and publication infrastructure;
  • Plagiarism screening and research-integrity tools;
  • DOI registration and metadata management;
  • Long-term digital preservation and archiving;
  • Website maintenance and technical services; and
  • Indexing, discoverability, and dissemination of published content.

Payment of an APC does not guarantee acceptance or publication of a manuscript.

Editorial Independence and Publication Ethics

AJQR is committed to maintaining the highest standards of editorial independence and publication ethics. All editorial decisions are based solely on the manuscript's scholarly merit, originality, methodological rigor, relevance to the journal's aims and scope, and contribution to the field. An author's ability or willingness to pay the APC has no influence on peer review, editorial evaluation, acceptance, or rejection decisions. The editorial and financial processes are kept separate. Editors and reviewers evaluate manuscripts independently of APC payment considerations. APC payment is requested only after the manuscript has received final editorial acceptance.

Payment Procedure

Following final acceptance, the corresponding author will receive payment instructions and, where applicable, an invoice for the APC. No APC payment is requested or processed before final editorial acceptance. Authors are responsible for ensuring that payment is completed according to the instructions and deadline provided with the invoice. Where applicable, taxes or other legally required charges may be added to the standard APC. All APC-related procedures are handled administratively and separately from the journal's peer-review and editorial decision-making processes.

Waiver and Discount Policy

AJQR recognizes that publication charges may create financial barriers for some authors and is committed to supporting broad participation in scholarly publishing. Corresponding authors affiliated with institutions located in low-income countries, as classified by the World Bank, may apply for a full or partial APC waiver. Authors experiencing significant financial hardship may also request consideration for an APC waiver or discount. Such requests are considered on a case-by-case basis and are subject to available resources. Waiver or discount requests should be submitted after final acceptance and before the APC invoice is issued by contacting the AJQR Editorial Office. For country-based waiver requests, eligibility is determined according to the institutional affiliation of the corresponding author and the current World Bank country classification. Authors requesting a hardship-based waiver should provide a brief explanation of their financial circumstances.

All waiver and discount requests are handled administratively and independently of the editorial process. The Editor-in-Chief, reviewers, and other individuals responsible for determining the scholarly acceptability of a manuscript are not influenced by an author's waiver request. Applicants are normally informed of the outcome of their request within seven business days.

CECS reserves the right to approve or decline waiver and discount requests in accordance with the journal's eligibility criteria and available resources. Requesting or receiving an APC waiver or discount has no influence on editorial decisions or peer review.

Licensing and Open Access

All articles published in AJQR are made immediately available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Under the CC BY 4.0 license, users are permitted to share, copy, redistribute, adapt, remix, transform, and build upon published material for any lawful purpose, including commercial purposes, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author(s), the original source is identified, a link to the license is provided, and any changes made to the original work are indicated. Authors retain copyright in their published articles and grant AJQR the right of first publication.

Transparency

AJQR is committed to transparency regarding all publication charges. The applicable APC and any potential additional taxes are clearly communicated to authors. The journal does not impose undisclosed submission, review, acceptance, or publication charges. Changes to the APC amount or waiver policy will be clearly published on the journal website and will apply according to the policy in effect at the relevant stage of the publication process.