APC Discount & Partial Waiver Policy

South India Journal of Social Sciences (SIJSS)

The South India Journal of Social Sciences (SIJSS) is committed to ensuring that financial constraints do not hinder the publication of quality scholarly research. In line with ethical publishing standards, the journal provides limited APC discounts and partial waivers to promote equitable access to publication opportunities.

General Principles

Support is provided to promote inclusive and accessible academic publishing.
All requests are considered on a limited, case-by-case basis.
Editorial and peer-review processes remain completely independent of APC decisions.
Manuscripts are evaluated solely on academic merit and quality.

APC Discounts & Partial Waivers

SIJSS provides limited partial financial support to authors facing genuine financial constraints.

Eligible authors may receive partial APC discounts (typically 15%–20%) under the following conditions:

Lack of research funding or institutional financial support
Affiliation with resource-constrained institutions

All requests are evaluated on a case-by-case basis, subject to justification and availability per issue. As the journal does not receive external financial assistance or sponsorship, only a limited number of APC waivers can be granted per issue, subject to justification and availability.

Application Procedure

Send a formal request via email with subject: “Request for APC Discount / Partial Waiver”.
Provide justification and details of funding limitations.
Attach supporting documents (Funding Declaration, Institutional letter).
Requests must be made at submission or before peer review completion. Requests after acceptance will not be considered.

Evaluation & Limitations

Requests are reviewed confidentially by the journal.
Decisions are final and based on justification and availability.
Only a limited number of manuscripts per issue (typically 3–5 articles) are supported.
Authors availing the waiver will not be provided with a hard copy of the journal.

Editorial Independence

APC support decisions are completely independent of editorial evaluation. Reviewers and editors are not influenced by, and are typically unaware of, waiver or discount requests.

Disclaimer

Discount or waiver approval does not guarantee acceptance.
It does not influence review timelines or publication priority.
Support is purely a financial consideration.

This policy ensures fairness, transparency, and responsible financial support in the publication process.