Article Processing Charge (APC)

Journal of Sustainable Development and Climate Change Solutions – JSDCCS is a fully open-access journal. An Article Processing Charge applies only to accepted articles. The applicable APC, eligibility conditions, payment arrangements and available APC reductions or waivers are stated below.

No submission or peer-review charge applies. Information about open access, copyright and licensing is provided on Open Access, Copyright and Licensing.

Article Processing Charge and Eligibility

The APC is charged per accepted article, not per author.

Table 1. Article Processing Charges

VAT and Total Amount Payable

*APC amounts exclude VAT. Croatian VAT of 25% is added where applicable. The applicable tax treatment depends on the payer’s status, location and valid tax information. 

The invoice or payment information will show whether VAT applies and the final amount payable.

The APC category and amount applicable on the manuscript’s original submission date remain applicable throughout the editorial process. Later changes to APC rates do not apply retrospectively.

Eligibility Rules

The Special Reduced APC applies only where all institutional affiliations of all authors are in Group A countries or territories.

The Reduced APC applies where all institutional affiliations of all authors are in Group A and/or Group B countries or territories, but the conditions for the Special Reduced APC are not met.

The Standard APC applies where at least one institutional affiliation of any author is in a country outside Groups A and B.

Country-based eligibility is determined using all institutional affiliations listed for all authors at the manuscript’s original submission and confirmed in the accepted manuscript. Nationality, citizenship, temporary residence or place of study does not independently determine eligibility.

An article qualifies for the IC SDEWES Member APC where the corresponding author held active IC SDEWES membership on the manuscript’s original submission date. Eligibility is verified against the IC SDEWES membership records. The applicable amount is shown in Table 1.

The Reduced APC and IC SDEWES Member APC are separate eligibility categories, even where the same APC amount applies.

Category-based APC reductions cannot be combined. Where the corresponding author requests application of more than one APC category and eligibility for more than one category is confirmed, the lowest applicable APC is applied. Any automatic temporary waiver of the Standard APC stated in Table 1 takes precedence during its stated period.

APC Reductions and Waivers

Following acceptance, COMET displays the Standard APC applicable to the manuscript’s original submission date. Where Table 1 provides a temporary waiver of the Standard APC for that submission date, COMET applies the waiver automatically and displays an amount payable of EUR 0; no separate request is required. The corresponding author must check the APC category and amount shown in COMET and contact payment@sdewes.org before payment if the displayed information is incorrect or unclear.

The Reduced APC, Special Reduced APC and IC SDEWES Member APC are not applied automatically. After acceptance and before payment, the corresponding author must request the relevant APC category by contacting payment@sdewes.org. The category is applied only after SDEWES Centre has verified eligibility and approved the request.

The request should include the journal name, manuscript ID, corresponding author’s name, the APC category requested and any information or documentation required to demonstrate eligibility.

For a country-based APC category, eligibility is verified using the institutional affiliation and country recorded for each author in the COMET submission system and on the first page of the accepted manuscript. The information in both places must be complete, accurate and consistent.

Where eligibility is confirmed, the corresponding author receives revised payment information showing the approved APC category and amount, including EUR 0 where applicable. If no request is submitted, or eligibility is not confirmed, the Standard APC remains payable, subject only to any automatic temporary waiver of the Standard APC stated in Table 1.

APC eligibility is handled administratively, is not disclosed to reviewers or editors involved in the manuscript decision and does not influence editorial assessment or decision-making.

What the APC Covers and Editorial Independence

The APC supports:

• editorial administration and peer-review coordination; 
• author support and technical checks; 
• copyediting, typesetting and production; 
• DOI registration and online publication; 
• indexing, archiving and digital preservation; and 
• maintenance of the Version of Record and scholarly record. 

The journal does not charge separate submission, peer-review, page, colour, supplementary-material or manuscript withdrawal fees.

Payment of the APC does not purchase peer review, acceptance or any particular editorial outcome.

Editorial assessment, peer review and decisions on acceptance or rejection are independent of:

• the applicable APC; 
• the identity of the payer; 
• eligibility for a reduced APC; 
• IC SDEWES membership. 

Reviewers and handling editors are not involved in determining APC eligibility, payment arrangements or invoices. These matters are handled administratively by SDEWES Centre in accordance with Editorial Independence.

Payment, VAT and Invoicing

No payment is requested at submission or during peer review. The APC becomes payable only after the manuscript has been accepted for publication. Following acceptance, the Standard APC applicable to the manuscript’s original submission date is assigned by default. Where Table 1 provides a temporary waiver of that Standard APC, the waiver is applied automatically. To receive the Reduced APC, Special Reduced APC or IC SDEWES Member APC, the corresponding author must complete the request and eligibility procedure described in Section 1.3 before making payment.

The corresponding author coordinates payment and provides the required payer and invoicing information. Payment may be made by an author, institution, employer, funder, project, open-access fund or another authorised payer.

Publication may be delayed until payment or another approved financial arrangement has been completed.

Payment methods

The available payment methods are:

• bank transfer; 
• credit-card payment; and 
• PayPal. 

SDEWES Centre does not add a separate transaction fee. Any charges imposed by the payer’s bank or payment provider are the payer’s responsibility. Questions about credit card or PayPal payments should be sent to:

payment@sdewes.org

Bank-transfer information

Beneficiary: SDEWES Centre
Address: Ivana Lučića 5, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
IBAN: HR82 2340 0091 1103 7938 4
SWIFT/BIC: PBZGHR2X
Bank: Privredna banka Zagreb d.d.
Bank address: Radnička cesta 50, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia

The payment reference should include the manuscript ID, the corresponding author’s surname and the journal name.

Where application of the Reduced APC, Special Reduced APC or IC SDEWES Member APC is confirmed under Section 1.3, the corresponding author must use the revised payment information issued by SDEWES Centre. 

After payment has been received and processed, the payer receives the final invoice or receipt.

The payer is responsible for providing accurate billing details, including the payer’s name, address, tax or VAT identification number and any required institutional reference or purchase-order number.

Payment Corrections, Refunds and Contact

Duplicate payments and verified invoicing or payment errors will be corrected or refunded.

Where SDEWES Centre cannot publish an accepted article after payment for reasons not attributable to the authors, the APC will be refunded.

Other refund requests are assessed according to:

• the stage of production and publication; 
• the reason for the request; 
• the services already provided; and 
• any costs already incurred. 

The APC is not normally refunded after publication, including where an article is subsequently corrected, retracted, removed or replaced, because the publication services have already been provided and the scholarly record must continue to be maintained.

Post-publication actions are handled under Corrections, Retractions and Withdrawals.

Requests for application of the Reduced APC, Special Reduced APC or IC SDEWES Member APC, and questions concerning automatic temporary waivers, APC eligibility, IC SDEWES membership, VAT, payment methods, invoices or refunds, should be sent to payment@sdewes.org. 

The message should include the journal name, manuscript ID, corresponding author, requested APC category and, where applicable, payer details and the invoice or payment reference.

General journal enquiries may be submitted through the journal’s Contact page. Formal complaints concerning the administration of an APC, including any reduction or waiver, invoice or refund, should follow the route specified on the Contact page and are handled under Editorial Decision Appeals and Complaints.

Countries and Territories Eligible for Reduced APCs

Country-based APC eligibility is determined using the Group A and Group B lists in effect on the manuscript’s original submission date. The country-group lists below are effective from 1 October 2026 and remain applicable until replaced by an updated version.

The Special Reduced APC applies only where all institutional affiliations of all authors are in one or more of the Group A countries or territories listed in Table 2.

Table 2. Group A Countries and Territories

The Reduced APC applies where all institutional affiliations of all authors are in Group A and/or Group B countries or territories, but the conditions for the Special Reduced APC are not met.

Table 3. Group B Countries and Territories