Article Processing Charge (APC)

Journal of Sustainable Development of Smart Energy Networks - JSDSEN 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

APC category	Eligibility	APC excluding VAT*	APC status based on original submission date
Standard APC	Articles that do not qualify for another APC category	EUR 100	Fully waived (EUR 0) for manuscripts originally submitted on or before 31 December 2026.
Reduced APC	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	EUR 50	Fully waived (EUR 0) for manuscripts originally submitted on or before 31 December 2026.
Special Reduced APC	All institutional affiliations of all authors are in Group A countries or territories	EUR 0	Fully waived (EUR 0) for manuscripts originally submitted on or before 31 December 2026.
IC SDEWES Member APC	The corresponding author held active IC SDEWES membership on the manuscript’s original submission date	EUR 50	Fully waived (EUR 0) for manuscripts originally submitted on or before 31 December 2026.

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. 

Where 25% VAT applies, the total amount payable is:

• Standard APC: EUR [standard APC × 1.25] 
• Reduced APC – Group B: EUR [Group B APC × 1.25] 
• Special reduced APC – Group A: EUR [Group A APC × 1.25] 
• IC SDEWES Member APC: EUR [member APC × 1.25] 
• SDEWES Conference APC Waiver: EUR 0 

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

The APC applicable to the manuscript’s original submission date normally remains applicable throughout the editorial process. Later changes to APC rates do not apply retrospectively unless expressly stated otherwise.

Eligibility Rules

The Special reduced APC – Group A applies only where all authors are affiliated with institutions in Group A countries.

The Reduced APC – Group B applies where all authors are affiliated with institutions in Group A and/or Group B countries, but the Group A condition is not met.

The Standard APC applies where at least one author is affiliated with an institution outside Groups A and B.

Country-based eligibility is determined from the institutional affiliations recorded 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 is an IC SDEWES member on the manuscript’s original submission date. The applicable member APC is shown in Table 1.

The SDEWES Conference APC Waiver applies where:

• the article is based on a contribution presented at [eligible conference]; 

• at least one author of the article presented the contribution; 

• the manuscript is submitted by [date or within defined period]; 

• the manuscript satisfies the journal’s originality and substantial extension requirements; and 

• the waiver is requested by the corresponding author after acceptance.

Unless expressly stated otherwise, APC reductions and waivers cannot be combined. Where an article qualifies for more than one category, the lowest applicable APC will be charged.

Requesting an APC Reduction or Waiver

Following acceptance, the corresponding author receives a notification through the COMET submission system showing the Standard APC.

Where an article meets the published conditions for the Reduced APC – Group B, Special Reduced APC – Group A, IC SDEWES Member APC or SDEWES Conference APC Waiver, the corresponding author must contact payment@sdewes.org and request the applicable APC reduction or waiver.

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 reduced APC, 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 applicable reduced APC or confirming the APC waiver. Where no request is submitted or eligibility is not confirmed, the Standard APC remains payable.

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. 

Unless expressly stated otherwise, the journal does not charge separate submission, peer-review, page, colour or supplementary-material 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; and 
• eligibility for the SDEWES Conference APC Waiver. 

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. The Standard APC applies by default. A corresponding author seeking an APC reduction or waiver must initiate and complete the eligibility procedure described in Section 1 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 through a POS system; and 
• PayPal. 

Additional transaction charges may apply to credit-card or PayPal payments. Authors wishing to pay by credit card or PayPal should contact:

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 an APC reduction or waiver 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 an APC reduction or waiver, and questions concerning APC eligibility, IC SDEWES membership, SDEWES conference eligibility, 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

Eligibility is based on the country-group lists applicable on the manuscript’s original submission date.

The Special reduced APC – Group A applies only where all authors are affiliated with institutions in one or more of the countries or territories listed below.

Table 2. Group A Countries and Territories

Country or territory	Country or territory	Country or territory	Country or territory
Afghanistan	Angola	Bangladesh	Belize
Benin	Bhutan	Burkina Faso	Burundi
Cabo Verde	Cambodia	Cameroon	Central African Republic
Chad	Comoros	Congo	Cook Islands
Côte d’Ivoire	Democratic People’s Republic of Korea	Democratic Republic of the Congo	Djibouti
Dominica	Equatorial Guinea	Eritrea	Eswatini
Ethiopia	Gambia	Ghana	Grenada
Guinea	Guinea-Bissau	Haiti	Kenya
Kiribati	Kyrgyzstan	Lao People’s Democratic Republic	Lebanon
Lesotho	Liberia	Madagascar	Malawi
Maldives	Mali	Marshall Islands	Mauritania
Micronesia (Federated States of)	Mozambique	Myanmar	Nauru
Nepal	Nicaragua	Niger	Niue
Palau	Papua New Guinea	Republic of Moldova	Rwanda
Saint Helena	Saint Lucia	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Samoa
Sao Tome and Principe	Senegal	Sierra Leone	Solomon Islands
Somalia	South Sudan	Sudan	Suriname
Syrian Arab Republic	Tajikistan	Timor-Leste	Togo
Tokelau	Tonga	Tuvalu	Uganda
Ukraine	United Republic of Tanzania	Vanuatu	West Bank and Gaza Strip
Yemen	Zambia	Zimbabwe

The Reduced APC – Group B applies where all authors are affiliated with institutions in Group A and/or Group B countries, but the conditions for the Special reduced APC – Group A are not met.

Table 3. Group B Countries and Territories

Country or territory	Country or territory	Country or territory	Country or territory
Albania	Antigua and Barbuda	Armenia	Azerbaijan
Bolivia (Plurinational State of)	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Botswana	Colombia
Cuba	Ecuador	El Salvador	Fiji
Gabon	Georgia	Guatemala	Guyana
Honduras	Iraq	Jamaica	Kosovo, in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999)
Libya	Mauritius	Mongolia	Montenegro
Morocco	Namibia	Nigeria	North Macedonia
Paraguay	Peru	Saint Kitts and Nevis	Serbia
Seychelles	Sri Lanka	Tunisia	Uzbekistan
Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)	Viet Nam