APC, Waiver & Invoicing Desk — per month

Overview

Every accepted article now produces an invoice, a question about waivers, a payment that arrives in the wrong currency with the wrong reference, and an email to the editor asking why publication is delayed. The editor answers because nobody else will. Meanwhile the finance office has a column of unmatched receipts and no idea which belong to the journal.

The APC, Waiver & Invoicing Desk takes that whole function off the editorial team. We write a charge and waiver policy that is fair, public and consistent with your funding model and with what indexing databases expect. We then run it: waiver decisions against published criteria, invoicing, payment follow-up, reconciliation with your finance system, and a monthly report showing what was billed, waived, collected and outstanding.

It is for journals that charge article processing fees or are about to, university presses and societies running several fee-charging journals, and diamond journals that still need to invoice institutional sponsors or issue fee-free confirmations to authors.

What’s Included

• APC and waiver policy — fee schedule, waiver and discount criteria (by country income group, funding status, author role, and hardship), and the public policy text for the journal site.
• Waiver decisions — each request assessed against the published criteria within two working days, with a written decision to the author and a log for audit.
• Invoicing — invoices issued at acceptance in the author’s or funder’s required format, with institutional purchase-order handling and split-payment support.
• Payment follow-up — a defined reminder sequence, and escalation to you only when it is genuinely stuck.
• Reconciliation — payments matched to invoices and to articles, with the finance office’s records reconciled monthly.
• Monthly report — billed, waived (by reason), collected, outstanding by age, and refunds, in a format your finance office can drop into its own reporting.
• Author enquiry handling — a dedicated address for all fee questions, so none reach the editor.

How It Works

1. We agree the fee schedule, waiver criteria and how payments reach your account (your gateway or your institution’s).
2. We publish the policy and set up the invoicing templates and the reconciliation file with your finance office.
3. Your editorial system notifies us at acceptance; we take it from there.
4. Each month you receive the report and the reconciled ledger.
5. Annually we review the fee schedule and waiver rates with you.

Priced as a monthly retainer for journals with steady volume, or per article for lower-volume journals. Payments are made to your account; we do not hold your funds.

What Stays With Your Editors

Payment status never influences editorial decisions, and we structure the desk so that it cannot. Your editors decide acceptance without knowing whether an author will pay, has requested a waiver, or has been granted one. Reviewer selection, editorial assessment and acceptance remain entirely with your editors; NeucitePress runs the billing process and infrastructure after the decision is made.

Important Limitations

• We invoice and follow up; we do not take legal action to recover unpaid charges, and we do not withhold publication of an accepted article without your written policy authorizing it.
• We do not hold, route or convert your money. Payments go directly to the account you designate.
• Waiver criteria are yours to set. We recommend a policy consistent with good practice and database expectations, and then apply it as written.
• Where the policy is intended to support an indexing application, inclusion is decided solely by each database. NeucitePress prepares, remediates and submits but cannot sell inclusion.

Common Questions

We are a diamond journal with no charges. Why would we need this?
Diamond journals still invoice sponsors and consortia, issue fee-free confirmations for authors’ funders, and report on costs. A lighter version of the desk covers that.

Can authors from low-income countries be waived automatically?
Yes, if that is your policy. Most journals we support use an automatic waiver by country income classification plus a discretionary hardship route.

Does the editor ever see who paid?
Not through us. Reports go to the journal’s business owner and finance office, not to the editorial office.

Request a proposal, or begin with the Journal Health Check.