APC Policy

Rural Governance and Green Development (RGGD) is a fully open access journal. All articles are freely and immediately available online to readers worldwide, without subscription or paywall barriers. To sustain high-quality open access publishing, RGGD adopts a transparent Article Processing Charge (APC) policy.

Article Processing Charges (APC)

Submission Type APC (USD) Eligibility / Notes
Standard Rate $450 Applies to all accepted articles under regular submission
Lower-Middle Income Countries $350 Based on World Bank classification
(corresponding author)
Low-Income Countries $0 Full waiver automatically granted or upon request
Special Issues $300 Standard APC unless otherwise waived by editorial approval
Book Reviews $0 Free publication.
Note: No DOI assigned.
Young Scholars Forum $0 Free publication.
Note: No DOI assigned.
Note: There is no submission fee. APCs are payable only after acceptance following peer review.

Waiver and Discount Policy

RGGD is committed to equitable access to scholarly publishing. The following discounts and waivers apply:

  • Full waivers for authors from low-income countries.
  • 50% discount for authors from lower-middle-income countries.
  • Editorially-approved waivers for selected special issue contributors.

All waiver requests are confidential and have no influence on editorial or peer review decisions.

Payment and Invoicing

  • Invoices are issued only after manuscript acceptance.
  • Payments can be made via bank transfer or secure online platforms.
  • APC payment does not affect editorial decisions or publication scheduling.

Funding and Support

Authors are encouraged to seek APC support through:

  • Institutional Open Access Funds.
  • National or international research grants (e.g., NSFC, Horizon Europe, IDRC).
  • Institutional agreements with RGGD.

Ethics and Transparency

RGGD follows COPE and DOAJ best practices, ensuring:

  • Separation between financial processes and editorial decisions.
  • Clear and upfront APC policy communication.
  • Commitment to fair, ethical, and inclusive publishing.