This page states BMU-wide publishing principles. It does not replace journal-specific author guidelines, peer-review descriptions, fee schedules or discipline-specific ethical requirements. Operational claims apply only where implemented by the relevant journal or publisher system.
Journal-specific charges
Each journal should publish the amount and type of any submission, review, publication, colour, page or other author charge before an author commits to publication. Charges that do not apply should not be implied.
Timing and acceptance
Where an article-processing charge applies, financial administration should ordinarily begin after the relevant scholarly acceptance decision unless the journal transparently operates a different legitimate model. Payment must not purchase acceptance or favourable review.
Waivers and discounts
Eligibility, application routes and decision criteria for waivers or discounts should be described clearly. A waiver request should not affect the academic evaluation of a manuscript.
Invoices and authorised payments
Payment requests should use identifiable official routes. Authors should be able to distinguish legitimate invoices from fraudulent requests or unauthorised third-party collection.
Refunds
Refund principles should explain when a payment may or may not be returned, including the effect of production work already performed, duplicate payment, publisher error or withdrawal after services have been delivered.
Corrections and retractions
Payment does not limit a journal’s responsibility to correct or retract unreliable work. A publication fee is payment for defined publishing services, not a guarantee that the Version of Record will remain unchallenged.
Commercial-editorial separation
Editors should not use an author’s financial circumstances, institutional prestige or commercial importance as a factor in judging scholarly merit.
Transparency and changes
Changes to fees or waiver rules should be dated and displayed clearly. Authors should not be surprised by undisclosed mandatory charges late in the process.
Policy basis and interpretation
Adapted principally from JHWCR Policy 28 and publisher-governance provisions. The BMU version generalises journal-specific material into a publisher framework and removes details that should remain title-specific. Where a journal publishes a more specific requirement that is consistent with these principles, the journal-specific rule governs that journal's submissions.
Questions about this framework may be sent to info@bmuventures.com.