Author Fees

General Policy

The Review Journal of Higher-Order Thinking and Metacognition is an open-access journal published by LITPAM. The journal is committed to maintaining a transparent author-fee policy and ensuring that financial considerations do not influence editorial or peer-review decisions.

Authors are not required to make any payment during manuscript submission or peer review. An Article Processing Charge may be applied only after a manuscript has successfully completed peer review and has been formally accepted for publication.

Submission Fee

The journal does not charge a manuscript submission fee.

Submission fee: IDR 0

Authors may submit manuscripts, receive an initial editorial assessment, and participate in the peer-review process without payment.

Article Processing Charge

Authors of manuscripts accepted for publication are required to pay an Article Processing Charge to support the editorial, production, and publication services provided by the journal.

Article Processing Charge: IDR 750,000 per accepted article

For international authors, the equivalent amount may be stated as:

International Article Processing Charge: USD 40

The applicable fee is determined according to the fee schedule in effect on the date the manuscript is accepted. Authors will be informed of the exact payment amount and instructions through the journal's official editorial system or official email address.

Services Covered by the Article Processing Charge

The Article Processing Charge contributes to the costs associated with:

• editorial administration and manuscript management;
• peer-review coordination;
• copyediting and language consistency checks;
• reference and metadata verification;
• article layout and typesetting;
• HTML, PDF, XML, or other publication-format preparation;
• DOI registration and article metadata management;
• online publication and open-access distribution;
• journal-platform maintenance;
• indexing and harvesting support;
• digital preservation and long-term accessibility; and
• administrative support during publication.

Payment of the Article Processing Charge does not purchase acceptance and does not guarantee publication. Acceptance is based exclusively on editorial assessment, peer-review outcomes, methodological quality, scholarly contribution, reporting transparency, and compliance with the journal's ethical standards.

Payment Timing

Authors must not make payment before receiving a formal acceptance decision and an official invoice or payment instruction from the journal.

The payment process normally begins after:

1. the manuscript has completed peer review;
2. all required revisions have been approved;
3. the editor has issued a formal acceptance decision; and
4. the journal has issued an official payment request or invoice.

The accepted manuscript may proceed to production after payment has been confirmed, unless a waiver, discount, institutional arrangement, or other approved payment condition applies.

Editorial Independence

Editorial and peer-review decisions are made independently of authors' ability or willingness to pay publication charges.

Editors and reviewers involved in evaluating a manuscript are not responsible for collecting author fees. Information concerning payment status must not be used to influence reviewer selection, reviewer recommendations, or editorial decisions.

A manuscript will not be accepted merely because an author agrees to pay the Article Processing Charge. Similarly, requesting a waiver or discount will not automatically result in rejection.

Waivers and Discounts

The journal may grant a full or partial waiver in justified circumstances, subject to available resources and approval by the publisher.

Waiver or discount requests may be considered for:

• authors without access to institutional or research funding;
• authors from countries or regions with limited research funding;
• students or early-career researchers without financial support;
• invited articles commissioned by the Editorial Board;
• articles submitted under an institutional publishing agreement;
• authors affected by emergencies or exceptional financial circumstances; or
• other cases approved by the journal and publisher.

Authors should submit a waiver or discount request before payment is made and preferably during initial submission or before the final acceptance decision. The request should briefly explain the financial circumstances and identify any available institutional or research support.

Waiver requests are handled confidentially. The decision regarding a waiver or discount is separate from the scholarly evaluation of the manuscript.

Additional Costs

Unless otherwise stated in the official invoice, the Article Processing Charge covers the normal publication process. The journal does not normally impose separate charges based on article length, number of tables, number of figures, use of colour, or supplementary materials.

Authors may nevertheless be responsible for additional costs arising from:

• bank-transfer charges;
• payment-gateway charges;
• currency-conversion fees;
• applicable taxes;
• professional translation arranged independently by the authors;
• professional language editing arranged independently by the authors;
• copyright-permission fees for third-party materials; or
• exceptional production services requested by the authors.

Any additional charge imposed directly by the journal must be disclosed to the corresponding author before payment.

Refund Policy

Article Processing Charges are generally non-refundable once production, copyediting, typesetting, DOI registration, metadata preparation, or publication services have begun.

A refund may be considered when:

• the author has made a duplicate payment;
• an incorrect amount has been charged;
• the journal is unable to continue the publication process;
• payment was made as a result of a documented administrative error; or
• another exceptional circumstance is approved by the publisher.

A refund will not normally be granted when:

• the authors withdraw the manuscript after production has begun;
• the authors fail to respond during copyediting or proofreading;
• the article is corrected or retracted because of an author error;
• post-publication misconduct is identified;
• the article requires substantial correction caused by inaccurate author-supplied information; or
• the authors disagree with routine editorial or production decisions.

Withdrawal and Author Fees

Authors who wish to withdraw an accepted manuscript must submit a written request explaining the reason for withdrawal.

If withdrawal occurs before production begins, the journal may cancel the payment request or consider a refund when payment has already been made.

If withdrawal occurs after copyediting, typesetting, DOI registration, metadata preparation, or other production services have begun, the journal may retain all or part of the Article Processing Charge to cover work already completed.

Official Payment Information

Authors should make payments only through the official payment method identified by the journal or publisher.

The journal will not request payment:

• before an official editorial decision has been issued;
• through an unofficial personal email address;
• through an unverified personal social-media account;
• to an account not identified by the journal or LITPAM;
• in exchange for a guaranteed acceptance decision; or
• in exchange for favourable reviewer comments.

Authors who receive a suspicious payment request should contact the journal through its official website before making any payment.

Invoice and Payment Confirmation

The corresponding author is responsible for providing accurate information required for invoicing, including:

• author or institutional name;
• billing address;
• email address;
• manuscript title;
• manuscript identification number;
• tax information, where applicable; and
• other information reasonably required for financial administration.

Proof of payment should be submitted through the method specified in the official payment instructions. Authors should retain the invoice, payment receipt, and related correspondence for their records.

Changes to Author Fees

The journal and publisher may review and revise the Article Processing Charge periodically to reflect changes in publishing, preservation, indexing, platform, and production costs.

Any revised fee will apply according to the published policy and the fee schedule effective at the relevant stage of submission or acceptance. The journal will not impose an undisclosed charge after publication.

Fee Summary

Fee category	Amount	Payment stage
Submission fee	IDR 0	No payment required
Peer-review fee	IDR 0	No payment required
Article Processing Charge	IDR 750,000	After formal acceptance
International Article Processing Charge	USD 40	After formal acceptance
Waiver or discount	Subject to approval	Request before payment

Questions concerning author fees, invoices, waivers, or payment confirmation should be directed to the journal through the official contact information provided on its website.