Food Systems, Safety & Sustainability (FSSS) is committed to ensuring that an author’s ability to pay does not prevent the publication of academically sound research.

The journal therefore provides Article Processing Charge waivers and discounts for eligible authors who do not have sufficient institutional, project, funder, or personal resources to pay the standard APC of USD 500.

Waiver and discount decisions are administrative and financial decisions. They are made separately from editorial assessment and peer review and do not influence whether a manuscript is accepted or rejected.

1. General Principles

The journal’s waiver and discount policy is based on the following principles:

• authors should not be excluded from publication solely because of an inability to pay;
• eligibility criteria should be clear, consistent, and publicly available;
• financial-assistance requests must remain separate from academic evaluation;
• editors and reviewers should assess manuscripts only on scholarly and ethical grounds;
• waivers and discounts are granted according to genuine financial need and available journal resources;
• authors are expected to seek available institutional, funder, project, or library support before requesting assistance; and
• the journal may limit the number of waivers granted within a publication year to maintain sustainable publishing operations.

2. Standard Article Processing Charge

Standard APC	USD 500 per accepted article
Submission Fee	None
Peer-Review Fee	None
Full Waiver	APC reduced to USD 0
50% Discount	APC reduced to USD 250
25% Discount	APC reduced to USD 375

3. Country-Based Waivers and Discounts

Country-based eligibility is normally determined using the World Bank income classification applicable on the date of the manuscript’s initial submission.

Corresponding Author’s Country Classification	Normal Reduction	Amount Payable
Low-income economy	100% waiver	USD 0
Lower-middle-income economy	50% discount	USD 250
Upper-middle-income economy	Up to 25% discount following financial-need assessment	Normally not less than USD 375
High-income economy	No automatic reduction	USD 500, unless exceptional hardship is approved

Country classification alone does not automatically establish financial need. A country-based waiver or discount may be declined or adjusted where the research has adequate funding, the authors have access to institutional publication support, or another organisation has agreed to pay the APC.

4. Corresponding-Author Eligibility

Country-based eligibility is determined primarily by the institutional affiliation and normal place of research of the corresponding author.

The corresponding author should:

• be genuinely affiliated with an eligible institution or research setting;
• have played a substantive role in the research and manuscript preparation;
• not have been designated solely to obtain a fee reduction;
• declare all available funding and publication support accurately; and
• provide additional clarification where requested by the Editorial Office.

The journal may consider the affiliations and financial circumstances of all authors where the corresponding-author designation does not accurately represent the location, funding, or institutional resources of the research team.

5. Full Waivers

A full waiver may be granted where the standard APC is reduced from USD 500 to USD 0.

Full waivers are normally available to corresponding authors based in low-income economies where:

• the research received no dedicated publication funding;
• the authors do not have access to institutional APC support;
• no commercial organisation, sponsor, or funded project is responsible for payment; and
• the request is submitted within the required timeframe.

A full waiver may also be considered in exceptional cases involving:

• refugee, displaced, or stateless scholars;
• researchers working in areas affected by war, severe political instability, natural disaster, or humanitarian emergency;
• independent researchers with no institutional affiliation or publication funding;
• early-career researchers facing demonstrable financial hardship;
• unfunded community-based or civil-society research of substantial public value;
• authors whose institutions formally prohibit or are unable to provide APC support; or
• other exceptional circumstances approved by the journal.

Exceptional full waivers are not automatic and are subject to the availability of the journal’s annual waiver budget.

6. Partial Discounts

A partial discount may reduce the APC by 25% or 50%.

A 50% discount is normally available to eligible corresponding authors based in lower-middle-income economies who do not have sufficient institutional or project funding.

A discount of up to 25% may be considered for:

• unfunded authors based in upper-middle-income economies;
• doctoral candidates or early-career researchers without publication funding;
• independent researchers without institutional APC support;
• authors affected by significant but temporary financial hardship;
• authors whose funder or institution can pay only part of the APC; or
• research projects demonstrating clear public-interest value but limited financial resources.

The journal may offer a different reduction where the available evidence supports assistance but does not justify the requested level.

7. Exceptional Financial Hardship

Authors from any country may request financial assistance where exceptional hardship prevents payment of the standard APC.

Relevant circumstances may include:

• loss of institutional or project funding;
• unexpected termination of a grant;
• serious disruption caused by war, disaster, sanctions, or institutional closure;
• currency or banking restrictions that make payment impracticable;
• absence of any employer, institution, research grant, or sponsoring organisation;
• substantial personal economic hardship; or
• another documented circumstance that materially affects the author’s ability to pay.

The journal will seek only the information reasonably necessary to assess the request. Authors will not normally be required to submit sensitive personal financial records unless no less intrusive evidence is sufficient.

8. Non-Eligible Circumstances

A waiver or discount will not normally be granted solely because:

• the authors prefer not to use available grant or institutional funds;
• the research budget was spent before publication costs were considered;
• the authors did not apply for available institutional support;
• the authors assumed that the journal did not charge an APC;
• the authors request a reduction only after receiving the invoice without previously disclosing financial difficulty;
• the article has a large number of authors who could collectively arrange payment;
• the authors disagree with the open-access publishing model;
• the authors expect indexing, citation, promotion, or career benefits from publication; or
• the manuscript was invited for submission but no fee exemption was formally approved.

9. Funded and Commercial Research

Waivers and discounts are not normally available where:

• the research was supported by a grant that permits publication charges;
• an institution, university, library, laboratory, project, or department operates an APC fund;
• a government body, international organisation, charity, society, or sponsor has agreed to cover publication costs;
• the study was funded or commissioned by a commercial company;
• one or more authors are employed by an organisation with adequate publication resources;
• the manuscript evaluates a commercial product, service, intervention, or technology funded by its developer or manufacturer; or
• another publisher, consortium, or institutional agreement covers the APC.

Authors must disclose all financial and material support. Failure to disclose available publication funding may result in withdrawal of an approved waiver, correction of the invoice, delay of publication, or further editorial action where deliberate misrepresentation is suspected.

10. Article Types and Exempt Content

The following content may be exempt from the APC without a separate waiver application:

• editorials formally commissioned by the Editor-in-Chief;
• editorial-office or publisher announcements;
• correction notices;
• retraction notices;
• expressions of concern;
• responses formally requested by the journal; and
• other non-research material expressly designated as exempt before publication.

Original Research Articles, Review Articles, Systematic Reviews, Methods Papers, Data Papers, Case Studies, Policy Analyses, Perspectives, Short Communications, and unsolicited scholarly submissions are normally subject to the standard APC unless a waiver or discount is approved.

11. Editorial Board Members and Reviewers

Editorial Board membership, guest-editing service, peer-review activity, professional relationship with the journal, or prior publication in FSSS does not automatically entitle an author to a waiver or discount.

This restriction helps prevent actual or perceived conflicts of interest and ensures that financial benefits are not used to influence editorial service or peer-review participation.

An editor, reviewer, or board member may apply under the same financial-need criteria as any other author. The request will be handled independently and will not be assessed by an individual directly involved in the manuscript’s editorial decision.

12. Special Issues and Sponsored Collections

Articles submitted to special issues are normally subject to the standard APC and the same waiver criteria as regular submissions.

Guest editors may not promise, approve, or advertise fee reductions unless the arrangement has been formally authorised by FSSS and Panorama Scholarly Group.

A special issue or collection may have a separate funding arrangement where:

• an institution, society, project, or sponsor has formally agreed to cover all or part of the APC;
• the funding arrangement is documented before submission;
• authors are informed transparently of the applicable conditions;
• the sponsor has no control over peer review or acceptance decisions; and
• the arrangement does not reduce the journal’s editorial or ethical standards.

13. Institutional and Partnership Discounts

Panorama Scholarly Group may establish institutional, consortium, society, conference, or project-based publishing arrangements.

Such arrangements may provide:

• full institutional payment of the APC;
• a fixed institutional discount;
• a prepaid publication allocation;
• a grant-supported publication fund; or
• another formally documented payment arrangement.

Institutional discounts apply only where an agreement was active and applicable to the author or manuscript at the relevant time. Discounts cannot be claimed merely because an author is affiliated with an organisation that has previously collaborated with the publisher.

14. Application Timing

Authors should submit a waiver or discount request:

• during the initial submission process; or
• as soon as the need for financial assistance becomes known and before a final acceptance decision is issued.

Requests made after acceptance may be considered only in exceptional circumstances. Authors should not assume that a retrospective request will be approved.

A manuscript should not be withdrawn and resubmitted solely to obtain a different waiver decision.

15. Application Procedure

The corresponding author should submit a request through the journal’s submission system or official Editorial Office contact channel.

The request should include:

• the manuscript title;
• the manuscript identification number, where available;
• the corresponding author’s full name and institutional affiliation;
• the country in which the corresponding author is principally based;
• the level of assistance requested;
• a brief explanation of the financial circumstances;
• all relevant research funding and grant information;
• confirmation of whether institutional APC support was sought;
• confirmation of whether another author, institution, funder, or sponsor can contribute; and
• supporting information where reasonably requested.

16. Suggested Request Statement

Authors may use the following wording:

I am requesting a [full APC waiver / 50% discount / 25% discount] for the manuscript entitled “[manuscript title].” The research received [describe funding or state that no specific funding was received]. Neither the corresponding author nor the authors’ institutions have sufficient funds to pay the full Article Processing Charge. We confirm that all available funding and institutional support have been disclosed accurately.

17. Assessment Process

Waiver and discount requests are reviewed by authorised administrative personnel rather than by external reviewers.

The assessment may consider:

• the applicable country-income classification;
• the author’s institutional context;
• the availability of research or publication funding;
• the existence of institutional APC support;
• the involvement of commercial or well-funded partners;
• the nature and severity of the stated hardship;
• the level of assistance requested;
• the journal’s remaining annual waiver capacity; and
• the accuracy and completeness of the information provided.

The journal may approve the request in full, approve a different discount, request additional information, or decline the request.

18. Separation from Editorial Decision-Making

Waiver and discount requests do not influence editorial assessment, reviewer selection, peer-review reports, revision requirements, or acceptance decisions.

Where technically possible, editors and reviewers responsible for assessing the manuscript will not be informed of the author’s waiver request.

A waiver application does not guarantee that the manuscript will be sent for external review or accepted for publication. A manuscript receiving a waiver must meet the same academic, methodological, ethical, and reporting standards as every other submission.

19. Decision and Validity

An approved waiver or discount applies only to:

• the manuscript identified in the approval;
• the authorship and funding circumstances disclosed at the time of application; and
• the APC stated in the approval notice.

Approval cannot normally be transferred to another manuscript, another author, another journal, or a future submission.

If the manuscript is rejected, withdrawn, or administratively closed, the waiver or discount expires unless the journal confirms otherwise in writing.

20. Changes in Circumstances

Authors must notify the Editorial Office if relevant circumstances change after a waiver or discount has been approved.

Changes that must be disclosed include:

• receipt of new research or publication funding;
• approval of institutional APC support;
• addition of a funded commercial or institutional partner;
• changes to the corresponding author or principal affiliation;
• substantial changes in authorship; or
• discovery that another party can pay all or part of the APC.

The journal may revise or withdraw an approval where the financial circumstances materially change.

21. Combining Discounts

Waivers and discounts are not normally cumulative.

Where more than one discount might apply, the journal will ordinarily apply the single most favourable eligible reduction rather than combining multiple reductions.

For example, a 25% institutional discount and a 50% country-based discount would normally result in a total reduction of 50%, not 75%.

22. Misrepresentation

Authors must provide accurate and complete information when requesting financial assistance.

Where the journal has reasonable grounds to believe that relevant information was concealed, falsified, or misrepresented, it may:

• request clarification or supporting documentation;
• withdraw the waiver or discount;
• issue a revised invoice;
• suspend production or publication;
• notify all authors of the concern;
• contact the relevant institution or funder where appropriate; or
• take further action under the journal’s research-integrity or misconduct policies.

23. Confidentiality and Data Protection

Information supplied in support of a waiver or discount request will be used only for legitimate administrative, financial, auditing, and publishing purposes.

The journal will seek to limit access to authorised personnel and will not publish the author’s financial circumstances as part of the article.

The article will not normally state whether the authors received a waiver or discount, unless disclosure is required by law, a funding agreement, an institutional arrangement, or another applicable policy.

24. Appeals

An author may request reconsideration where:

• relevant information was misunderstood;
• important evidence was not considered;
• the author’s circumstances materially changed; or
• the published eligibility criteria appear to have been applied incorrectly.

A reconsideration request should be submitted promptly and should explain the basis of the request. Reconsideration does not guarantee a different outcome.

Decisions based solely on the exhaustion of the journal’s annual waiver capacity may not be reversible during the same publication period.

25. Publication and Payment

An accepted article will normally proceed to final publication only after:

• the full APC has been paid;
• the reduced APC has been paid;
• a full waiver has been formally confirmed; or
• another authorised institutional or funding arrangement has been documented.

Authors should not make a reduced payment until the Editorial Office has issued written confirmation of the approved amount.

26. Policy Changes

FSSS may revise this policy in response to changes in publishing costs, country-income classifications, institutional agreements, journal resources, or open-access funding arrangements.

The version of the policy normally applicable to a manuscript is the version publicly available at the time of initial submission, unless a more favourable arrangement is subsequently approved.

27. Contact

Questions concerning waiver eligibility, discount requests, supporting documentation, institutional agreements, or approved payment amounts should be directed to the FSSS Editorial Office through the official contact information provided on the journal website.

Authors should include the manuscript title, submission identification number, corresponding author’s name, requested reduction, and a concise explanation of the enquiry.