The Global Social Sciences Review (GSSR) is operated by the not-for-profit trust Humanity Publications. Unlike some international journals that have their publishing costs covered by external sponsors such as societies, organizations, research groups, or think tanks, GSSR does not receive financial support from any such entities or government bodies.

GSSR is working diligently to be indexed in the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), a challenging goal given that no multidisciplinary or social sciences journal from Pakistan is currently indexed in SSCI. Our aim is to engage with the international research community and global academia rather than focusing solely on local or regional matters.

To achieve these high standards and ensure both academic and financial sustainability for authors, GSSR has implemented a nominal publication fee. This fee may be atypical for local journals in Pakistan, leading to some queries and misconceptions. In response, the Board of Trustees has tasked the Editorial Board with developing a comprehensive Publication Charges Policy. This policy will be informed by practices from major international publishers, research groups, and journal organizations, and will also aim to provide special consideration and relief to PhD scholars and early-career researchers from Pakistan.

Publishing involves costs that must be covered. Subscription-based journals manage these costs by charging a fee for access to their content. In contrast, Open Access journals provide content freely to the public, recouping their costs through publication policies.

To cover expenses such as editorial work, peer review administration, content promotion, circulation, and indexing, journals often rely on various income sources, including institutional subsidies and subscriptions. While some Open Access journals do not impose article processing charges (APCs), a significant and increasing number do. APCs have become the most common method for funding professionally published Open Access articles.

While authors are generally responsible for paying publication charges, they can often seek financial support from their institutions or funders. These entities may cover publication costs through various means, such as establishing an Open Access (OA) fund, including it as part of their general funding, or covering fees through a membership model.

To support sustainable open access publishing, there are several strategies for handling publication charges. Typically, these costs are covered by the author's institution or research funder. However, for authors or researchers without access to sufficient funding, innovative solutions are available. For example, Cogent OA (Taylor & Francis-Informa Group) introduced the "Freedom Article Publishing Charges" model. This approach allows authors to contribute whatever amount they can towards their publication fees in an open access journal.

GSSR has adopted a similar model specifically for PhD scholars, MS/MPhil scholars, and undergraduate students. Under this "Freedom APC" model, eligible individuals who lack funding can pay what they are able. This initiative aims to support and encourage young researchers in Pakistan by making it easier for them to publish their work.

Article submission is totally free. Once the article has been submitted, the author will be awarded with acknowledgment letter-a receipt of receiving the article. Then the article will go through the Pre-Editorial review that is totally free of cost. Pre-Editorial review meant to check up and scrutinize the submitted article on the very basic criteria of GSSR Publishing Policy, it includes:

1. Scope
2. Non-Repository Turnitin Originality (10 % or below than 10)
3. Basic Format (Authors' Strength and Citation Style etc.)
4. Abstract and Key Words

It constitutes about 45% of the whole process' charges. For permanent, instant, all-inclusive and worldwide access to the full article text the Publication Charges covers:

1. Editorial Work:Administrative support, commissioning content, editorial layout, journal development, and correspondence with the authors, reviewers and referees.
2. Review and Evaluation:Editorial review, double-blind peer review, final evaluation (02 international and 01 national referee)
3. Technical Infrastructure and Innovation:Development, maintenance and operation of online journal system and websites and coordination among the editorial board.
4. Production of Articles:Formatting and mark-up of articles.

Note: Article Processing Charges (Pre-Acceptance) - APC-1 does not depict the acceptance of the article for publication by any means.

It constitutes about 55% of the whole process' charges. This Publication Charges covers

1. Marketing of Journal and Content:Making sure readers and authors know about the work published in the title
2. Promotion on Various Mediums:Content advertising via various world recognized research forums and groups, data bases, research soft wares and social media
3. Customer Service:Responding to authors and readers
4. Circulation:Published contents circulation in the relevant circles for enhancing citations
5. Production of Articles:Inclusion in abstracting, indexing, aggregating, linking, uploading in world class reputable research databases, directories and bibliographies.

If an author would like their article to be published under a gold open access model, but cannot afford the APC, then individual waiver requests are considered on a case-to-case basis and may be granted in cases of genuine need. Authors who are eligible for such concession include those who have won any national excellence award, Undergraduates with quality Manuscript, orphans, special person, handicapped and those whose parents or siblings are martyred/affected by war on terror.

For any queries please feel free to contact via

Email:info@gssrjournal.com

Mobile: +92-332-9147-618