This policy explains the conditions under which payments made to the International Journal of Medical and All Body Health Research (IJMABHR) may be refunded. The journal does not sell physical goods. This policy therefore applies to the cancellation of publication, refunds of Article Processing Charges (APC), and the correction of duplicate, excess, or erroneous payments.
The applicable publication fees and waiver conditions are available on the journal's Author Fees (APC) page.
The journal does not charge a submission fee.
The APC is payable only after a manuscript has been formally accepted for publication.
No APC payment is required during editorial assessment or peer review.
If a manuscript is rejected, no APC is payable.
Authors whose requests for a 100% APC waiver are approved are not required to pay the applicable APC.
APC payment, waiver requests, and waiver decisions do not influence editorial assessment, peer review, acceptance, rejection, or publication decisions.
Refund eligibility depends on the date of payment, the publication status of the article, the reason for cancellation, and the conditions set out below.
If an author requests cancellation within 5 calendar days of payment and the article has not yet been published online, the refund will be calculated after deducting 30% of the amount paid and any applicable, non-recoverable payment-gateway or transaction charges.
If an author requests cancellation more than 5 calendar days after payment and the article has not yet been published online, no refund will ordinarily be provided.
Exceptions apply to verified duplicate, excess, or erroneous payments and cases in which the journal is unable to publish the article for reasons attributable to the journal, as described in Sections 3.4 and 3.5.
Once an article has been published online, the APC paid for that article is non-refundable.
Exceptions apply to verified duplicate, excess, or erroneous payments in accordance with Section 3.4. These exceptions do not create a general right to an APC refund after publication.
If an author pays more than the applicable APC, makes a duplicate payment for the same article, or makes an erroneous payment, the journal will verify the transaction and determine the amount eligible for refund.
Verified duplicate or excess payments will be refunded to the extent of the duplicate or excess amount received, after deducting any applicable, non-recoverable transaction charges.
For an erroneous payment, the journal will assess the circumstances and refund the amount verified as incorrectly collected. Where a technical fault attributable to the journal or its payment process caused the error, the journal will review the associated transaction charges as part of the refund decision.
If the journal has received the APC but is unable to publish the accepted article for reasons attributable to the journal, the full APC amount paid for that article will be refunded.
No cancellation deduction will be applied to this refund.
This provision does not apply where publication is prevented by the author's misconduct, a material breach of publication ethics, or other circumstances attributable to the author.
Except for the specific exceptions stated in Section 3, no refund will be issued in the following circumstances:
The manuscript is withdrawn or removed because of plagiarism, duplicate publication, data fabrication, or other research or publication misconduct, in accordance with the journal's Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement.
The article is retracted after publication.
The author requests changes to the author list or article content after publication that require editorial or production reprocessing. Such requests are handled under the journal's applicable editorial policies and do not, by themselves, qualify for a refund.
The author requests cancellation more than 5 calendar days after payment, except where an exception under Section 3 applies.
The article has already been published online, except for verified duplicate, excess, or erroneous payments covered by Section 3.4.
Authors requesting a refund should:
Email [email protected] with the subject line "Refund Request – [Manuscript ID]".
Include the corresponding author's name, manuscript ID and title, payment date, transaction ID or payment screenshot, and reason for the refund request.
Provide any additional information reasonably required to verify the payment and assess eligibility.
The journal will review the request and communicate its decision by email. Submitting a refund request does not automatically guarantee approval.
Approved refunds will be processed within 7 business days of approval.
Refunds will ordinarily be made through the original payment method, including PayPal, UPI, bank transfer, or Razorpay, as applicable.
If the original payment method cannot be used, an alternative verified payment method may be arranged with the author's confirmation.
The time required for the funds to reach the author's account depends on the bank or payment service provider.
Payment-gateway fees, transaction charges, and currency-conversion charges that have been incurred and are non-recoverable may be deducted from refunds where applicable, as described in Section 3.
For cancellations eligible under Section 3.1, the 30% cancellation deduction applies in addition to applicable, non-recoverable transaction charges.
For verified duplicate, excess, or erroneous payments, the refundable amount will be determined after verification of the amount incorrectly or additionally collected and the applicable transaction charges.
Where Section 3.5 applies, the full APC amount paid for the article will be refunded without a cancellation deduction.
This policy should be read together with the journal's Author Fees (APC) page and Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement.
The journal may update this policy when necessary. Any revised terms will be published on this page. The terms applicable to a payment will be assessed with reference to the policy disclosed when the payment was made, subject to applicable legal requirements.