By using our platform and the services that we provide, you agree to the Privacy Policy specified by Highlights of Science.

By submitting your work for publication with us, you agree to support open access publishing, which enables unrestricted access to your published paper. In order to ensure the long-term sustainability of open access publishing, we levy Article Processing Charges (APCs) to cover the costs associated with the publication process. Please note that APCs are only applicable to papers that have been accepted for publication following a thorough peer-review process. If you wish to cancel your submission, you may do so at any time before your work is officially accepted for publication by withdrawing it from the Highlights of Science journals without incurring any APC fees. Authors should discuss manuscript withdrawal with the assigned editorial assistant. Depending on the editorial stage of the manuscript, authors may be required to submit an online withdrawal request form. Once your article has successfully undergone peer review and been accepted for publication, we will proceed with further editing and online publication. At this stage, you will be required to pay the applicable APC associated with your article, and withdrawal will not be permitted and a refund will not be given. Any special consideration will be at the discretion of the editor and publisher. The APC is non-refundable if you insist on withdrawing your article after acceptance. This covers author withdrawal requests for any reason and at any stage during the production process. It also applies to rare cases where scientific misconduct or errors/problems with the data are discovered during the production/copyediting process.

The APC differs across journals. You can find the APC corresponding to a specific journal at the journal Article Processing Charge page.

Highlights of Science will issue an APC contract (invoice) to the corresponding author as soon as the article is officially accepted for publication. Once an APC is issued, authors are required to make the payment within 15 business days of sending the invoice.

The invoice is sent directly to the corresponding author by email. Highlights of Science does not authorise third parties to issue and/or collect APCs. Any payments should be made directly to the bank account of Highlights of Science.

Highlights of Science may update the terms and conditions, and any changes introduced will be effective immediately upon the posting on this webpage without prior notice.