Article Processing Charges

Lentera Masyarakat Hukum is committed to maintaining a transparent, sustainable, and accessible open access publishing model. To support the editorial, peer review, production, publication, digital preservation, and dissemination of scholarly articles, the journal applies an Article Processing Charge (APC) to manuscripts accepted for publication.

1. Article Processing Charge

The Article Processing Charge for each accepted manuscript is:

IDR 5,000,000 (five million Indonesian rupiah) per article.

The APC is applicable to manuscripts that have successfully completed the editorial and peer review process and have received a formal acceptance decision.

No APC is charged at the time of initial submission.

Payment of the APC does not guarantee acceptance or publication. Editorial and peer review decisions are made independently of an author's ability or willingness to pay.

2. Purpose of the APC

The APC supports the operational and publishing activities required to maintain the quality, accessibility, and sustainability of the journal, including:

  • editorial administration;

  • peer review management;

  • manuscript processing;

  • copyediting and proofreading;

  • language and technical editing where applicable;

  • layout and typesetting;

  • DOI and metadata management;

  • online publication;

  • digital archiving and preservation;

  • maintenance of the journal's publishing platform; and

  • dissemination of published articles.

The APC is a publication-related charge and does not constitute a payment for acceptance.

3. Editorial Independence

The payment or non-payment of an APC does not influence the editorial or peer review process.

All manuscripts are evaluated based on academic and scholarly considerations, including:

  • originality;

  • relevance to the journal's Focus and Scope;

  • methodological rigor;

  • theoretical or conceptual contribution;

  • quality of analysis;

  • clarity of presentation;

  • ethical compliance; and

  • overall scholarly significance.

Editors and reviewers do not consider an author's financial circumstances when making editorial recommendations or decisions.

4. Timing of Payment

The APC is requested only after a manuscript has received a formal acceptance decision.

Authors should not make any publication payment before receiving an official acceptance notification from the journal.

After acceptance, the Editorial Office will provide the author with the official payment instructions and applicable deadline.

Publication production will proceed in accordance with the journal's editorial and administrative procedures following confirmation of the required payment or an approved waiver.

5. No Submission Fee

Lentera Masyarakat Hukum does not charge a submission fee.

Authors may submit manuscripts and participate in the editorial screening and peer review process without making any payment at the submission stage.

6. Manuscript Withdrawal and Withdrawal Fee

Authors may request withdrawal of a manuscript by submitting a formal written request to the Editorial Office. The request should include the manuscript title, manuscript ID, corresponding author, and the reason for withdrawal.

The application of a withdrawal fee depends on the stage of the publication process:

a. Withdrawal Before Acceptance

Authors may withdraw a manuscript without a withdrawal fee before the manuscript receives a formal acceptance decision, provided that the withdrawal is made in accordance with the journal's procedures.

b. Withdrawal After Acceptance

If an accepted manuscript is withdrawn after completion of the editorial and peer review process, the journal may impose a withdrawal fee to recover reasonable costs already incurred in editorial processing, peer review administration, copyediting, production, or other publication-related activities.

The applicable fee, if any, will be communicated to the author by the Editorial Office.

c. Withdrawal During Production

If an author requests withdrawal after the manuscript has entered the production stage, the journal may impose a withdrawal fee reflecting the publication and production costs already incurred.

d. Withdrawal After Publication

Once an article has been published, it will not normally be withdrawn at the request of the author.

If serious concerns arise regarding the integrity, legality, ethics, or reliability of a published article, the journal will handle the matter under its Correction, Retraction, and Expression of Concern Policy.

Authors should not withdraw a manuscript solely because of disagreement with reviewer comments or an editorial decision.

The journal reserves the right to assess each withdrawal request individually and determine whether a withdrawal fee is applicable.

7. APC Waiver and Discount

Lentera Masyarakat Hukum may consider requests for a full or partial APC waiver or discount in exceptional circumstances, particularly where authors demonstrate genuine financial constraints.

A waiver or discount request should be submitted to the Editorial Office and, where possible, should be considered separately from the scholarly evaluation of the manuscript.

A request for financial assistance will not affect the editorial or peer review decision.

The granting of a waiver or discount is subject to the journal's available resources and institutional policy.

8. Multiple Authors

The APC is charged per accepted article, not per author.

For manuscripts with multiple authors, the authors are collectively responsible for the applicable APC unless an alternative arrangement has been formally approved by the journal.

The corresponding author is responsible for coordinating payment with the other authors.

9. Special Issues

Articles accepted for publication in Special Issues are subject to the same APC of IDR 5,000,000 per article, unless a different arrangement is explicitly stated in the official announcement for the relevant Special Issue.

Any special APC rate, discount, sponsorship, or waiver applicable to a Special Issue will be clearly communicated to prospective authors before submission.

10. Open Access Publication

The APC supports the journal's fully open access publishing model.

All accepted and published articles are freely and immediately accessible to readers without subscription fees, paywalls, registration requirements, or embargo periods.

Copyright remains with the author(s), and published articles are distributed under the:

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License.

The APC therefore supports the dissemination of articles while authors retain copyright ownership.

11. No Additional Publication Fees

The journal is committed to transparency regarding publication costs.

The standard APC is IDR 5,000,000 per accepted article. Authors will not be required to pay undisclosed publication charges.

Where additional costs may arise due to specific author requests or exceptional production requirements, such costs will be communicated to the author in advance and will require appropriate confirmation.

12. Refund Policy

APC payments are generally non-refundable once the manuscript has entered the final production or publication process because the journal may already have incurred editorial, peer review, production, and technical costs.

However, the Editorial Board may consider a refund or alternative arrangement in exceptional circumstances, including where:

  • the journal is unable to publish an accepted article due to circumstances attributable to the journal;

  • a duplicate payment has been made;

  • an administrative error has occurred; or

  • other exceptional circumstances justify a refund.

Any refund decision will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

13. Payment Procedure

Authors should make APC or withdrawal-fee payments only through the official payment instructions provided by Lentera Masyarakat Hukum.

Authors should not transfer publication-related fees to personal accounts or to any account that has not been officially designated by the journal.

Following payment, the journal will provide an appropriate payment confirmation or receipt.

14. Currency and International Authors

The standard APC is denominated in:

IDR 5,000,000 (five million Indonesian rupiah).

For international authors, the journal may provide an approximate equivalent amount in another currency for informational purposes. The actual amount payable will be determined according to the official payment instructions issued by the journal.

Any applicable bank transfer, currency conversion, or international transaction charges are the responsibility of the author unless otherwise agreed.

15. Transparency and Ethical Publication

The APC is intended solely to support the journal's publishing operations and does not represent a fee for favorable editorial treatment.

Lentera Masyarakat Hukum maintains a strict separation between financial administration and scholarly decision-making.

No author will receive preferential treatment because of payment, institutional affiliation, funding status, or financial capacity.

All manuscripts remain subject to the same standards of editorial screening, peer review, publication ethics, plagiarism screening, research integrity, and academic quality.

16. Policy Changes

The journal reserves the right to revise its APC, withdrawal-fee arrangements, waiver policy, or other publication charges when necessary to reflect changes in publishing and operational costs.

Any significant change will be publicly announced through the journal's official website.

Unless otherwise stated, changes to publication fees will not be applied retroactively to manuscripts that have already received a formal acceptance decision.

Summary of Publication Fees

Item Fee
Manuscript Submission Free
Editorial Screening Free
Peer Review Free
Article Processing Charge (Accepted Article) IDR 5,000,000
Withdrawal Before Acceptance Free
Withdrawal After Acceptance May be subject to a withdrawal fee
Withdrawal During Production May be subject to a withdrawal fee
Withdrawal After Publication Normally not permitted; subject to retraction procedures where applicable
Open Access Free for readers
Copyright Retained by author(s)
Publication License CC BY 4.0