Pay Fast-Track Fee (FTF)

Authors sometimes have to meet publication deadlines, e.g. for promotion & tenure or thesis defense, grant proposals, spending of research funds before a certain deadline, publication of follow-up papers. As described in the Instructions for Authors, JMIR now offers an innovative fast-track submission and publication option in which editorial and production processes are expedited. Expediting our processes requires extra resources and generates additional costs, which we need to pass on to authors. Note that the actual review process (including the deadline for reviewers) remains the same. For submitting authors this is entirely optional - if they do not wish to pay for an extra fast peer-review and publishing process, they submit their paper normally as described in the Instructions for Authors.

If authors opt to "expedite" their paper (pay for fast-track review and premium publishing), they are guaranteed to receive

  • an ultra-rapid initial editorial decision and (if the paper is sent out for external peer-review) peer-review comments within 3 weeks (plus any additional holidays within that period) after submission / Fast-Track Fee ( FTF) payment (Normal initial editorial turnaround time: 3-4 months) 
  • if the final paper is accepted,  publication of your paper within 4 weeks (production turnaround) after acceptance and payment of the article processing fee. (Normal production turnaround for non-fast tracked papers: 1-2 months)

 

How to expedite a paper and pay the FTF

In order to have their paper fast-tracked, authors pay - in addition to the regular submission fee (JSF) - an additional non-refundable Fast-Track Fee (FTF) after submission (see Fee Schedule). This can be done using any major credit card (VISA/Mastercard for payment through Psigate, any other card or payment method for payments through Paypal).

FTF payment can be done

  • either immediately after submission, by clicking on the payment buttons which will appear after you have finished a submission
  • at any time later during the peer-review/publication process by logging into the manuscript management system. Authors who have logged-in can see a table of their submitted manuscripts at http://www.jmir.org/author. In the column EXPEDITED there should be a link to the payment buttons, allowing them to fast-track their paper at any time.  

In both cases, the clock for the editorial decision deadlines will begin ticking on the day after the payment.

Terms & Conditions (the fine-print)

Please note that what you "purchase" with the fast-track fee is our promise that we will make an initial editorial decision within 3 weeks or 15 working days (Saturday and Sunday, as well as major US, European, and Canadian bank holidays are not counted as working days, as is the period from Dec 23 - Jan 1 of each year) from the day we have both received the FTF or the article (whatever comes later), and that we will produce (copyedit, XML markup) and publish the article within 4 working weeks after acceptance and payment of the FTF and article processing fee. 

Not included in the 3 week / 4 week turnaround time is time you may need to revise the article according to the reviewers comments, and the period from Dec 23 - Jan 1 of each year. Undue delays on the part of the authors in responding to editorial requests may lead to additional delays. The time needed for re-reviews (i.e. the time between submission of a revised version and final acceptance) are also processed faster than normal, but these do not count towards the 15 working day and 4 week time limits.

  • If we fail to keep one of these promises, the FTF will be fully refunded or credited towards the article processing fee (this has never happened so far).
  • Instructions for reviewers and the deadline for reviewers (2 weeks) are not affected, hence the quality of the reviews should be the same. We merely speed up internal processes.  
  • If the article is accepted, the regular article processing fee (for authors from institutions which are not institutional members) still needs to be paid in addition to the FTF.
  • The FTF is non-refundable, under any circumstance, including article rejection or article withdrawal by the authors.      
  • The editor reserves the right to reject any submission - fast-tracked or not - without sending them out to any external peer-reviewers. Only about 60% of all submissions (fast-tracked or not) are sent out for external review. 
  • Submitted manuscripts must be in the format described in our Instructions for Authors.  JMIR will assume no responsibility for any delays caused by improperly formatted manuscripts.
  • For authors from developing countries without grant funding we offer complementary (free of charge) fast-tracking, if requested in the cover letter.