advances.in
Definition
advances.in refers to an academic publisher created to establish a more sustainable and equitable model of scholarly publishing, beginning with its flagship journal advances.in/psychology. The publisher's central departure from conventional practice is the financial compensation of peer reviewers and editors, funded through Article Processing Charges paid by authors upon acceptance. Compensation follows a two-tier structure: the first three completed review processes per year are paid at $100 USD each, with subsequent reviews in the same year compensated at $150 USD. The journal also commits to Open Science standards, including pre-registration, data transparency, and double-blind review, and accepts submissions across psychology subdisciplines in two formats, a 5,000-word format for empirical work and a 10,000-word format for reviews and meta-analyses. The long-term aim is to expand into additional research fields and to encourage adoption of fair compensation practices across academic publishing more broadly.
Sources: Kunst (2022)
Related Terms
- academic publishing (1 shared article)
- editorial (1 shared article)
- open-access (1 shared article)
- sustainable (1 shared article)
Applications
Advances.in and Peer Review Compensation
The publisher directly addresses the problem that reviewers receive no financial return for work performed in service of profitable publishing corporations. Financial payment for completed reviews, structured as a tiered system and contingent on meeting predefined quality requirements, is presented as a mechanism to improve review quality while distributing the collective reviewing burden more equitably. Editors rate review quality on a sliding scale, allowing the journal to identify and preferentially engage higher-performing reviewers over time.
Sources: Kunst (2022)
Advances.in and Open Science
The journal aligns its editorial standards with open science requirements, including transparency in citation practice, data and analytic code, research design, and study pre-registration. Replication is also included as a dimension of these standards. This commitment positions open science not as an optional feature but as a baseline condition for publication in the journal.
Sources: Kunst (2022)
Advances.in and Article Processing Charges
Unlike most open-access journals, advances.in directs a portion of the Article Processing Charge toward financing the peer-review process itself rather than retaining it entirely as publisher revenue. Fee waivers and reductions are planned for scholars who cannot afford the charge, with the scope of such provisions expected to expand as the publisher's financial position develops.
Sources: Kunst (2022)
