Journal of Surgery Proceedings uses an open-access publishing model so surgical evidence is available to clinicians, surgical trainees, hospitals, and health systems without paywall barriers. APCs support editorial triage, external peer review coordination, production formatting, DOI and metadata registration, online hosting, and long-term archiving workflows.

No submission fee is required. Manuscripts are assessed for scientific quality, methodological rigor, and practical relevance to perioperative care and procedural innovation. Payment discussion starts only after an editorial acceptance decision, preserving independent peer review and fair scientific assessment.

For institutions and funded projects, APC invoicing can be aligned with procurement requirements, grant reporting structures, and administrative billing controls. Early billing alignment helps reduce post-acceptance delays and shortens time to final publication release.

Waiver assessment is administrative and independent from editorial evaluation. Submission quality criteria remain identical for all authors regardless of payment pathway.

In surgery research, delays rarely come from science alone. They often come from late financial alignment after acceptance. Principal investigators should assign APC ownership before submission and define whether payment will be covered by grant funding, departmental publication support, or institutional open-access agreements. Early ownership prevents avoidable delays when manuscripts are editorially ready for release.

For multicenter projects, use a single payment governance note in the internal study file. This note should identify billing contact, reimbursement logic, and procurement requirements such as purchase orders or supplier registration. Teams that predefine this pathway usually reduce publication lag and avoid repeated administrative correspondence after acceptance.

When waiver eligibility may apply, authors should prepare supporting documentation early and submit requests through the recommended channel. Waiver review remains independent from peer review and does not alter editorial standards. Clear documentation helps the office make faster decisions while maintaining fairness across submissions.

If your manuscript includes extended supplementary material, surgical media, or repository-linked assets, production preparation should begin during revision. Well-organized files reduce technical checks and make APC-to-publication transition more predictable.

Final APC note: pre-approve publication spending internally before submission to avoid acceptance-to-publication delay and maintain predictable release timelines for clinically relevant surgical findings.