Announcement on Comprehensive Policy Updates and the Elevation of Journal Standards

2026-06-04

Following our recent participation in the "Professional Thai Journal Editor Training Program" (Round 1) organized by the Thai-Journal Citation Index Centre (TCI) at Eastin Grand Hotel Sathorn on May 27–28, 2026, the journal is pleased to announce a series of strategic updates to our operational and editorial policies.

These enhancements have been carefully implemented to align our journals with the highest international publishing standards and TCI guidelines. Our goal is to ensure maximum efficiency, uncompromised academic quality, and full readiness for upcoming national and international indexing evaluations.

The Association has implemented the following key improvements, with specific effective dates as outlined below:

  1. Website and Structural Enhancements: To provide absolute clarity and transparency for authors and evaluators, our website—particularly the "About the Journal" section—has been comprehensively updated. This includes refining the journal’s Description, Aims, and Scopes; explicitly declaring our Gold Open Access publishing model; and permanently integrating our rigorous Journal Metrics and Turnaround Time directly into the main policy pages (previously available only via the website sidebar).
  2. Reinforcement of Publication Ethics: In strict adherence to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), we have thoroughly revised our Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement. We have introduced dedicated sections detailing the "Duties and Responsibilities of Publishers" and clear, systematic "Procedures for Dealing with Research Misconduct" to safeguard the integrity of the scholarly record.
  3. Financial Restructuring and Enhanced Author Services (Effective: July 1, 2026): Effective July 1, 2026, to further support our contributing authors, we will fully transition our publication fee model from the traditional Article Processing Charge (APC) to a transparent Page Charge (PC) model. Under this new cost structure:
  • Zero Fees for Rejected Manuscripts: No financial charges of any kind will be levied on articles that do not pass the peer-review process.
  • Professional Formatting Service: To alleviate the technical burden on authors, the Page Charge now comprehensively covers a new value-added service where our dedicated Production Editors will expertly format and typeset accepted manuscripts prior to final publication.

We warmly encourage all authors, reviewers, and stakeholders to review these updated policies in detail on the respective pages of our journal's website.

For any specific inquiries or further clarification, please do not hesitate to contact our Editor-in-Chief directly at: alps.journals@gmail.com.

 

Sincerely,

Associate Professor Dr. Thanaporn SRIYAKUL

President, Association of Legal & Political Studies (Thailand)