Academic publishing in India sits between two unworkable extremes. On one side, Elsevier, Springer, and Wiley charge author-side fees in the ₹1 to 2.5 lakh range for open access in their flagship journals — fees that would consume a full year of an Indian PhD stipend.
On the other side, predatory journals flood every inbox with fake editors, no peer review, and acceptance letters issued within forty-eight hours. Their fees are smaller, but the publication is worse than worthless: it permanently damages the author's credibility.
The honest middle ground was missing. A real society, with a named editorial board, transparent peer review, DOI on every publication, and pricing aligned to the people doing the research — that's what GRF was founded to be.
We are not a publisher. We are a scholarly society. Membership underwrites the operation; publication and event fees exist but are roughly twenty to thirty times cheaper than Western APCs. Members pay even less. Reviewers are paid honoraria. Every decision letter is signed by the handling editor.
GRF doesn't try to compete with Nature. It does try to be the society Indian researchers actually deserve — one that takes their work seriously, doesn't charge them in dollars quietly converted to rupees at the worst possible rate, and remembers that scholarship is the point.