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Ask Ediqo: Why should I pay for publishing my paper in a journal?

Publication fees are generally linked to the services you receive. Publication fees have been around for several decades. Originally, in the print world, many journals charged publication fees for full color figures, or for papers that exceeded a certain limit. As an example, you would have had to pay an extra fee if your paper exceeded 8 pages, or contained colored figures. Today, many open access journals rely on publication fees in order to maintain their publishing infrastructure, pay for marketing and distribution of the content, and to cover the wages for the journal’s professional staff that organize peer-review and the editing and production of accepted manuscripts.

If you are considering submitting a paper to a particular journal that charges a fee, we advise to carefully check the journal: Is it known in your field? Is it covered by abstracting & indexing databases that you yourself frequently use? Does it offer a state-of-the-art website and submission system? Finally, you need to compare the fee you will pay versus the service you will receive. If you feel there’s a good balance between the two, choose that journal as the venue for your work. If you feel there’s an imbalance, continue to look for other journals.

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