How to write and publish a scientific paper - Barbara Gastel, Robert A. Day 2022

Access
Where to submit your manuscript
Some preliminaries

Other items to consider when choosing journals can include open access—that is, the provision of articles online free of charge to all who may be interested. One consideration is whether to choose an open-access journal, a journal that immediately provides open access to all its content. At such journals, which do not have subscriptions and thus lack this source of income, the costs typically are defrayed, at least in part, by fees charged to authors. In some countries, these fees commonly are paid from grant funds; it can be wise to consider expected publication costs when preparing the budget for a grant. When authors, such as those in developing countries, cannot afford to pay the fees, the journal may waive or reduce them; if you cannot afford the normal publication fee for an open-access journal in which you hope to publish, contact the journal directly. Some research funders now require that recipients of their grants publish the resulting papers in open-access journals or otherwise make them freely accessible.

Access-related considerations for publishing in traditional journals can include whether to seek a journal for which the electronic version, initially available only to subscribers, becomes openly accessible relatively fast (for example, in a few months). Also, some journals give authors the option of making their articles freely accessible upon publication in return for paying a fee. Another consideration when publishing in a traditional journal is whether the journal allows rapid posting of articles on authors’ or their institutions’ websites. The website Sherpa Romeo (v2.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/) provides information about journals’ policies on open access and related matters. To ensure that you have the most complete and current information, consulting the journal itself can be advisable as well.