In our work there are several figures and graphs which are coloured. In the online version it is free but in the print version the journal is suggesting per coloured figure some charges in dollars. I am really confused about this point, whether these charges are mandatory or in the online version we can give coloured and in the print black and white. Can anyone please guide me regarding this aspect.
Thank you so much in advance.
Dear Ankita Jalan ,
The short answer is no, it is not mandatory to choose for the option to pay for colors in the print version. It is often described as follows: “Online publication of color illustrations is free of charge. For color in the print version, authors will be expected to make a contribution towards the extra costs.” (https://www.springer.com/journal/232/submission-guidelines ).
So, the colors in the printed version will be replaced by black/white and they will add to the figure texts remarks like “(Color figure online)” or “(For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)” but the online version will have the colors as intended.
Best regards.
Ankita Jalan@ You have a good answer from Rob Keller.
There are many journals that expect charging for extra cost on colored figures if the paper is to get published in printed format.
Color print is more expensive than black/white print, therefore many publishers charge extra fees for this. This holds also for printing books. Unfortunately, in many scientific books the images are of poor quality to reduce costs.
If you are interested in your paper to be published in hard copy of the journal, you need to make the payment. In case you don't want to have the coloured page in the journal, it will be publish in black and white and that case you don't need to make payment for the figures. This is what I have been told.
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