It is now customary from the journal side to ask the authors for an upfront fee in order to enable free accessibility to the article. The fee is in the neighbour of 1000 pounds and many universities requires researchers to publish open access articles but without contributing to the financial expenses. It is possible to publish without spending money? and if yes, on which journals? (maybe with the option manuscript free, actual article with payment)
It is alleged in answers to other RG questions that there are many OA journals that do not charge fees. This is often the case for new journals as introductory offers, but of course it is very risky sending off to one of the vast numbers of new OA journals, most of which cannot survive. It may also be that by the time you have prepared the final version of your paper, the journal will have introduced author fees.
If anyone knows of long-established reputable OA journals with a clear business model but which do not charge authors, now is your chance to list them here.
So far, the only answer to this seems to me: it is possible to publish without upfront payment from the author as long as the OA option is turned down. It will be the reader then to pay the article upon fruition. (Either way, money must flow in scientific publishing).
For what I have experienced in the past year, the answer to this question is (again): OPT OUT FROM THE OPEN ACCESS!
Open Access is an option, it is not compulsory, and by opting out an author can save 2-3 grand just like that. Now, open access is a good thing since science should be publicly accessible, but it has become a burden. Also, folks working at a university can purchase the paper via the library practically for free, so non open access papers are not an issue for specialists.
Some universities do supply the fee for the open access option in full or in part.
Also, some journals charge for printing colour figures while other charge for processing the paper itself. This is a journal policy that the author needs to assess before hand.
Elsevier and the Microbiology society do not charge at all, apart for the open access option.
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