I had a question in connection with publishing articles in online international journals before and had many helpful answers, ideas and comments. I even got a list of international journals related to applied linguistics, language education and languages in general.
However, some papers forgot to mention that publishing by them is only possible if a certain fee - let's say, $200 - is paid.
Is it legal for a paper to ask for such a fee only through e-mail and not on its website? Should I transfer the above said amount to get my paper published? Or should I look for a free alternative?
What would you do in my shoes? Has this ever occured to you before?
I had a similar experience with a reputable journal. The argument of the editor was that there is difference between a "publication fee" and a "handling fee". What makes my case complicated was that the fee was to be paid into the personal account of one of the associate editors. Hence, it turn out that this is a simple way to get remuneration for the editorial team members. However, this was not written on the website but on the official email sent by the editor and copied to all the review board members. However, in such cases, you request that the information for payment and bank detail be sent to you through an official letter (carrying the journal name and identification). This was our case. The accepted manuscript was only sent for production after the editors confirmed receipt of the billed handling fee. So my advice would be, "So long your communication is official (with official journal email), request for an official invoice and make payment for the publication". It may look fishy, sadly, some journals operate this way.
Hi Laszlo,
This is somehow fishy, I believe every single detail must be mentioned on the website of the journal. Send me the link of this journal to double check for you.
If you have no money to pay the publisher, you may opt for closed accessed publication. Then they will sale your article and they will hold copyright.
If you do not agree with such contacts, you may try for free, open access journal. But their number is very limited.
Hi,
If a journal does not mention in a web site that it charges processing fees, and later asks for fees it could be a predatory journal. The subscription journals that are not open access do not charge processing fees. You may choose to publish in a subscription journal.
The processing fees are demanded only if the article was accepted for publication. If the editor did not notify you about the acceptance of your paper you can still retract it and send it elsewhere.
Thank you for sharing this problem. It is an extremely unacceptable attitude from a publisher. To be honest, it is mainly your fault because you need to inspect the place where you will submit your work effort to. I guess you need to withdraw the article and to submit it to another journal even if it is already accepted. Anyway, it is a good lesson for the future and sharing the problem is worthy for helping other researchers avoiding the mentioned trap!
Hi Laszlo,
I agree with the comments above. Any reputable journal would put the APC on their website. Do you think this could be a predatory journal? I would withdraw or with hold my article until I knew more about the journal. BW Matt
I agree with the comments above too, is the journal open access ?
Regards
If you feel that the review process was somehow incomplete or too simple, then it is a chance that the journal is fake. Otherwise, you might talk with them about the fee.
Any fees required for publishing procedures should be mentioned on the journal web site otherwise it was a predatory one.
I had a similar experience with a reputable journal. The argument of the editor was that there is difference between a "publication fee" and a "handling fee". What makes my case complicated was that the fee was to be paid into the personal account of one of the associate editors. Hence, it turn out that this is a simple way to get remuneration for the editorial team members. However, this was not written on the website but on the official email sent by the editor and copied to all the review board members. However, in such cases, you request that the information for payment and bank detail be sent to you through an official letter (carrying the journal name and identification). This was our case. The accepted manuscript was only sent for production after the editors confirmed receipt of the billed handling fee. So my advice would be, "So long your communication is official (with official journal email), request for an official invoice and make payment for the publication". It may look fishy, sadly, some journals operate this way.
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