How to Publish Your Paper When Journal Costs Are Rising

Author processing charges or APCs are on the rise. For many researchers, it is becoming prohibitively expensive to publish their articles, especially with changes to the NIH Public Access Policy (articles are now required to be made immediately available without an embargo period). There are resources, however, that you can use to find an affordable journal to publish in.

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A journal with a diamond open access policy has no fees for its readers or its authors. These journals are funded by a non-profit or other donor. To see if a journal has this type of policy, check:

• Open Policy Finder
• The Directory of Open Access Journals no fee journal list
• The journal's website and look for the words "fully open access." Additionally, there should be no mention of APCs. 

Search in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) for a keyword (endocrine, for example). The Directory of Open Access Journals is a great resource with high-quality journals. A 2017 study found that 39 predatory neurology or neuroscience journals were indexed in PubMed. However, only one of those predatory journals appeared in the DOAJ.

Look at the APC fees, which will be noted.

If you have any NIH funding, look up the journal name in Open Policy Finder to see if they have an embargo period. It is your responsibility as an author to ensure there isn't an embargo period so you can follow the NIH Public Access Policy.

There isn't always an overlap between the two. For example, a DOAJ indexed journal may not appear in Open Policy Finder. However, many do. Therapeutic Advances in Endocrinology and Metabolism, for example, appears in both. 

Note that a green open access policy cannot be used for NIH funded research. Harvard explains: "If your article is subject to the NIH Public Access Policy, your obligations under that Policy cannot be waived. The same may be true of open-access policies at other funding agencies."  Always check first with your funder or look up your funder's requirements in Open Policy Finder.

If your research has not been funded by the NIH or another inapplicable funder, MGH staff with a Harvard appointment (this includes anyone with an Instructor in Medicine title) can look into depositing their article into Harvard’s institutional open access repository DASH, and requesting an open access waiver for their article. This is in accordance with a green open access policy.

Transformative Agreements

Transformative agreements are agreements between libraries and publishers to help shoulder the cost of publishing. Some are only discounts, and others are more substantial. Treadwell Library currently does not have any, but it's worth checking to see if the institutions of your collaborators have any agreements in place. You would find this out by locating the library of the institution and asking there. 

Waivers

If you are on a project whose corresponding author is located in a low-income (or sometimes middle-income) country, many publishers will offer an APC waiver. Below are the APC waiver policies of major publishers:

• Sage
• Springer
• Wiley
• Taylor & Francis
  • Taylor & Francis EIFL agreement